It's a London Thing: How Rare Groove, Acid House and Jungle Remapped the City Paperback – Download: Adobe Reader, 21 November 2019

Excellent book but I have only a 4 start reading because the actual print on this book is poorly done.Unfortunately you would need the hard cover for a comfortable read. The ink & paper don't go well together & this make for a really hard read on the smaller paper back.As for the actual content? This is an amazing book of detail! This is how music scene & culture should be covered, very good read.

As others have said, you need patience for the first 50 or so pages as the explanation is detailed but for me, was necessary due to my age. It was these pages which have informed me on how black immigrants were treated post war (up to the mid 90s) and how music experiences would have differed based on a persons background. The Government and door policies were ridiculous.The book gives a great explanation to the three genres and how they came about - and have set London up to be what it is today.I never experienced the rare groove scene and how the events went - so when the book explained how Norman Jay set up the parties etc, this was a complete surprise and was a joy to read (and something which I want to read and know more about).The link between the three genres is explained very well and I know more about the two genres I prefer (rare groove and acid house) but also learned about jungle which has given me a greater respect for the people from that scene also.A must read for anyone who enjoys the music and wants more detailed history! Lots of snippets of info which I didn’t know before the book. Also a few songs listed which I’d forgotten about and are now on the playlist.Hats off to the author.

Previous reviewers have expressed frustration at the social, spatial and political context which the author takes considerable time establishing, but persevere and you get quite an interesting slant on the standard music history of London in the late 20th Century.I do understand the frustrations, and the sheer volume of references and notes doers make it feel like an academic paper for the first 50-60 pages, but if you can hang with it, it really is interesting and well researched. It is a very closely observed social study of how black music culture has spread in London's spacial geography.Well worth a read for a different but well informed angle on a well covered subject matter.

Great in depth research and writing on all these music genres! As I personally have been a part of that "Rare groove" scene early" soul boy"scene it was refreshing to have it documented 👏

My son who runs a record shop loves this book - Christmas present that I got right!