Life After Dark: A History of British Nightclubs & Music Venues - Tapa dura

'Warm and illuminating... It is the attention to detail that makes this book so fascinating... There should be a sign on the cover saying "Open Eight til late"' --Mark Ellen, Sunday Times

'Dave Haslam's rousing tribute to Britain's club culture and its place within the nation's psyche' Observer

'Writer and DJ Dave Haslam's book spans disco, punk and acid house, and all the beautiful freaks who come out at night. The educational induction into British hedonism' --Grazia

'Meticulously researched and insightful... Life After Dark is admirably national in perspective... fascinating' --Independent

Nightclubs and music venues are often the source of a lifetime's music taste, best friends and vivid memories. They can define a town, a city or a generation, and breed scenes and bands that change music history. In Life After DarkDave Haslam reveals and celebrates a definitive history of significant venues and great nights out. Writing with passion and authority, he takes us from vice-ridden Victorian dance halls to acid house and beyond; through the jazz decades of luxurious ballrooms to mods in basement dives and the venues that nurtured the Beatles, the Stones, Northern Soul and the Sex Pistols; from psychedelic light shows to high street discos; from the Roxy to the Hacienda; from the Krays to the Slits; and from reggae sound systems to rave nights in Stoke. In a journey to dozens of towns and cities, taking in hundreds of unforgettable stories on the way, Haslam explores the sleaziness, the changing fashions, the moral panics and the cultural and commercial history of nightlife. He interviews clubbers and venue owners, as well as DJs and musicians; he meets one of the gangsters who nearly destroyed Manchester's nightlife and discusses Goth clubs in Leeds with David Peace.