The Top Five: Books on club culture

Clubbing has inspired lots of literature since the late 1980s and some of the more recent non-fiction publications have proved edifying and evocative. When you're not on the dancefloor, read all about it:

1. Last Night A DJ Saved My Life by Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton (Headline, £7.99)
Lively and surprising story of the evolution of the disc jockey, from early 20th century deckmanship to the emergence of the global DJ superstar.

Education is rarely this entertaining.

2. Energy Flash by Simon Reynolds (Picador, £16.99)
Subtitled A Journey Through Dance Music And Rave Culture, Reynolds's chunky 1998 tome has an academic tone concerning ecstasy-influenced sounds. But it is very wide-ranging, and has a cover-mounted CD (including Joey Beltram's Energy Flash, naturally).

3. Adventures On The Wheels Of Steel by Dave Haslam (Fourth Estate, £10)
Haslam travels Britain talking to fellow deckticians and promoters (Jimmy Savile to Sasha) to get their take on developing DJ culture. Excellent anecdotes, chatty style.

4. My Life And The Paradise Garage by Mel Cheren (24 Hours For Life, £16.99)
Essentially an autobiography, but also a riveting read that puts the birth, decline and renaissance of disco into affecting context.

5. Night Fever ed by Richard Benson (Boxtree, £9.99)
Top-notch compilation of club writing from The Face. The scenes, from Brixton roller discos in the 1980s to the early 1990s jazz dance boom, are evoked with a lingering frisson. You might not have been there, but you'll wish you had.

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