Wednesday 10 September 2014

FADED LOIS DREAMS

Worth a read...






"As a clothes-obsessed music-loving football fan teenager Richard White always dreamed of living in London. By 1982 he was living this dream, and making his way in the big city. Faded Lois Dreams is the story of that year. The story of one young man and his friends as they face up to the joy and pain of living in the capital city. A city that reverberates to the sound of IRA bombs, post-punk, jazz funk and reggae. The charts are full of electro-pop while seminal records like The Message by Grandmaster Flash and Night Nurse by Gregory Isaacs edge their way into White's consciousness as Margaret Thatcher and Britain wages war with Argentina over the Falkland Islands. Set in the seemingly tranquil area of Muswell Hill where vampires roam the nearby cemetery and strange things happen behind the net curtains to Soho and Fitrovia where White and his friends party after dark. This is the London that evades the radar of the tourists and the media commentators. 

 Written from the first person perspective – and with both humour and pathos – Andrew Vaughan describes in painstaking details the minutiae of London life. From the terraces to the clothes shops via the pubs, clubs and record shops. He documents the changing fashions, attitudes, love affairs, fall-outs and personal tragedies that occur in this tribal city where if you take the wrong turning you could be walking into big trouble. Take the right turning and you could find pleasure and love. But most of all Faded Lois Dreams is about friendship, identity and belonging in this transient city. Friendship, identity and belonging whilst wearing decent clothes and trainers". JM