Woo!: Strange Happenings at the Windmill and Other Tangential Rants (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781838156718)

Join Dave Thomson on a riotous night out centred around two important Brixton venues, where he regales us with tales from the not-too-distant past. You know. Pre-pandemic gigs? The old normal. Where you could mosh with strangers, collapse in a sweaty heap, share the same pint and round robin a rollie, without any of it feeling oddly strange or downright irresponsible.

Does this all sound longingly familiar?

Dave Thomson takes us on a first-person journey into the mosh pits of various London venues and beyond, boomeranging through space, time, gigs, and major life events, documenting a raging culture war against musical mediocrity, political alienation, social cleansing and the brutality of neoliberal economics. Dave joins the dots and makes the connections, as he shines a light on how this has fueled a creative explosion not seen since post- punk blew up across the Thatcher ravaged cities of early eighties northern Britain.

A gonzo style close orbit around a disparate collective of misfits, who transform into some of the most era defining acts on the live circuit today, including Warmduscher, Goat Girl, Black Midi, Meatraffle and Fat White Family. We see the bands, meet the characters and experience the mayhem in all its pain and glory.

WOO! provides context, narrative and plenty of laughs along the way, as Dave tries to make sense of the world in which we now exist, intensified further by the mind-bending impact of this pandemic. Amongst all the anecdotes, tangential stories, music and mayhem, friendships unravel as the seeds of new relationships emerge. Dave is yet to realise it, but tonight, for the first time in his life, he has found his people, his tribe and ultimately, his WOO!