As part of the 2024 Farsley Literature Festival we are excited to announce, an evening at the Old Woollen with music journalist, DJ and author Paddy Clark about his latest release Bedsit Land – The Strange Worlds of Soft Cell. Paddy will be joined in conversation with journalist, broadcaster and musician John Robb.

Soft Cell are more than just a pop band. Marc Almond and Dave Ball may be best known for the string of hits they released in 1981, but the powerful first phase of their collaboration embraced a staggering array of sounds, influences and innovations that would change the face of music to come.

In Bedsit Land, Paddy Clarke plunges into the archives and interviews more than sixty contributors, including the band members themselves, to follow Soft Cell through the many strange and sprawling worlds that shaped their extraordinary career. They lead him from the faded camp glamour of the British seaside to the dizzying thrills of the New York club scene. From transgressive student performance art to the sleaze and squalor of pre-gentrified Soho. From the glitz of British showbiz to the drug-addled chaos of post-Franco Spain. He emerges on the other side with the most in-depth, innovative and entertaining account of the duo ever written.

Paddy Clarke is a music journalist and live DJ. He is the deputy editor of the Quietus and a freelance contributor to the Guardian, NME, DIY Magazine and many more. He has also written for a number of specialist titles, including No Depression, N By Norwegian and MARVIN.

Paddy will be joined in conversation by the well-known media figure who has been active in music for decades John Robb. John is a journalist, broadcaster and musician. He is the author of Punk Rock: An Oral History (2006) and The Art of Darkness: The History of Goth, the first major book on Goth culture. He is the founder of culture website louderthanwar.com and plays bass in the post-punk band The Membranes.