Party Lines: Dance Music and the Making of Modern Britain

(Hardback)

Available Formats

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

'A fascinating deep dive' Jeremy Deller From the illicit reggae blues dances and acid-rock free festivals of the 1970s, through the ecstasy-fuelled Second Summer of Love in 1988, to the increasingly corporate dance music culture of the post-Covid era, Party Lines is a groundbreaking new history of UK dance music, exploring its pivotal role in the social, political and economic shifts on which modern Britain has been built. Taking in the Victorian moralism of the Thatcher years, the far-reaching restrictions of the Criminal Justice Act in 1994, and the resurgence of illegal raves during the Covid-19 pandemic, Party Lines charts an ongoing conflict, fought in basement clubs, abandoned warehouses and sunlit fields, between the revolutionary potential of communal sound and the reactionary impulses of the British establishment. Brought to life with stunning clarity and depth, this is social and cultural history at its most immersive, vital and shocking.

Reviews

Party Lines is valuable social history, the politics of dancing expertly laid bare. * Sunday Times *
A fascinating deep dive into dance music's uneasy relationship with the establishment. * Jeremy Deller *
A truly thrilling journey through the politics, culture and successive social revolutions of British dance music: a landmark book, and a reminder that the dancefloor is always political. * Dan Hancox *
A passionately argued and intensively researched addition to the ever-evolving narrative of UK dance music culture. * Matthew Collin *
A deeply-researched and engaging new understanding of the interwoven soundtrack to the turbulence of modern Britain. -- Luke Turner, author of Out of the Woods and Men at War

Author Bio

Ed Gillett is a journalist and film-maker based in South London, who has written for The Guardian, Frieze, DJ Mag, The Quietus and Novara Media; his film and TV credits include Jeremy Deller's acclaimed rave documentary Everybody in the Place: An Incomplete History of Britain 1984-1992 for BBC Four, and Four To The Floor, Channel 4's award-winning music and factual strand. Party Lines is his first book.