TRIP CITY' 12”/BOOK SET (TREVOR MILLER) by A GUY CALLED GERALD

12" EP + BOOK set

The 1989 'acid house novel' , available again as a book/vinyl bundle  - the original soundtrack by A Guy Called Gerald also being reissued  with all five tracks available on vinyl for the first time !!

This edition includes a new introduction from author Trevor Miller and a foreword by Carl Loben (DJ Magazine)

Paperback: 288 pages
Product Dimensions: 12.9 cm x 19.8 cm x 2.3 cm

In the summer of 1989, when Trevor Miller’s Trip City was first released with a five-track cassette EP by A Guy Called Gerald, there had been no other British novel like it. This was the down and dirty side of London nightclubs, dance music and the kind of hallucinogenic drug sub-culture that hadn’t really been explored since Tom Wolfe’s The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. Maybe this is why Trip City is still known as “the acid house novel” and an underground literary landmark.

“I remember back in the 80s, in my hometown, Tony Wilson (of Factory Records fame) was fond of calling Shaun Ryder the WB Yeats of his day. In that vein, whether or not I like to see myself in the canon of Anthony Burgess and Clockwork Orange - with these five tracks, A Guy Called Gerald feels very much like the Ludwig Van to my Alex DeLarge.” Trevor Miller

Interview with Gerald regarding this edtion:

How did the concept come about?

At the time it was pre the computer thing. So it was like how do we make this music more interactive. I wanted people to see the music somehow. I was a mad, futuristic head at the time in that I wanted to do computer stuff. I wanted people to make a computer graphic that would make a sound. The thing with the book came up with Trevor and I was like wow that sounds really interesting, being able to write music to a book. It was sorta like doing something for a film. It was something that I’d never heard of before. I was just trying new stuff out all the time.

How did you approach the process of creating the soundtrack?

Trevor had given me the manuscript to read and had spaced it all out in 4×4 time. I was in the studio like fucking hell, how am I gonna read this and be in the studio at the same time? I decided it was easier to listen to some music and read through it. As I was reading, I kinda just grabbed bits from the manuscript and decided I would use the bits that stuck out for the soundtrack.

You’ve previously said you try and tell stories with your music, so was it natural creating a soundtrack for a novel? Or did you find it challenging?

Well, the challenging thing at the time was tryna get people to accept electronic music. It sounds a bit weird now but it was totally alien to a lot of people. It was an underground thing. I wanted to try and create something that had a human element to it. It was like trying to create a bond between the technology of the music and the story. There was some content for people to cling onto, so the music became part of the story and it wasn’t like “this is just robotic blips and squeaks”, because that’s all I got from people at the time. Not a lot of people got it.

Do you think the book will resonate with younger people today?

’It’s an interesting concept, I don’t think they’re gonna get it the way the first generation got it. It was a novelty then, a book with paper and vinyl is a novelty now. The book being on paper frames the story, as you wouldn’t have a main character like that now because they live online. That side of it is something worth putting on your shelf. People latch onto these things. I’ve been trying to find old records and it’s really hard and they’re expensive. Stuff that used to be £6 cost £40 now