Sweet Dreams - by Dylan Jones (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

The definitive oral history of the New Romantics. Sweet Dreams charts the British cultural explosion that happened in the ten years from 1975-1985 -- the rise of the New Romantics. Growing out of the remnants of the post-punk period, the New Romantics introduced club culture, ska, electronica, and goth to the world.
One of the most creative entrepreneurial periods since the Sixties, the era had a huge influence on the growth of broadcast media. Not only did it visually define the decade, it was the catalyst for the Second British Invasion, when the US charts would be colonized by British pop music, making it one of the most powerful cultural exports since the Beatles.
For fans of Jon Savage's 1966 and Lizzie Goodman's Meet Me in the Bathroom-- SWEET DREAMS is the fascinating story of how The New Romantic movement was born in the British clubs of the late 1970s and flourished on the radio and television airwaves of the early 1980s.
Sweet Dreams were made of this.

Review Quotes

"In this colorful and sprawling oral history, Jones (David Bowie: The Oral History), editor-in-chief of British GQ, stitches together quotes from over 100 interviewees on the aesthetic revolution that birthed New Wave." -- Publishers Weekly

"Jones is a wonderful writer, and his descriptions of the scene at the Blitz--the "divine decadence"--are brilliant... Jones makes an airtight case in Sweet Dreams that the New Romantics deserve more respect." -- Splice Today

"One heck of a lot of fun." -- Record Collector News

"The marvellously suave Mr. Jones rehabilitates the scenesters' scene a time and place once dismissed by rain-coated puritans like me, only to be brought gloriously to life years later - like a peacock's fanning tail - in this definitive oral history. 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." -- Barney Hoskyns

"Jones' style - part testimony, part documentary - sheds light on one of the most unanticipated and misunderstood shifts in popular music and street fashion, that sudden lurch towards the swank and ostentation of New Romanticism, a style that seemed arrogant and contrary in its origins but would define the nature and direction of music for at least a decade. Compelling reading for those who lived and breathed the indulgence of the era without realising its significance or contemplating its legacy." -- Simon Armitage

Praise for David Bowie: A Life by Dylan Jones:
"Jones' Bowie opus serves as the ultimate oral history of the artist's life and musical journey." --Billboard

"Beguiling... the fabulosity of Bowie's life and times lends itself extraordinarily well to the oral history form." --San Francisco Chronicle

"Drawn from over 180 interviews with friends, rivals, lovers and collaborators, some of whom have never before spoken about their relationship with Bowie, this oral history weaves a hypnotic spell as it unfolds the story of a remarkable rise to stardom and an unparalleled artistic path." --Parade

"Superb ... Suits the shape-shifting, beguiling, enigmatic complexities of its subject perfectly. It's hard to imagine anything that will do Bowie better justice."--William Boyd, Guardian

"Revelatory and surprising -- perfect for the Ziggy completist." --New York Magazine

Praise for Wichita Lineman by Dylan Jones
"The author's account satisfies, without a wasted word or the usual clichés of pop-culture writing and with plenty of quotations from the principals involved in making the song an enduring hit. An affectionate homage to an indisputably great song, one that readers will listen to with new ears."--Kirkus Reviews

About the Author

Dylan Jones studied at Chelsea School of Art and St. Martin's School of Art. A former editor at i-D, The Face, Arena, the Observer and the Sunday Times, he is currently the Editor-In-Chief of GQ. He has won the British Society of Magazine Editors "Editor of the Year" award a record eleven times, and in 2013 was the recipient of the Mark Boxer Award. Under his editorship the magazine has won over 50 awards. He is the author of the Sunday Times best-seller David Bowie: A Life, and the New York Times best seller Jim Morrison: Dark Star. A trustee of the Hay Festival, in 2013 he was awarded an OBE for services to publishing.