Super selections and wonderful words by Balearic Mike.

Nick Hornby – Dickens & Prince: A Particular Kind Of Genius – Penguin 2022

 

You’re all probably aware by now that I’m rather keen on Prince. The same can’t really be said of Charles Dickens though. I’ve only read one Dickens book – Great Expectations – while doing my English Lit ‘O’ Level, and I can’t say that I enjoyed it. We also read Jane Eyre, and I didn’t like that either. I just find the cruelty of that era hard to stomach. I do like some of the dramatizations of his work. I remember enjoying the film, Oliver, as a kid. The BBC version of Bleak House was good, but maybe because it had Gillian Anderson in it. The recent version of David Copperfield from Armando Iannucci was fun… and let’s not forget that real cultural high point – The Muppet Christmas Carol!

I am, however, a fan of Nick Hornby. After leaving art college I basically read nothing but music magazines for about 5 years, and I can credit his Fever Pitch and High Fidelity for putting an end to that trend and rekindling my love of  books. I’ve enjoyed a few of his novels, and his move into screen writing – An Education, Wild, and the first series of his excellent BBC comedy, State Of The Union. So, when his latest book, Dickens & Prince: A Particular Kind Of Genius, was announced, it was an automatic purchase.

The book’s premise is simple, and Nick makes his argument concisely and with humour. Few other artists, if any, worked at the same rate of productivity and to the same high standard as these 2 colossal pop culture figures. Not only that, they both had difficult childhoods, both had struggles and conflicts with the industry they worked in, and both had complicated relationships with women. It’s a slim volume, at under 100 pages, and I read it in one sitting. I’m currently on my third read through. It’s funny, interesting, and insightful, and it might have even made me want to read some Dickens.

I’ve just finished reading this quite wonderful book, and wanted to tell you that you should all go and read it!

Emma Warren – Dance Your Way Home: A Journey Through The Dancefloor – Faber 2023

I’ve known Emma Warren since I moved to Manchester in 1991. She was a regular on every decent dancefloor in the city, from the Hacienda, to those early Balearic parties like Most Excellent, Glitter Baby, LuvDup, Circus, Naked Under Leather,  Space Funk…. to mid-90s favourites Bugged Out and Electric Chair. She had already begun writing about music, and was there at the start of Jockey Slut. Even when she returned to London, I would still visit her occasionally on our Vinyl Exchange buying trips. The point that I’m trying to make here, is that if you’re going to read a book about dancing to music together with lots of other people, it’s probably best if you read a book written by someone who has put in the hard yards… and there’s  no denying that Emma has done her homework. As well as the Manchester clubs that I’ve mentioned, in London Emma attended now legendary nights such as Shoom and Rage, but she never really talked about them. Such boasts would usually be the first thing out of somebody’s mouth, but Emma was always more interested in the dance-floor she was currently dancing on. 

Emma has retained this love of the dance-floor to this day, and it’s evident on every page of this book. Her thoughts and observations about how we move, why we move, and what dancing with other people does, not just to our individual minds and bodies, but what it does to us collectively, culturally, as a group / tribe / species / society, are delivered with such warmth and enthusiasm  that I could occasionally feel myself welling up. It’s a wonderful, illuminating, life affirming, and beautifully written book. 

Oh, and Emma also mentions the story I told a while back about Vinyl Exchange head, crazy Adrian Brooke, and his now legendary shirt swapping session with Carl Craig! Great minds, eh!

For more from Balearic Mike you can find him on both Facebook and Instagram – @balearicmike. 

Mike has a Mixcloud page packed with magnificent, magical, music, and you can catch him live on 1BTN, from 12 noon until 2 (UK time) every 1st and 3rd Friday.

You can also check out the super silk screen prints of “Balearic Wife” over at @jo_lambert_print