Mick
Middles, author of 24 highly successful books concentrating on Manchester music
artists from punk to present, reviews Dave Spence’s Gate-Crashers: Dave
Spence’s luminous word-of-mouth novel sits belligerently within a time-capsule
of Christmas 1984. Indeed, the eighties had been unleashed and the story spits
and pops with all the fizz and colour and sound that defines that sadly lost
era. Oddly, it is set in the rather less colourful South Manchester suburb of
Sale, just on the outside of edgier Stretford. To some extent, this detachment
adds to the energy and pace of the tale. If it can happen here, where elegant
houses with pristine lawns extend to touch crackly drug-fuelled estates, it can
happen anywhere. The hero, Nick is not-so-loosely based on the ghost of the
author’s young days. Subsequently, it’s difficult not to imagine him adorning
leg-warmers and wrap-around scarves, such were the gentle affectations of the
day. In the background, naturally, one hears the glorious pop of ABC, The Human
League, Tears for Fears, Madonna…endlessly extending in to 12 inch jam outs.
People of a certain age can simply slot in their own evocative soundtrack.
Rather than venturing into the Manchester of legend – The Hacienda – the author
chooses to stay local, injecting this warming though Godless tale into large
pubs and dingy ‘take-aways’ that remain in place to this day. The book soon
gathers pace when Nick’s mother unwisely hands him the Christmas keys to her
beloved Porsche. Of course, one senses absolute disaster…and it is absolute
disaster that duly arrives as the book speeds to an incident packed finale.
Does Nick finally get the girl of his dreams? I cannot say, but the tumble of
lust, romance, violence and ghostly sounds of a lost and beloved era, will
remain with me…at least until the second instalment arrives in my eager hands.
Mick Middles
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