New memoir shows it’s NEVER too late to be a pop star

LONDON, LEWISHAM, UNITED KINGDOM, October 23, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ -- New memoir shows it’s never too late to be a pop star

It’s April 1974 and Britain is on the verge of social and economic collapse. There are electricity blackouts, bread queues in the high street and rumours of Communist insurrection. Ten-year-old Dan, who has just bought his first single and is about to watch ABBA win the Eurovision Song Contest, has an altogether different idea: POP MUSIC.
In his thrilling new memoir Whatever Happened to the Teenage Dream? writer, journalist and musician Dan Synge presents an honest, warts and all account of what it’s like to fall in love with music and start a teenage band (or indeed several bands) spanning the eras of glam, punk, new wave and 80s pop.
Set mostly in London, but with scenes also in Paris, Amsterdam and Barcelona, it’s a classic coming-of-age story but with bad hair and terrible teeth plus some amusing digressions on youth tribes, Rock Against Racism and the long-forgotten new wave outfit The Fabulous Poodles.
Dan’s own band, Stranger Than Paradise (aka Daniel Takes a Train), reckon they can join the likes of Duran Duran on the 1980s pop scene and even gate crash the Brit Awards in the attempt, but find it takes longer than expected to become the ‘Next Big Thing’. Thirty years to be precise!
In 2018, this luckless band are discovered on YouTube by a German indie label and are finally offered a record deal. Three decades after splitting up, the fifty something group are still active, even reaching #3 in the Heritage Chart with their single Be Happy.
A wry and cautionary tale about trying to make it big and never letting go of one’s dreams.

Whatever Happened To The Teenage Dream? (postcards from the edge of ’80s pop) is published on Friday 18 October (Rosaville Publishing)

“A fun and poignant read…hang on tight for a ride on the rock ‘n’ roll roller coaster!” Suzi Quatro
“Conjures up a lost era of tape recorders and Top of the Pops.” Genevieve Fox, author
“Breathless romp through the best – and worst – of the 80s.” Sheryl Garratt
“Captures the spirit of the 1980s in forensic detail.” David Sinclair, music writer and musician
“Possibly the best book about being in a guitar pop group.” Uwe Weigmann, Firestation Records, Germany

About the author
After a stint as songwriter and lead guitarist with 1980s also-rans Daniel Takes A Train, Dan Synge taught English in Barcelona and in London before becoming a journalist going on to write for the arts and lifestyle pages of The Guardian, Financial Times and Independent. He has also worked for magazines such as GQ, Time Out and Esquire, where he wrote about discovering the ‘West Pole’, chased a puma across Dartmoor and played cricket with gangsters in downtown Los Angeles.
His freelance journalism continues to be focused largely on music, pop culture, travel and design, a career he has balanced alongside being a senior university lecturer teaching Journalism.
More recently, Dan branched out into publishing himself, launching The Weekender magazine in Kent plus a series of visitor guides, including the first illustrated map of hipsters’ Peckham.
He returned to music making and song writing following his band’s surprise rediscovery by a German record label in 2018. The band’s first LP was released exactly 30 years after they split up and another album, Last Ticket To Tango soon followed.
Dan has written several books including the 20th century antiques guide Cool Collectables (Mitchell Beazley) and the academic course book The Survival Guide to Journalism (McGraw Hill).
www.dansyngeauthor.com

Daniel Synge
Rosaville Publishing
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