A Double Decade Header of Pride in Music! with Anna Doble & Ian Wade

Join us for this double header with authors Anna Doble & Ian Wade, brought to you in collaboration with our friends at Nine Eight books.

Anna Doble's fabulous Connection is a Song is A 1990s coming of age story of how music rewired a young girl's life.
It is 1994. In a loft bedroom in North Yorkshire, fifteen-year-old Anna sits on a bedroom carpet immersed in the pages of Smash Hits, listening to cassette tapes that she keeps in a shoebox. She is dreaming of living inside the songs. The very same year, British music is about to be transformed and will leap from pop to rave to Britpop. This new universe will change Anna's life.
Connection is a Song is a journey through the sounds of the 1990s; the story of a life-defining love of music and the tracks that shaped this girl's journey through the decade. It travels from the impossibly mournful 'Nothing Compares 2 U' by Sinead O'Connor to the delirium of the KLF's '3am Eternal' via the cartoon swagger of EMF's 'Unbelievable', Madonna's terrifyingly sexy 'Vogue' and the guitar indie heart of the '90s where Elastica's 'Connection' beats Blur and Oasis in Anna's own Battle of Britpop.
This is a powerful, universal coming of age story - and also a coming out story - about growing up in an English provincial town, with its suspiciously sticky nightclub floors, the lingering smell of Impulse deodorant, kisses that taste of cider and songs that give Anna feelings that she has never felt before. It is the tale of an outsider who, through connections made at gigs, mysterious black feathers and conversations in smoke-filled cars, finds the people and the places that will take her to her life.

Ian Wade's 1984: The Year Pop Went Queer charts the year that pop came out of the closet - even if not all of the artists felt that they could - and, in the process, charted the course of the rest of the decade.
In 1984: The Year Pop Went Queer, writer and musician Ian Wade charts where these artists, including Queen, George Michael, David Bowie, Pet Shop Boys, Frankie Goes to Hollywood and Madonna - who all enjoyed chart success in 1984 - were during that epoch-making year. It studies the impact these groundbreaking musicians had before, during and after on the gay community and popular culture, and it demonstrates how they were able to break down barriers, raise consciousness and set in motion the first nascent ripples in a pond that are still being felt today.
As a backdrop, it explores the strides made in the name of the cause and how the wider surrounding culture reacted with equal parts glee, bafflement and disgust.

We have two ticket options available: * Event Only and *Event with Discounted Book Combo deal - books will be available for collection at the Festival.

Our event will be followed by a dedicated signing event with Anna and Ian. RRP books will also be available for purchase on the day.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS:

Anna Doble is a journalist. She is the digital editor at BBC World Service and presents weekly radio show Pick of the World. Anna previously worked at Radio 1 and Channel 4 News. During the pandemic she wrote a 40,000-word blog while listening to 300 vinyl LPs in (just about) chronological order. Since then, Anna has successfully brainwashed her sixteen-year-old daughter into loving Belle & Sebastian and Pulp. She lives in London.

Ian Wade is a writer, DJ and pop fanatic. He has written for Classic Pop, Record Collector, The Quietus, MusicOMH, Official Charts, Sunday Times Culture as well as doing time for Smash Hits and The Face many years ago. He has worked as a PR on BBC's Later... with Jools Holland and occasionally DJs at Spiritland, Duckie and Soho Radio.

Host or Publisher Louder Than Words Festival