Sweet Dreams: From Club Culture to Style Culture, the Story of the New Romantics

This edition includes an exclusive new chapter.

It's 'Excellent,' according to The Guardian, 'Hugely enjoyable,' says The Irish Times, 'Dazzling,' states the LRB, 'Fascinating,' observes the New Statesman, and 'An absolute must-read,' declares GQ. It was also an NME and BBC Culture Book of the Year 2020.

For a time, Sweet Dreams were indeed made of this. From the direct testimony of the people who lived it, comes Dylan Jones' masterful history of the Blitz kids, synth-pop, and the style press, spanning from 1975 to 1985. 'Few music scenes have received more opprobrium than the New Romantics. A bunch of fame-grabbing clothes-horses? Certainly. But also, a progressive force that opened new routes for music while embracing most genders, ethnicities and sexual preferences,' remarks MOJO. Simon Armitage finds it 'Compelling reading for those who lived and breathed the indulgence of the era without realising its significance or contemplating its legacy.'

UNCUT explains how 'Dylan Jones explains how a bunch of penniless nightclub show-offs morphed into pop royalty in the 1980s... An excitable patchwork of interviews, punctuated with gossip and pertinent theory.' Barney Hoskyns sums it up: 'It's all here: the swishing, the androgynous preening, the sweetly-dreamt synth-pop splendour of early '80s Britain. Something was happening, and Mr. Jones knew what it was.'