Connection is a Song
08 May 2025Imprint: Nine Eight Books
Synopsis
Longlisted for the Penderyn Music Book Prize
'Unique, dreamlike and poetic. I loved it.' DEBSEY WYKES, SAINT ETIENNE AND DOLLY MIXTURE
It is 1994. In a loft bedroom in North Yorkshire, fifteen-year-old Anna sits on the carpet immersed in the pages of Smash Hits, listening to cassette tapes that she keeps in a shoebox. She is dreaming of living inside the songs. The very same year, British music is about to be transformed and will leap from pop to rave to Britpop. This new universe will change Anna's life.
Connection is a Song is a journey through the sounds of the 1990s; the story of a life-defining love of music and the tracks that shaped this girl's journey through the decade. It travels from the impossibly mournful 'Nothing Compares 2 U' by Sinead O'Connor to the delirium of the KLF's '3 a.m. Eternal' via the cartoon swagger of EMF's 'Unbelievable', Madonna's terrifyingly sexy 'Vogue' and the guitar indie heart of the '90s where Elastica's 'Connection' beats Blur and Oasis in Anna's own Battle of Britpop.
This is a powerful, universal coming of age story - and also a coming out story - about growing up in an English provincial town, with its suspiciously sticky nightclub floors, the lingering smell of Impulse deodorant, kisses that taste of cider and songs that give Anna feelings that she has never felt before. It is the tale of an outsider who, through connections made at gigs, mysterious black feathers and conversations in smoke-filled cars, finds the people and the places that will take her to her life.
'Unique, dreamlike and poetic. I loved it.' DEBSEY WYKES, SAINT ETIENNE AND DOLLY MIXTURE
It is 1994. In a loft bedroom in North Yorkshire, fifteen-year-old Anna sits on the carpet immersed in the pages of Smash Hits, listening to cassette tapes that she keeps in a shoebox. She is dreaming of living inside the songs. The very same year, British music is about to be transformed and will leap from pop to rave to Britpop. This new universe will change Anna's life.
Connection is a Song is a journey through the sounds of the 1990s; the story of a life-defining love of music and the tracks that shaped this girl's journey through the decade. It travels from the impossibly mournful 'Nothing Compares 2 U' by Sinead O'Connor to the delirium of the KLF's '3 a.m. Eternal' via the cartoon swagger of EMF's 'Unbelievable', Madonna's terrifyingly sexy 'Vogue' and the guitar indie heart of the '90s where Elastica's 'Connection' beats Blur and Oasis in Anna's own Battle of Britpop.
This is a powerful, universal coming of age story - and also a coming out story - about growing up in an English provincial town, with its suspiciously sticky nightclub floors, the lingering smell of Impulse deodorant, kisses that taste of cider and songs that give Anna feelings that she has never felt before. It is the tale of an outsider who, through connections made at gigs, mysterious black feathers and conversations in smoke-filled cars, finds the people and the places that will take her to her life.
Details
08 May 2025320 pages
9781788709514Imprint: Nine Eight Books
Reviews
'Anna's fan's eye book on pop is ace.'Bob Stanley
'I love this book! Anna managed to transport me back in time to a fast-moving and exciting time in the '90s, all of it was so new for Saint Etienne. It was properly bonkers! Travelling to exotic locations, meeting new people with similar goals and interests, glamour, a little bit of hedonism and feather boas (for me and Nicky Wire). I treasure all of those experiences and Anna was a big part of it.'Sarah Cracknell, Saint Etienne
'A gentle, tender journey through the flotsam and jetsam of the 1990s, by a writer who touchingly shows us how music has the power to change everything.'Jude Rogers
'A poignant and wonderfully warm coming-of-age story about the life-changing power of music. Anna has deftly put into words what it was - and is - to be a teenager. Connection is a Song smells like teen spirit.'Cathy Newman, journalist and presenter, Channel 4 News
