Of course I leaped at requesting this book when I saw it on Netgalley.

*Apologies, a very long and personally involved review is about to follow!*

Peterborough in the mid to late 1980s was where I spent my anguished Indie Kid teen years. Although I lived down the A1 near Huntingdon, so was probably closer to Cambridge, it was Peterborough where the Indie scene was the most happening - Cambridge really never quite got that DIY Indie thing and was a lot more chin-strokey serious. Whereas Peterborough had the Laughing Gravy Nights, The Shamrock Club (thanks Pete Elderkin!) and Indie nights at The Tropicana.

I kind of ‘knew’ Peter Elderkin, but only in the way that you know a local ‘face’. More so through his band The Pleasureheads, when I was a 15 yr old schoolgirl with my own embarrassingly sloppy Fanzine. And later as a singer in another local band.

I was delighted that Peter mentions Andrew Clifton, who was my English teacher and who also released and financed our band’s first single too. He had a selfless devotion to kids who loved and lived for music - whether it was encouraging them to form their own bands, writing music or writing about it. That man was my hero.

Anyhow, back to the book…
My personal reminiscences stop here as I moved to London in 1991, just as the book starts to get going.
But that doesn’t mean that I was any the less interested. I don’t think that you have to had known the Peterborough scene to enjoy this book. Anyone who remembers their first forays out into local nightlife, or anyone who grew up loving ‘alternative’ music will enjoy this book. Musical genres aside - going out, underage drinking, dancing, listening to live music and just kicking it with your friends is a timeless rite of passage. No matter the era or the geographical location.
‘Sugar, Music, Pleasure’ encapsulates all that matters about being a teenager in your own locality and the pure joy of all those ‘first’ experiences before life starts getting a bit more grown up.
So even though Peterborough has been voted ‘The worst place to live in England’ several times, there was a shine to that shit and this book brings out the shine of the city.
Great stuff!
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.