Richard Foster new book asks ‘where have all the ravers gone?’
Richard Foster is one of the finest music and culture writers of his generation. His sheer volume of words are matched only by his enthusiasm and attention to detail. His legendary reviews have dredged up countless great new bands and contextualised them perfectly. Somehow he has also found time to write books with his acclaimed debut garnered great reviews. His follow up is even better and mixes academia, humour and street pop culture stuff as it asks where have all the ravers gone?
Following his debut, Flower Factory, Richard Foster presents a new batch of psychedelicized, autofictive fairy tales from the Netherlands. The Punk Rock Birdwatching Club introduces a diverse cast of voices – from addicts to grandmothers – who narrate eight short stories dealing with the major social changes that country underwent during the mid-noughties.
We learn of the upheavals brought on by the Euro and the influx of Polish workers alongside the slow disappearance of the British and Irish worker-raver tribes post-Schengen, all set against a backdrop of rising costs, political murders and foreign wars. We also learn of the shock of new party snacks, like asparagus sticks wrapped in ham. Like Flower Factory, The Punk Rock Birdwatching Club is set in the southern part of the Dutch Bollenstreek: an agro-industrial district that is always changing, but somehow manages to stay exactly the same.
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