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Party Lines

Dance Music and the Making of Modern Britain

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Party Lines

By: Ed Gillett
Narrated by: Ed Gillett
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About this listen

A Guardian Guide Cultural Book of the Year 2023
An Irish Times Music Book of the Year 2023
'A deep, engrossing history' The Observer
'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.

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'Excellent' The Sunday Times
'Reminds us why the dance floor matters . . . fascinating' Telegraph

©2023 Ed Gillett (P)2023 Macmillan Publishers International Limited Entertainment & Celebrities Great Britain Music Celebrity

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Profile Image for Darcy Moore

Superb

Ed Gillett has researched and written an important social, political and economic history of the last four decades viewed through the lens of of dance music. Readable and insightful! Highly recommended!

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