Bleep

Press Release

An overview of clubbing scenes and sounds in British cities and towns from pre-acid house to now including London, Glasgow, Manchester, Sheffield, Margate, Todmorden and many more. An exploration of the spaces where club music exists from the past to the present and where this could be in the future as our cities become more populated and lives more digitalised. Connects themes and trends in the evolution of clubs, raves, squat parties, pirate radio and soundsystem culture in the context of these urban environments. Features more than 100 interviews with DJs, promoters, ravers, venue owners and visionaries who have helped make UK club/rave culture happen including Norman Jay, Bill Brewster, Colleen ‘Cosmo’ Murphy, DJ Rap, Slam, DJ Storm, DJ Paulette, Chris Liberator, Geeneus, Mark Moore, Josey Rebelle, Joe Rush,John Klett (Despacio), Ashley Beedle, Caspar Melville and many more.

Since the dawn of time, humans have had the urge to come together and move to music. It may have started in caves but these days it happens in clubs often found in the shady corners of our towns and cities. Or at least it did until these places began to march to the beat of property developers rather than DJs. In London in the five years to 2016, half of the clubs were lost while a further quarter have been removed in the devastation of Covid. So what now?

At this critical moment, ‘Out of Space’ plots a course through the spaces and unlikely locations club culture has found a home. From Glasgow to Margate via Manchester, Sheffield and unlikely dance music meccas such as Coalville and Todmorden, it maps the key cities and towns where electronic music has thrived, it currently dances and the spaces it might be headed to next.

The book explores how urban landscapes have acted as a home for other shades of club music too such as pirate radio, dance music festivals, soundsystem culture and more. As our lives become increasingly digitised and real estate more valuable in the 21st century, Out of Space looks at the new clubbing models emerging to anticipate the future relationship between the shifting politics of space and sound.

Rather than an epitaph, this is a rallying cry and celebration of the club’s resilience based on a lifetime of getting wide-eyed inside them.