Dave Haslam All You Need Is Dynamite book tour

Dave Haslam takes his latest Art Decades tome All You Need Is Dynamite on a nationwide book tour, including Manchester, Leeds and Sheffield. Starting in London on 2 September, when he’ll be chatting to poet Lemn Sissay, you’ll be able to catch him Manchester way at Central Library on Tuesday 7 September, then Thursday 9 September at West Didsbury’s Albert Club, Saturday 11 September at Stockport’s specialist bookshop Rare Mags then, on Tuesday 14 September, at Urmston alehouse The Barking Dog. See below for his other dates and venues.

At his launch event in Manchester’s Central Library, Dave Haslam will read from, talk about and sign the new book, and he’ll also be chatting with renowned musician Bruce Mitchell.

In a recent interview, Dave Haslam – who DJed at the Haçienda from May 1986 until its last night, in June 1997, and whose autobiography Sonic Youth Slept On My Floor was called “the best book of 2018” by Gilles Peterson – said of All You Need Is Dynamite: Acid, The Angry Brigade, And The End Of The Sixties (to give it its full title): “This is a story never told about Manchester.”

In it, he explores the fading of Sixties dreams of peace and love, and the emergence of urban terrorist groups, particularly the Angry Brigade, which carried out dozens of bomb attacks in Britain. Haslam tracks the political campaigns, the police repression, and Angry Brigade links to Manchester and the city’s underground paper Mole Express (a bible for local acid-freaks, and fans of the Weather Underground and the Edgar Broughton Band), uncovering a heady mix of left-wing politics, psychedelic music, police raids and political violence.

At his launch event in Manchester’s Central Library, Dave Haslam will read from, talk about and sign the new book, and he’ll also be chatting with renowned musician Bruce Mitchell, who played regularly at venues including Roger Eagle’s club the Magic Village (1968–1970), mentioned in the book, and who subsequently became drummer with post-punk band The Durutti Column, which formed in Manchester in 1978. The event will also mark the launch of the Manchester Digital Music Archive’s online exhibition of back issues of Mole Express.

Having DJed worldwide, run a fanzine and written five full-length books, Dave Haslam’s latest project is Art Decades, a series of limited-edition small format books published by Manchester-based Confingo. The first, the autobiographical A Life In Thirty-Five Boxes: How I Survived Selling My Record Collection, came out in 2019, and was shortly followed by We The Youth: Keith Haring’s New York Nightlife, exploring how the clubs and music of rundown downtown areas of NYC during the late 1970s and early 1980s were formative influences on the life and work of the American artist. Searching For Love: Courtney Love In Liverpool, 1982 came out last year and looks at a brief UK stay during the formative years of the HOLE singer and Kurt Cobain’s widow. The fourth in the series is My Second Home: Sylvia Plath In Paris, 1956.

Here’s the full rundown of the All You Need Is Dynamite book tour dates (times and prices vary; check Dave Haslam’s website):

Thursday 2 September London, 21Soho with guest interviewer Lemn Sissay

Tuesday 7 September Manchester, Central Library, with guest Bruce Mitchell

Wednesday 8 September Glasgow, Broadcast

Thursday 9 September West Didsbury, Albert Club

Saturday 11 September Stockport, Rare Mags

Sunday 12 September Leeds, Hyde Park Book Club

Tuesday 14 September Urmston, the Barking Dog

Thursday 16 September Hull, Wrecking Ball, with Lucy Nicol, author of The Twenty Seven Club

Friday 17 September Whitley Bay, the bound

Saturday 18 September Holmfirth, Read

Tuesday 21 September Sheffield, Cafe#9

Thursday 23 September Walthamstow, Trades Hall, with Paul Gorman, author of The Life And Times Of Malcolm McLaren