Books by Tim Lawrence

Hold On to Your Dreams: Arthur Russell and the Downtown Music Scene, 1973-92 (Forthcoming, autumn 2009)

This is a photo of Arthur Russell on the rooftop of his East Village apartmentHold On to Your Dreams: Arthur Russell and the Downtown Music Scene, the first biography to be written about the downtown musician Arthur Russell, has gone into production with Duke University Press and will be published in the autumn of 2009. Developed around exhaustive interviews with Russell's closest collaborators, friends and family, and including eight-seven  Read more »


Love Saves the Day / Japanese Translation

This is the front cover of the Japanese translation of Love Saves the DayLove Saves the Day has been translated into Japanese:
<ガラージ><ロフト><12インチ><ノンストップ・ミックス>…
現在の隆盛の礎となった、NYを軸とした70年代のDJ/クラブ/レコード業界まわりの史実を、オリジナル・インタビュー、“ダンス・クラシックス”リス トを通して徹底検証した決定版!DJカルチャー参 Read more »


Love Saves the Day / Italian Translation

This is an image taken from Spanky and Our Gang, the TV series that provided David Mancuso with the image for his invitation card"Love Saves the Day", uscito in prima edizione nel 2003 per la Duke University Press, e' un libro secondo noi importante, giunto a colmare una lacuna evidente nella critica musicale e piu' in genere nella critica del costume. Infatti, sebbene non Read more »


Love Saves the Day: A History of American Dance Music Culture, 1970-79

This is the front page of Love Saves the DayOpening with David Mancuso's groundbreaking "Love Saves the Day" Valentine's party, Tim Lawrence tells the definitive story of American dance music culture in the 1970s -- from its subterranean roots in NoHo and Hell's Kitchen to its gaudy blossoming in midtown Manhattan to its wildfire transmission through America's suburbs and urban hotspots... Read more »


 

New from Tim Lawrence

Kiss Me Again: Mapping the Life and Legacy of Arthur Russell (NYU, 10 October 2009)

This is a video still of Arthur Russell playing the celloThe composer and musician Arthur Russell lived and worked in New York between 1973 and 1992. During his time in the city he performed and recorded compositional music, pop music, disco, new wave Read more »


Who's Not Who in the Downtown Crowd (Or: Don't Forget About Me)

This is the front cover of the Yeti issueIt's becoming commonplace to note that New York City in the 1970s and the first half of the 1980s was a place of remarkable musical innovation across a range of sounds. During this period, hip hop evolved in the boroughs and then made inroads into the city; punk, new wave and no wave transformed the aesthetics and culture of rock; the jazz loft scene that Read more »


Lucky Cloud Sound System (i-D)

This is a photo of Lucky Cloud Sound SystemLucky Cloud Sound System is rooted in the ethos of the house party, the social potential of audiophile equipment, and the willingness of David Mancuso to travel to London to put on parties four times a year. The Read more »


Disco Madness: Walter Gibbons and the Legacy of Turntablism and Remixology (Journal of Popular Music Studies)

This is a photo of Walter Gibbons working at Blank Tapes Studio in New YorkThis story begins with a skinny white DJ mixing between the breaks of obscure Motown records with the ambidextrous intensity of an octopus on speed. It closes with the same man, debilitated and virtually blind, fumbling for gospel records as he spins up eternal hope in a fading dusk. In Read more »


Wild Combination (ICA)

This is the flyer for the ICA premiere of Wild Combination The London premiere of Wild Combination: A Portrait of Arthur Russell -- a film by Matt Wolf -- will take place at the ICA on 26 September 2008. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with the director, hosted by myself, and a launch party in the ICA bar featuring an Arthur Russell inspired DJ set from Twitch of Optimo. The invite runs: Wild Read more »


Feminist / Queer Desires (Goldsmiths)

This is the poster for the Goldsmiths conferenceI was invited by Angela McRobbie, Professor of Communications at Goldsmiths College, to present a paper on the theme of "Disco and the Queer Dance Floor" at the third annual Gender and Theory Conference, which took place on Wednesday 11 June 2008. The conference was excellent; how could it not be, with Angela talking in a line-up.... Read more »


Arthur Russell / Rhizomatic Musicianship (Liminalities)

This is a flyer of Arthur Russell's 24-24 performance at the KitchnDuring the 1970s and early 1980s, a diverse group of artists, musicians, sculptors, video filmmakers and writers congregated in downtown New York and forged a radical creative network... Read more »


David Mancuso and the Loft (Placed)

This is a photo of a koetsu cartridgeThe following article and interview was published in Placed, an new Berlin-based magazine, in 2007. Conducted in London on the eve of Lucky Cloud Sound System's spring party of that year, the interview... Read more »


Arthur Russell interview (Blow Up)

This is a photo of Arthur Russell standing in a corn fieldOn 25 January 2007 I was interviewed by Daniela Cascella for the March 2007 edition of Blow Up (Italy). The full transcript of the interview follows, along with a PDF of the article. Daniela Cascella: Setting out on a new project always implies a great deal of research in which a number of ideas/feelings/expectations are met... Read more »


In Defence of Disco (Again) (New Formations)

This is the front cover of the New Formations issue"Disco" is the overburdened name given to the culture that includes the spaces (discotheques) that were organised around the playback of recorded music by a DJ (disc jockey); the social practice of individual freeform dancing that was established within this context; and the music genre that crystallised within this social setting between 1970... Read more »


"I Want to See All My Friends At Once": Arthur Russell and the Queering of Gay Disco (Journal of Popular Music Studies)

This is the front cover of the Journal of Popular Music StudiesDisco, it is commonly understood, drummed its drums and twirled its twirls across an explicit gay-straight divide. In the beginning, the story goes, disco was gay: Gay dancers went to gay clubs, celebrated their newly liberated status by dancing with other men, and discovered a vicarious voice in the... Read more »


Disco: Liberation of the Body (Liberazione)

This is the banner of the Liberazione newspaperIn the popular imagination, disco conjures up images of Studio 54, the celebrated New York 1970s nightclub, where hoards of would-be dancers queued up on a nightly basis, waving their arms frantically in an attempt to... Read more »


Discotheque: Haçienda

This is the front cover of the Hacienda CDHistories of UK club culture often tell the following story. Before the summer of 1987, rare groove ruled, beats-per-minute were slow and dance floor energy was low. Then a gaggle of London lads went to Ibiza, tasted the Ecstasy-dance cocktail, and... Read more »


Acid - Can You Jack?

This is the front cover of the Acid House CDHouse music is disco's revenge. So said Frankie Knuckles, reflecting on the charged history of the genre, which emerged in hometown Chicago in the middle of the 1980s. In this case home, to quote Gil Scott-Heron, is where the hatred is, or... Read more »