My thanks to NetGalley and Faber and Faber Books for a copy of “ Sweet Dreams “ for a honest .

I found this to be a wonderfully informative and entertaining book .
It was full of nostalgia for the music and fashion of the eighties, that I look back on with a lot of affection.
There was reminiscing from the names who’s faces were posters on my wall, and places I visited lin Birmingham like The Rum Runner and Kahn and Bell clothes shop
My friends and I used to spend all week deciding on what we’d wear , and ignore the shouts and sniggers when on our way to the clubs.
The Eighties is often just summed up as neon colours and Ra- Ra skirts but for me it was all about originality , great music ,and a sense of belonging.
This book goes a long way to explain how I felt at the time.
Highly recommended

So thorough, detailed and immersive - really enjoyed it! Featuring all your favourite New Romantic artists, and some you may be less familiar with, get your accompanying listening playlist at the ready!

Absolutely loved this book, though I found it a bit too long, maybe. Not only it featured most of my favourite music acts of all time, but it provided me with much needed social and historical background. Growing up in a communist country in the 80s, I had some (read little) glimpse of the music, but never the whole picture. I had no idea art schools, design, fashion, and magazines played such an important role in the whole punk / New Romantic movements. Excellent book, cannot recommend it enough.

Thanks Faber and Faber for the digital copy.

I very rarely get sent Non Fiction books to review and this latest book by Dylan Jones is an absolute joy. It's a bittersweet journey through the bands and the music that I loved growing up in the Eighties. This book brings back vividly the thrill of getting my hands on the latest copies of Smash Hits and Look In and reading all about the bands and the artists that I idolised at the time. And if I could sneak it past my Dad's eagle-eyed scrutiny there was the occasional issue of Hot Press and Melody Maker. (Even then, for me, the NME took itself too seriously!)

Unknowingly a lot of the venues that feature in the book became a part of my work life in the music industry in London, although twenty years on these clubs and pubs were quite tame by comparison with the hedonism and social awakening of the post-punk New Romantics.

I'm very fond of a band biography and have been slowly reading Andrew Ridgeley's book over the course of this year as well as the fabulously decadent book by Duff McKagan of Guns N Roses fame. For me Sweet Dreams is in a league of its own. It is part memoir, part socio-economic history and a good chunk of nostalgia for a time unlike no other. Changing technology had such a huge influence on this time with the development of the synthesiser and music videos and the birth of MTV. Who can forget Adam & The Ants' dandy highwayman or the Duran boys lounging on luxury yachts?

Jones has a very easy writing style and each chapter is dedicated to a year in the decade. He begins with the punk revolution of 76/77 and documents how that developed into the New Romantic explosion just a few years later. A movement that had such a big influence on the UK, Europe and later the USA has surprisingly few protagonists moving incestuously from band to band as their styles and music developed and naturally as disputes and arguments split up their original bands.

Using interviews with the performers, stylists, journalists, artists etc who were part of the largely London based scene, Jones has been able to craft a vibrant record of what it was like to be part of this period. It is not the catchiest of titles and it is a very hefty 688 pages but if you grew up in the Eighties and loved bands like the Ants, Spandau, Duran Duran, Depeche Mode etc you won't be able to put this book down. It's a sparkly little gem to curl up with on a dark winter's evening!

Supplied by Net Galley and Faber and Faber Ltd in exchange for an honest review.

Very comprehensive and definitely interesting but very wide ranging where I, personally, would have preferred a narrower focus on the music.
Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for review.

I'm a little bit young to remember the New Romantics when they were new, but I listen to a lot of the music and I like a good music memoir or history so this really appealed to me. Dylan Jones is the editor of GQ magazine - and former editor of i-D - who was there in and amongst the scene at the time. This makes him ideally placed to write this - using the voices of people who were there, through new interviews with him and previous ones. This is a chunky old book - and is occasionally a little bit too in depth - but by the end I felt like I really understood the scene and the characters in it. I read a ebook copy and haven't see the physical version, but I suspect this would make a great gift for Christmas as well as being a good read for anyone interested in the 80s and the music scene.

An oral history from the movers and shakers of the New Romantic scene. It starts off in 1975 with the glam rock through to the punk scene and everything that influenced the New romantics, who were initially known as peacock punks. It takes us through the setting up of the Blitz club, the forming of many of the bands, through to chart success and up to Live Aid.

I was a little too young to have been there at the time but I really enjoyed reading about it, particularly the early years where it felt like such an exciting time. I did find the later chapters dragged a bit, by this time the bands were very successful and no longer so interesting to read about.

Really enjoyed this an oral history of the new romantics ranging from 1975-1985 and gives an insight to how it developed on from the punk movement of the mid 1970's to 1977 expression of dress sense and developing different sounds. the author portrays this in a yearly chapter so you can see the development of the bands which came.

Having looked back over the last three books I have read, I realise that they all have one thing in common, music.
This book although it is the story of the New Romantics, it is much more than just about the music. It is about the heritage, the influences, the fashion and the extraordinary characters who frequented ‘the Blitz club and eventually became big names on the music and club scene of the eighties.
The book starts, however, in the mid 70’s and I did at first wonder why, but once you start reading the style influence of bands like Roxy Music (Bryan Ferry in particular) and Bowie, on the frequenters of the Blitz Club you then understand how they did indeed deserve to be included in this book.
The contrast between the dying days of the 70’s and the Punk movement and the emergence of the ‘New Romantics’ was stark and it was interesting reading about the time (the 70’s) that I cannot really remember. I got the feeling that the creativity, the club culture and flamboyance was a direct reaction against the hard, angry and violent scene that punk had become.
Jones has managed to interview an absolute goldmine of 80’s characters, not only musicians of the time but also journalists, managers and designers. (What would a book about the 80’s be if it didn’t mention the fashions)
However, for all its insights and anecdotes that this work should and does include I felt that the writing did not spark for me and I felt it dragged. Perhaps it should have been put into two books rather than this big sprawling one. Also, I feel that a few more pictures might have helped. It just felt to me that it was lacking something even with all its insight and interviews.

This was an absolute monster of a book covering the music and culture of the decade from 1975 to 1985.. I was born in 1972 in the East Midlands. I don't remember a lot about punk. it filtered into provincial life slowly and I was too young for it but my early teens were all about New Romantics and all the bands Jones talks about here. He charts the progress from one genre to the other, year by year, interviewing many of those involved, not just from the world of music and builds a fascinating picture that even at the time would probably have passed most of us by. It's interesting to view a time you lived through, albeit in peripheral terms, but written about retrospectively and in a historical context. I was kind of sad it stopped in 85. I hope he charts the next decade in the same way. It was interesting that rather than a single, authorial voice it was made up of interviews and journalism in a kind of patchwork effect. It did make for some repetition at times, but on the other hand it did give a much more multi-faceted view of things and I liked the fact that Jones doesn't smooth over the fact that some of the people interviewed give completely different stories about events, some of which blatantly contradict each other. I enjoyed the end sections, with lists of records that shaped the years, photos and a solid bibliography. I'd have liked more photos of the time, but there are no shortage of those online. The whole thing made me feel quite nostalgic.

A really expansive and thoughtful history of a time period more than a genre, covering much more than just New Romantic music. It is a really interesting reflection on the late 70s to mid 1980s more generally, covering topics beyond the music, such as fashion, culture, design. Jones' sources are varied and really interesting, and one of the most siginificant triumphs of the book. Any book covering this dynamic period of British history was going to be an interesting read but the way Jones writes really adds something to the telling.

There are inevitable gaps in the book (some far more jarring than others) but overall, I don't think too much is lost in the telling. I'm by no means an expert in this genre of music, nor do I feel I am after reading Sweet Dreams, but I do get a much richer, broader sense of the significance of the period and some of its most important highlights. Definitely worth a read by even the most casual music history fan.

A grand survey of the New Romantics was always likely to have me broadly along for the ride, but Dylan Jones gets extra points for opening with a quote from Julia Flyte: "Sometimes, I feel the past and the future pressing so hard on either side that there's no room for the present at all." The blurring and refashioning of times and identities; the new possibilities unlocked by the synthesiser, and the remaking of who and how fame could light upon; these deeper levels are at least as present here as the usual clip show clichés. It's an oral history, which is both its great strength and the thing that occasionally threatens to topple the whole project. The weak spots often come in Jones' italicised linking passages, with things like a fairly generic broad-brush social history of the eighties, or the outrageous suggestion that the Style Council is not a good band name. But equally, his interviews include so much quality material which he clearly couldn't bear to cut that at times the book threatens to lose focus. He's talked to most of the key players, including some no longer with us (among them big names like key influence Bowie and scene regular George Michael), but this also means that we have to pause for stories like Malcolm McLaren inventing the Sex Pistols, again, or another run-through of the Clash's gang mentality. You will note that neither of these are New Romantic acts, but the book is at pains to remind us that while some people (including that berk Lydon) might think otherwise, the first New Romantics were early punks, who'd jumped ship when the punk scene's dressing-up and can-do spirit had been drowned in violence and sputum. So yes, you can't tell one story without the other – but when the lineaments of punk are so thoroughly pored over, one can't help but wonder if they couldn't have been dealt with rather quicker here. This is a recurring issue, as movements far less directly relevant come under discussion, from early hip hop to 2 Tone – it's interesting, but it really isn't the advertised subject, and one's left wondering if this shouldn't either be a slimmer book about the New Romantics, or re-titled as a more general survey of the (re)birth of British club culture and pop, 1975-85. Which said, if the former option had been taken, the book would have lost at least one of the Facebook mates of mine to make a talking head appearance, and that would clearly have been a tragedy.

If Jones can lapse into platitudes with the big picture stuff, he's done some excellent work recalling, collecting and recording specifics, work which makes me absolutely understand his reluctance to kill any darlings. The familiar story about the Blitz and Louise's is here, but also the precursors, some of them out in the provinces, places like the Lacy Lady and the Goldmine which are often overlooked. Nor does he restrict himself to the usual go-round of Steve Strange, Boy George and Spandau; I was initially a bit puzzled at Sade being on the cover, even if she did a lot to make it less of a white male roster, but no, turns out she did indeed go to the Blitz, and indeed was in the Spandau video filmed there, alongside not just the obvious faces one thinks of in this connection, but everyone from Wham! to Blancmange and Pigbag. Nor did Jones only talk to musicians because, like any decent scene, New Romanticism was never all about the music. Here too are the managers and writers, but also the designers (of clothes or magazines), the hairdressers – which is exactly as it should be. I particularly enjoyed Kim Bowen's summary of 1984: "everyone was either a stylist or on heroin".

A lot of it is like that, though. Some contributors feel overly rehearsed, in style and/or content, but more often than not one gets the sense of being present at a gloriously unfiltered chat with the people who were in the room where it happened. Some of the nuggets speak to wider trends, like John Foxx nearly being in a band with Steve Jones; others are just entertaining in their own right, like the Sunday Regent's Park football games between Spandau Ballet and Blue Rondo A La Turk, Fletch talking about how you didn't want to get in a fight with Alison Moyet, or the camel that ended Visage. I'm sure people who are more hardcore Durannies than me will already know Nick Rhodes' summary of success ("Every dinner one would go a little further down the wine list"), but I thought I knew Pet Shop Boys pretty well, and I don't recall hearing before the story about how Neil Tennant went to see the Pistols, and was so horrified by the atmosphere that he didn't attend another gig for five years. Sometimes it's not even famous names as such, more odd side-stories like the Neo-Naturists (though even there famous names turn up, with Grayson Perry a sometime participant). Possibly my favourite of all, though, was the reminder that, contrary to the usual stereotype, Martin Fry, face of one of the best albums of the period or indeed ever, was a musician in part because he'd failed at being a music journalist.

Even at this length, and with these provisos, there are puzzling absences and presences. It's fine that some people are threaded through the story (Spandau, Duran, Boy George) while others are sidebars – but it's still jarring that there's almost as much on Hall & Oates as Japan, and more on either than Sparks, who only get passing mentions as an influence when they surely merit more of an investigation. Still, it's inevitable with a project like this that a certain degree of curation will happen, or the whole thing could sprawl into an unfinishable and barely readable mass, Casaubon in blusher or Walter Benjamin's Arcadia Project. More surprising is the comparatively mild line taken on Live Aid, traditionally seen as the official end of it all but here treated more kindly both in terms of itself and its impact than has been the fashion for a while now. It also serves as a natural conclusion, not just artistically, but to the tension that runs throughout the story between the politics of the pop peacocks – who, Tony Hadley and Gary Numan aside, were at least broadly leftwing – and the Thatcherite celebration of luxury for which their images and videos were sometimes taken, especially in the cases of Spandau and Sade. Though this is where the timing of the book's arrival really starts to feel awkward, when Jones talks about Thatcher as the most divisive modern PM – "Few prime ministers in Britain have been burned in effigy". To which one would have to say that, even before Brexit, someone's clearly never been to Lewes. But more than that, while there are a few mutterings by the final interviewees about how the great opening up and colouring in of British social life of which they felt a part seemed to have faltered over the latter half of the 2010s, none of them could have expected what was to follow. Time and again, they talk about how dull Britain used to be, the shortage of anywhere exciting to go back then; the most poignant was regarding the Wag club, in the days when it was still the Whiskey-A-Go-Go – "Best of all, the Whiskey lasted till 1 a.m – desperately late in those sad, forgotten grey days before punk, New Romantic and acid house." And even more so now, when that's three hours after the mandatory, nationwide, indefinite curfew, when even the shittiest of the provincial heterotheques these trailblazers fled for Soho would feel like Xanadu. All those bands who started in these funny little rooms, then went on to conquer the world? Apparently their successors are no longer considered viable. And so a history intended as a celebration ends up feeling more like a requiem.

(Netgalley ARC)

David Bowie. Culture Club. Wham!. Soft Cell. Duran Duran. Sade. Spandau Ballet. The Eurythmics...

One of the most creative entrepreneurial periods since the Sixties, the era of the New Romantics grew out of the remnants of post-punk and developed quickly alongside club culture, ska, electronica, and goth. The scene had a huge influence on the growth of print and broadcast media, and was arguably one of the most bohemian environments of the late twentieth century. Not only did it visually define the decade, it was the catalyst for the Second British Invasion, when the US charts would be colonised by British pop music - making it one of the most powerful cultural exports since the Beatles.




'The definitive history of the Blitz Kids, Synth-Pop and the Style Press from 1975 to 1985.'

This is a brilliant collection of interviews from designers and performers documenting this moment in counter-culture all while placing it within its historical context in Britain. Well researched and written by someone who was there at the time, I would recommend to someone who is a big fan of the eighties.

Thank you to Netgalley and Faber and Faber for the ARC.

An enjoyable look at the rise of the New Romantic movement through the testimonies of those who were there.
I found Jones study of the UK in the 1970s and how punk and New Romanticism evolved from this to be fascinating. Unfortunately the style of writing through testimonies did not work for me and I found it hard to maintain my interest. However, I would recommend this for anyone interested in the music, fashion and social history of the period.
3.5 stars
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a digital ARC.

I was born in 1979 and thoroughly enjoyed reading this, it tied up loose ends for me.
I love music and it's always been a major part of my life, my parents always had vinyl on in the house and I still have vinyl I got when I was 9yrs old and I loved this book and was excited to read it.

Very through, enjoyable read

The definitive oral history of the New Romantics. Sweet Dreams charts the British cultural explosion that happened in the ten years from 1975-1985 ― the rise of the New Romantics. Growing out of the remnants of the post-punk period, the New Romantics introduced club culture, ska, electronica, and goth to the world. One of the most creative entrepreneurial periods since the Sixties, the era had a huge influence on the growth of broadcast media. Not only did it visually define the decade, it was the catalyst for the Second British Invasion, when the US charts would be colonized by British pop music, making it one of the most powerful cultural exports since the Beatles. For fans of Jon Savage's 1966 and Lizzie Goodman's Meet Me in the Bathroom― SWEET DREAMS is the fascinating story of how The New Romantic movement was born in the British clubs of the late 1970s and flourished on the radio and television airwaves of the early 1980s. Sweet Dreams were made of this.

This is a sprawling, beguiling and richly entertaining account of one of the most flamboyant, hedonistic periods in British musical history, from 75-85. Drawing from a multitude of diverse sources, Jones collates a vast array of interviews of those in and around the industry at the time and gives us unprecedented access to the philosophy, fashion, culture, soundtrack and politics of the time through this fascinating and extensively researched account accompanied by iconic photographs from the time. This is so much more than just a music scene; it was a way of life. Highly recommended. Many thanks to Faber & Faber for an ARC.

Sweet Dreams

Razor Blades! Safety Pins!
Big Hair! Big Shoulderpads!
There you go. The 1970’s and the 1980’s summed up in 8 words.
Or are they? There’s much more to these decades than clichés and ‘Sweet Dreams’ aims to tell the whole story. 1975-1985 was an amazingly creative period in Britain and the book shows how an ambitious band of talented, creative people took the world by storm.
The 1970’s was a grey decade with inflation at 20% and in 1979 it culminated in The Winter of Discontent. The dead couldn’t be buried, rubbish piled up in the streets and Mrs Thatcher swept to power. As the author says ‘London was very bland and conservative and locked down’. But it was about to change.
The Chameleon and the Lounge Lizard, or Bowie and Bryan Ferry, had created a loyal group of fans who liked to dress exactly like them. This dedication resulted in the NME reviewing the audience at one gig instead of the band. Some of these would become the insiders, the inner circle of what would be known as the Blitz Kids or New Romantics. They would create the music, the styles, the style bibles and above all the climate in which almost anything could be achieved with ambition and a friend’s help. After all, without help from his friends how would Bob Geldof have created ‘Do They Know its Christmas?’ and Live Aid?
It was a time of little money, of succeeding on a wing and a prayer, of second hand clothes (who remembers the joy of rummaging through Flip on a Saturday afternoon?) and above all, remembering that ‘Ridicule is nothing to be scared of’ as the lyrics of Prince Charming stated. One interviewee said that ‘ it was self-expression through adversity.’ It was a tight little circle who operated a strict door policy at their clubs.
As the ‘80’s took off everything was suddenly in colour. Music was the driving force supported by the music press of the time and the new ‘style bibles’. ID, Smash Hits and the traditional ‘inkies’ such as NME. However, The Face and Blitz were the big ones crammed with good writers and photographers and startling layouts. But the style police were no less stringent with their staff as one Blitz insider said ‘….if you wore an unnecessarily jaunty hat then you would be laughed at for weeks, sometimes longer.’
So many classic acts came from this period: Wham! Duran Duran, Soft Cell and Depeche Mode (sometimes referred to as Casiotone Cure) cutting edge with The Eurythmics and John Foxx, OMD and the Human League as well as one hit wonders such as Roman Holiday and Joboxers. They conquered the US charts again. Pop videos were an event and often more memorable than the song. This was mercilessly lampooned in the ‘Not the Nine O’Clock News’ sketch ‘Nice Video, Shame About the Song.’ As the ‘80’s music scene took off Phil Oakey said ‘We laughed at the other bands learning 3 chords, we used one finger’ as the synthesiser dominated.
The tribal aspect of the decade cannot be underestimated as the author says ‘shoe gazing had a different purpose as you lived and died on the choices you made knee down.’ Antony Price suits were an obligatory item in certain pop groups wardrobe and his shop, Plaza, in the Kings Road was a minimalist magnet. The Face seemed to have a new cult every month; Hard Times, The Dirtbox, the Zoot Suit revival, Casuals, Buffalo. But there were some that were still around such as Teddy Boys and skinheads who beat up punks and New Romantics with impunity. However the last time I saw a Teddy Boy was sometime in the Noughties. He was a lone middle aged man decked out in the full uniform ambling along in my local Tesco. Everyone was staring at him as they had no idea of who he represented. The New Romantics had their revenge. It was often nasty as one interviewer was told ‘if you’re not going to dress like a woman we’re not going to treat you like a woman.’
However there was a downside to the decade. The results of some of Mrs Thatcher’s policies are mentioned; the riots and the bitter Miners Strike. In 1985 I visited Bradford and everything we saw on the way seemed to be either closed or closing down. Bradford it looked like a wasteland. There was a pub in the middle of it where, as we later discovered, the Yorkshire Ripper had found one of his victims. My companion suggested that we go in and enquire about places to stay. I demurred and we moved on. Never had The Specials 1981 ‘Ghost Town’ seemed so prophetic.
Sweet Dreams is compiled from over 400 interviews including Bowie and Ferry which include the main movers and shakers, how the scene came together, its do or die creativity and how it fell apart when the dressing up box was finally donated to charity. It’s a big book at 600 pages and I really enjoyed reading it. If you want to know about this fascinating and influential period then this is the book for you. Although some of the major players have crashed and burned, others have gone onto to have successful careers to the present day. The author, Dylan Jones, considers that there may never be another period like it and he may be right. It was a combination of many things that came together at once: ambition, talent, music, the music press, style magazines and determination. Just before I started reading Sweet Dreams there was a 2 page spread in a newspaper announcing the 2021 tours of some of the ‘80’s biggest names. OMD, The Human League, Marc Almond and Howard Jones amongst others. As Mark Ellen says ‘everyone from the early 80’s who had a hit is still touring. It shows how big the ’80’s record market was and how many people are still attached to it.’
I like to think that the decade’s spirit lives on in everyone who has a sidehustle, a little artisan business, or is knocking up a hit record or performing on Youtube. y. ‘Sweet Dreams’ is more than just a trip down Memory Lane. It’s a document of an exciting, fertile time. Recommended.
My thanks to Faber and Netgalley for providing me with an advance preview copy of this book.

Successfully ties up the many loose threads of early 80s British music and culture. . Inevitably some imbalance but overall a great read.

What does the term ‘New Romantics’ mean to you? Synth pop, dramatic make-up, elite clubs for the eccentrically-dressed youth, androgynous style, art students forming bands? This book by music journalist and magazine editor Dylan Jones OBE reveals the New Romantic movement as this and much more. Spanning a decade from 1975 (David Bowie and Bryan Ferry) to 1985 (Live Aid), the book examines the British music scene in terms of new media, politics, design, youth culture, and social attitudes to class, race and sexuality. The roots and influences of the movement are key, which is why there is a lot of discussion around punk before we actually get the the New Romantics.

Dylan Jones manages to interview (or quote from) a very impressive range of people: musicians, producers, DJs, fashion designers, photographers, journalists, artists, promoters. Essentially it’s an oral history, interlinked by the author’s own experiences and bits of historical context. What emerges is a vivid and entertaining collage. Some sections were more interesting to me than others. For example, I liked reading about how the bands formed and the technology they used. I wasn’t so keen on the lengthy discussions about The Face and I-D magazines. I feel that some of the quotes are too long and could have been edited further. Inevitably there is repetition too, with different people saying the same thing.

There is a lot of focus on David Bowie, Adam and the Ants, Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet, The Human League, Wham! and Culture Club, with moderate attention also paid to Soft Cell, ABC, Japan, Gary Numan, Depeche Mode, OMD, Grace Jones, Sade, Visage, Yazoo and Heaven 17. Kraftwerk are repeatedly mentioned as an influence but there isn’t a lot of meaningful discussion on them. Talk Talk are not included in the discussion, relegated to a recommendation of one single in the discography at the end, which I thought wasn’t really fair, as their early music was considered part of the movement, even though (like many other musicians at the time) they rejected the New Romantic label. I wouldn’t call this book a comprehensive history, as a work of this kind will to some extent be a matter of the author’s personal taste in music, but I’m sure you won’t find anything else as good which covers so much ground.

The book includes a discography with pithy one-liner descriptions, an acknowledgements section which answered my question about how quotes were obtained from people who are deceased (David Bowie, George Michael, Steve Strange, Malcolm McLaren), a selection of interesting images (some of which you may not see anywhere else) and an index. The book’s title refers to the song by the Eurythmics, however they are a very small part of the discussion.

I recommend this book if you’re a fan of early 80s music and want to read about the scene in the words of the people who were there.

[NB. This review will be published on my blog on 19th September]

Loved this - and was frustrated by it. It's a sprawling (and much too long) history of the "New Romantic" phase of music, journalism, fashion and style from 1975 to 1985. It covers an awful lot of ground, and as an oral history has a huge range of witnesses including Jones himself, but this is also its undoing as it necessarily lacks the single subject of his previous book about David Bowie (who is also the dominant figure here). Although I would have liked a bit less focus on magazines such as The Face and i-D, which Jones worked on (the history of journalism is always fascinating for journalists), there is loads to enjoy here, particularly if like me you were first getting into music in the early 1980s. There are fine, pithy descriptions (Depeche Mode as "children's television Kraftwerk") and insights into all sorts of important, and not so important figures, but I could have done without some of the generalisations (ABC as Motown written by Pete Shelley, really?) or being told at least twice that OMD cannily used their first advance to build a studio or that Alison Moyet (one of the most articulate and insightful interviewees) was the hardest person in the school she attended with most of Depeche Mode.

Given how quickly it faded after 1985, I was left more than a little unconvinced about whether the whole "movement" was really as important or influential as Jones claims or worth this level of detail, despite the enduring success of many of its key figures. Finally, there's also a reference towards the end to Chic's Niles Rodgers and "Bernard Fowler", who sounds more like a composite Tory MP than the most influential bass player of his time. Although in a book full of unlikely cross-fertilisations, that would surely have been the most improbable.