Skip to main content
book cover for You Had to Be There

You Had to Be There

An Odyssey Through Noughties London, One Night at a Time

You must sign in to see if this title is available for request. Sign In or Register Now

Send NetGalley books directly to your Kindle or Kindle app

1
To read on a Kindle or Kindle app, please add kindle@netgalley.com as an approved email address to receive files in your Amazon account. Click here for step-by-step instructions.
2
Also find your Kindle email address within your Amazon account, and enter it here.
Pub Date 25 Sep 2025 | Archive Date Not set

Talking about this book? Use #YouHadtoBeThere #NetGalley. More hashtag tips!


Description

'A delicious, neon-soaked fever dream.' Munroe Bergdorf
'Nostalgic, salacious and bitingly witty.' Joe Lycett
'I couldn't put it down.' Annie Macmanus

The defining book on the iconic noughties-era of pop culture in London as told by DJ Jodie Harsh, who saw, did and survived it all.

Jodie Harsh arrived in London aged fifteen in 2001, heading straight off the train from Canterbury to her first club night at the Astoria. Intoxicated by this initial taste of city nightlife, she didn't leave the party for years, falling in with the right wrong people and exploring the sides of London best experienced under cover of darkness.

Throughout the noughties, from Camden and Soho to Mayfair, from Notting Hill and Primrose Hill to Hackney Road, the city was a messy, beating, slick and sordid melting pot. New music, new fashion, new art, all came together in a mad, dizzying rush before - and during - the financial crash of 2008. Different scenes collided, exploded, were reborn and shaped across the city, at rapid speed.

Harsh grabs us by the hand and leads us back to those decadent times: from the Astoria to The Cross, the Soho Revue Bar to Mahiki, Boombox to The End and her famous friends' houses; to a time before social media and cameraphones were ubiquitous and a life without their perpetual scrutiny allowed for a more liberated, hedonistic and creative existence. You had to be there, and Jodie Harsh was. Every single night.

'A delicious, neon-soaked fever dream.' Munroe Bergdorf
'Nostalgic, salacious and bitingly witty.' Joe Lycett
'I couldn't put it down.' Annie Macmanus

The defining book on the iconic noughties-era of...


Advance Praise

'A beautiful technicolour picture of London, clubbing and community. I felt like I was there, at every night, in every outfit, dancing to every tune.' -- Jessie Ware

'A night out in book form . . . This will surely be the defining book on the era.' -- Russell T. Davies

'Vivid and heartfelt.' -- Shon Faye

'Nostalgic, salacious and bitingly witty.' -- Joe Lycett

'I promise you it's unlike anything you have ever read before.' -- Lucy Rose 

'The gutter and the stars; it's all in here. I couldn't put it down.' -- Annie Macmanus

'You might not have been there - but reading this is the next best thing.' -- Eliza Clark

'A richly vivid document of contemporary nightlife.' -- Oisín McKenna

'What a book. I loved every page.' -- Fat Tony

'I miss the wild London of the very naughty noughties - it's all in this book! -- Paloma Faith

'Sharp, funny, and full of heart.' -- David LaChapelle

'A beautiful technicolour picture of London, clubbing and community. I felt like I was there, at every night, in every outfit, dancing to every tune.' -- Jessie Ware

'A night out in book form...


Available Editions

EDITION Hardcover
ISBN 9780571392414
PRICE £20.00 (GBP)

Available on NetGalley

NetGalley Reader (PDF)
NetGalley Shelf App (PDF)
Send to Kindle (PDF)
Download (PDF)