Bedsit land: The strange worlds of Soft Cell charts the bonkers journey of Soft Cell via 60+ interviews, from North West seaside weirdness through radical art school, the 80s New York underground, Soho sleaze, avant-garde goth madness, and more!

Soft Cell are not your average pop band. Marc Almond and Dave Ball may be best known for the string of hits they released in 1981, but the powerful first phase of their collaboration embraced a staggering array of sounds, influences and innovations that would change the face of music to come.

In Bedsit land, Patrick Clarke plunges into the archives and interviews more than sixty contributors, including the band members themselves, to follow Soft Cell through the many strange and sprawling worlds that shaped their extraordinary career. They lead him from the faded camp glamour of the British seaside to the dizzying thrills of the New York club scene. From transgressive student performance art to the sleaze and squalor of pre-gentrified Soho. From the glitz of British showbiz to the drug-addled chaos of post-Franco Spain.

This is the first release in the new British Pop Archive (BPA) series of short books published by Manchester University Press. Each publication draws on a rich variety of sources including interviews, memoirs, recordings, images, press cuttings, and other archival materials. The books will reflect and expand the Manchester-based British Pop Archive, which recently launched to much acclaim.

Telling untold stories from music, popular (and unpopular) culture and counterculture, the books entertain and inform. At the same time, they bring the archivist’s joy of uncovering long-hidden secrets and delving into dusty corners to an audience of retro culture vultures, music buffs, and curious souls. Working with an award-winning cover designer, each book produced will be done as collectible, desirable volumes that every music-loving and pop-cultural enthusiast book-buyer will want to add to their own personal archive.

The British Pop Archive (BPA) is a national collection dedicated to the preservation and research of popular culture, counter-culture and youth culture. It is the first specifically designated, large-scale popular culture archive in the UK. The collection’s launch was supported with a major exhibition at the Rylands, featuring iconic items from the Manchester pop culture scene. The BPA aims to celebrate and preserve all aspects of British popular culture, recognizing its pivotal influence on the world stage.

Manchester’s vibrant cultural scene is a global symbol of innovation, creativity and social progress. This history, rooted particularly within music, TV and the arts, distinguishes the city as unique. It makes it the perfect setting for a collection that preserves and tells the stories of popular culture on a national scale.

Available from Manchester University Press

Patrick Clarke is a freelance journalist specializing in music, but experienced with a broad range of writing style in trade and consumer publications, both online and in print, writing news, features, reviews, interviews, opinion and more. He has also written biographies for artists signed to labels like Rough Trade, 4AD, Domino, PIAS and Heavenly. Bylines include: The Guardian, BBC, NME, N By Norwegian, Metro, DIY, Stylist and more. His first book, Bedsit Land: The Strange Worlds Of Soft Cell, is released on September 3 by the Manchester University Press.

About the Author

Bryen Dunn is a freelance journalist based in Toronto with a focus on tourism, lifestyle, entertainment and community issues. He has written several travel articles and has an extensive portfolio of celebrity interviews with musicians, actors and other public personalities. He’s willing to take on any assignments of interest, attend parties with free booze, listen to rants, and travel the world in search of the great unknown. He’s eager to discover the new, remember the past, and look into the future.