“You’d tell your parents you were staying late at school. Then you’d walk out with your uniform on, jump on a bus, pay £10, have a rave and be home for 6pm.”

Back in the 80s and 90s, Bradford was the keeper of a secret music movement hidden away from bustling streets and shoppers.

Known as daytimers, the Bhangra-inspired music scene became an escape for Asian DJs and ravers in venues which usually laid empty during daylight hours.

Despite originating in London, Bradford ended up becoming a cultural mecca for daytime raves. 

These daytime raves were captured by photographer Tim Smith at the height of the musical phenomenon, now brought back into focus ahead of Bradford's City of Culture bid. 

"As a photographer I’ve always used my camera as a passport to gain access to the lives of people I’m curious about," the photographer recalled.

"When I heard about Daytimers it really intrigued me. It felt quite surreal stepping from a bright street full of shoppers into a world of dancing in the dark."

Mick Chandsoor, the head of partnerships at Bradford 2025 and DJ, remembers Bradford's first daytimer rave vividly.

The DJ told the T&A: "I didn't really have much affiliation with my own culture and really my own type of music until I got to college. When I got to college I found a lot more people I could relate to. At that time there was also an influence of bhangra music coming through.

"The first gig that ever happened was at Queens Hall in Bradford in 1989 and we never expected to see what we saw. It was manic.

Bradford Telegraph and Argus: Mick Chandsoor, head of partnerships at Bradford 2025 and DJ, pictured. Mick Chandsoor, head of partnerships at Bradford 2025 and DJ, pictured.

"I thought there's something here, there's something that we can build on, so that kind of started my career. We started getting people coming from Huddersfield, from Wakefield, as more Asian youth started to find out where we were doing these daytimers.

"There was that element of people who didn't like what we were doing. There was a lot of fingers pointed towards some of the daytimers at the time. But we were the foundation of Leeds, Huddersfield, starting their daytimers.

"Bradford's always been pioneers in so many different things and people don't realise that. The Mela [a huge festival celebrating South Asian culture], the Bhangra industry, even to an extent Northern Soul, we had a massive heavy metal community back in the day; sometimes we don't celebrate the fact that Bradford was very pioneering when it came to the music scene.

"There were so many underground places you could go to back in the day."

Bradford Telegraph and Argus: Ravers at one of Bradford's daytimers, full credit to Tim Smith.Ravers at one of Bradford's daytimers, full credit to Tim Smith.

London's Migration Museum is set to showcase Bradford's daytimers as part of its new exhibition, Taking Care of Business: Migrant Entrepreneurs and the Making of Britain. 

The exhibition explores how generations of migrant entrepreneurs have shaped many aspects of our lives.

Tim spoke to former daytimer ravers, DJs and organisers about their memories.

"There was a huge market for college kids who wanted to experience the nightlife but in the middle of the afternoon," former daytimer organiser Moey Hassan told Tim.

One daytimer said: "It was people like Alaap, like Heera, who were for us like the Rolling Stones. They were huge for us.”

Another added: "You’d tell your parents you were staying late at school. Then you’d walk out with your uniform on, jump on a bus, pay £10, have a rave and be home for 6pm."

“The scene died out in the mid-90s because we had become more accepted then. We could be more visible. We had to deal with National Front protests and disapproving older generations, but we made it in the end and established ourselves.”

- Rani Kaur, aka DJ Radical Sista, to photographer Tim Smith.

Aditi Anand, the museum's artistic director, said: "Enterprising promoters hired venues that lay empty during daylight hours, and filled them with teenagers who could socialise and dance to their favourite music, away from the prying eyes of parents, uncles and aunties. 

"They helped to define a whole new scene, sound and identity for young British Asians, at a time when Asian promoters were generally not given night-time slots in clubs and Asian DJs and musicians were struggling to be taken seriously.

"It ended up helping to redefine mainstream music and nightlife culture across Britain – and globally too."

Taking Care of Business: Migrant Entrepreneurs and the Making of Britain is at the Migration Museum in Lewisham until March 2023.

Did you attend Bradford's daytimer raves? Share your memories via natasha.meek@newsquest.co.uk