Sock Free Hideaway

BEATS OF LOVE 

164. Up the Youth Club: Illuminating a Hidden History by Emma Warren

I APPRECIATE Emma's optimistic viewpoint as she provides a definitive account of this subject. Ending her subtly groundbreaking book abruptly before the 70% cut to youth services took effect. 

I only ever recall going to youth club discos aged 11, where I learned that my musical snobbery sat well with my more generalised snobbery. Too immune to the sounds of 2-Tone, which seemed to attract kids from the council houses and uniform dancing, the only records me and my mate Dave made any effort to dance to were New Romantic. 

We perfected a sneering disdain for most things because of this, even forming a nameless band. Inserting the lyrics 'Dance with the intercom, Speak into a plane' over a Landscape B side and some Casio keyboard action, intending to play it at the youth club channelling the full Blitz Kid aesthetic via our mother's wardrobes. We never found the bravery to leave our houses.

As with the brilliant Dance your Way Home, sparingly but brilliantly, she extracts history from a personal footprint. You learn lots about our societal loss without a cerebral approach, which again feels refreshing. It's by exploring these deeper connections with fertile ideas the book comes alive and you realise the importance of what was simply tossed away in the name of austerity.

Understanding that for many youth clubs were a lifeline and not simply some place to form an identity.