Out of Space: How UK Cities Shaped Rave Culture | Jim Ottewill

An important book, Out of Space arrives at a time when club culture (and the freedoms, values and communities associated with it) finds itself in jeopardy. Clubs have been shutting at an alarming rate since the mid-noughties, a situation exacerbated by the last two years of the pandemic, and the decline doesn't seem to be slowing. As author Jim Ottewill says, our clubland is succumbing to the beat of the property developers rather than that of the DJs.

In Out of Space, we are taken on a night time tour of the UK, through the towns and cities where club culture found a home - from the bedrock of Sheffield, Manchester and Glasgow, to the lesser know meccas of Todmorden and Coalville. in doing so, Ottewill tells the story of Britain's clubland and of the people who made it happen.  Talking to DJs, venue owners and promoters he finds out what it takes to make a club bloom and thrive, and why some endure while others disappear. 

Out of Space is an exploration of the role of clubs and their relationships with the environment around them, and how the cities and towns where many of these spaces call home have influenced how we dance and the music these scenes have birthed. It also looks at why we arguably need them more than ever and delves into how they fit into a population that is becoming increasingly urbanised and whether this poses a threat or opportunity for the nightclubbers of tomorrow.

Size: 129 x 198mm

Pages: 311

Publisher: Velocity Press