The Sewerside Chronicles – Debut Novel from Tim Lay
“It’s better to live your dream and fail, than not to try and do it at all…”
The Sewerside Chronicles is the rave-inspired first novel by 37-year-old UK author Tim Lay. National Literary Prize winner in the Undiscovered Authors competition for 1997, the book has received early plaudits from drum n bass legend Goldie (“Painfully funny… an absolute scorcher”) as well as other British sub culture bods – and for good reason.
Sewerside Chronicles tells the story of piss-taking, straight-talking 26-year-old Che Capri, who swaps in his advertising career in New York to run a clothing label with his best friend Travis in their sleepy Devon seaside hometown. The only problem is they don’t know what they’re doing.
Four years in and it’s circa 2000: the boys’ luck begins to wane and so does the cash flow. That’s when Che and Travis turn to their party crew for support. Take a 30k rig, a skate ramp and a posse of drug-addled djs, mouthy MCs, freewheeling skateboarders and an old party hand called Pig, and the Che and the crew are set to pull out all the stops, consequences be damned.
The novel rips through the anti-establishment, anti-corporate English landscape, with writing that rings true: dodging dole drones, fence-hopping at Glastonbury, sabotaging London fashion shows, getting the nick at the London G8 demonstration and a chance meeting with Dennis ‘The Menace’ aka Banksy.
Sewerside Chronicles is honest, raw and funny as hell, but doesn’t take any sucker punches. Minor players are character assassination victims, from the Sloaney fashionista Fiona to the event organiser wannabe Robert Rustcombe, who the crew have the unfortunate experience of working with at Glastonbury.
As for the 20 people and four vehicle passes I’d been promised by Robert Rustcombe, they still hadn’t arrived. The kid was already annoying me and I hadn’t even met him. He’d told me he’d never done anything like this before and it showed. All the information he’d provided so far has been useless.
A typical example was an envelope he’d sent containing photocopies of a hand drawn map marked with different coloured pens declaring, ‘We are here!!!’ ‘Creative Collective Café’ (subheading: ie ‘Robert’s mum!!!’). The whole thing smacked of a Famous Five adventure and already he’d been re-christened ‘Nobit’.
I gave him a call and left another message. ‘Robert, it’s Che. Still waiting for the passes. If they’re not here by tomorrow, you’ll be having a lonely Glastonbury.’
Even Banksy’s cameos are brutally delivered without falling into the temptation to glorify the now-famed artist.
‘You’re talking shit,’ shot the Menace. ‘That’s idealist bullshit. ‘The system,’ he said affecting the nasal tone of the BBC presenter, ‘and how I’m going to change it by a bloke who makes T-shirts in Devon.’
‘A bit harsh,’ I said, beginning to regret I’d even started the conversation. I knew what I meant, but even I had to admit it sounded naïve when thrown back at me like that.
‘Nobody gives a shit about what you, I or anyone else has to say because you’re not the president of the world bank or Mr Coca Cola, or even a fucking Spice Girl,’ snapped Menace. ‘So you can talk all you like about how bad the system is but nothing will ever change. You can’t disinvent money. And you can’t do the same with greed. It’s what makes us human. You have to accept the world for the confidence trick it really is.’
‘And?’
‘Once you’ve accepted that, you realise that the only thing you can do is make life difficult for those fuckers. That’s why fighting coppers in the streets might not change anything but it rattles the cage and pisses a lot of people off. Scare the fuck out of them, that’s what I say. Maybe then they’ll take notice.’
Still wondering what raves and skate ramps have to do with fashion and the anti-capitalist brigade? Maybe you need to read this book.
The Sewerside Chronicles is on sale now at Amazon, Waterstones, Blackwells, and WH Smith. You can also buy it direct from the SC website £9.99 UK, £11 mainland Europe and £13 worldwide (including postage).
If you’re on the south coast, come to the book launch on Friday 7th November at The Globe, Middle Street, Brighton from 8pm onwards.
Tim Lay, who hails from Devon, has spent his life being a jack-of-all-trades, working as a teacher, builder, journalist, event organiser (raves), ad man, and card game inventor. His journalism has been featured in The Big Issue, Black Book and Lodown magazine, and his short stories have been published in Queenspark Book anthologies.
Although Tim has divided his time between Devon, Brighton and Spain, he now lives in Brighton with his partner and their two kids.
I had a chance to talk briefly with Tim and find out a little bit more about his inspiration for the book and ask the question on everyone’s mind: was The Menace actually Banksy?
Amy: “So, Tim – Bansky or not?”
Tim: “Everyone asks me about this. The Menace is ‘inspired’ by the character and the urban myth that grew around his character, before he went all arts world. And yes, I’ve met him. Back then he was just another face on the scene so our paths used to cross at times.”
Amy: “I know you’ve had a pretty unconventional life. Is this book based on your real life experiences?”
Tim: “Well yeah – of course there are autobiographical elements of the book. At the end of the Nineties I was hanging out with a crew who put on some crazy parties/raves down in the southwest of England. The ‘Liddleton’ location is a mix of seaside towns I know from Devon and Cornwall, a shade of Brighton, and a pinch of small town living in general. Take away the coastal setting and England is full of Liddletons, together with their small town characters, folklores and local ‘legends’. I’ve also had experience over the years of being involved in various creative projects – making clothes, promoting music events – and writing about them as a journalist, so I was able to tap into that knowledge.”
Amy: “And what prompted you to tell this particular story?”
Tim: “I wanted to write a book that captured the spirit of a generation influenced by the values of punk and rave cultural values. There was a great DIY ethos that ran through youth culture in the UK between the late 70s and late 90s. As a result there was a vibrant creativity, and this whole ‘independent’ culture existed (whether that be music, clothes or sport ie skateboarding) outside the mainstream.
The Sewerside Chronicles aims to humorously capture that idealism – doing something that you believe in as opposed to doing something to make money, which I think motivates most people in creative based industries (ie the desire to do something different and stamp your mark).
It’s also an insight into the dynamics of creative industry and trying to reconcile that creativity in a business environment complete with all the trials and tribulations that go with it. For example, I knew many people with small businesses trying to ‘create’ something, and most of them were living hand to mouth despite the plaudits rained on them by the style magazines and media.
I’d read books that had depicted street/underground culture, but they always seemed to be set in big cities and written from an urban angle. However, most small towns have their own pockets of underground culture and I wanted to reflect that. In small towns the unexpected always happens because nothing is expected.
I also wanted to write about what was happening around the turn of the century. I was aware of a cultural shift – there was this feeling that corporations were clamoring to ‘brand’ underground culture to make their products ‘cool’, and in the process were just blanding down that culture. This was reflected in the anti-globalisation movement at the time too.”
Amy: “Okay, cool. So tell me about the artist Mau Mau who provided the artwork for the novel -an old friend of yours, right?”
Tim: “Yeah, totally. He was an integral part of the Sewerside image. His artwork blended political and social commentary into his graffiti work. It was his artwork that provided the gel for the crossover between art, music, skateboarding and fashion and really gave Sewerside a strong identity. Consequently, it was great to have Mau Mau contribute the artwork for The Sewerside Chronicles – kind of maintains the blend between fact and fiction too!”
Amy: “I hear ya. So what’s next? What are you working on now?”
Tim: “The follow up to The Sewerside Chronicles is Rats With Wings. Set against the background of the campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, it charts the paths of four characters that cross over one summer’s night in Brighton and explores themes that run through the underbelly of society. I am currently writing on Burn the Village and Leave, which is set in Spain and will serve as a loose third part of the trilogy, featuring characters and continuing themes from the other two.”
Amy: “That sounds cool – look foward to reading that for sure. Last question – any memorable tunes from that time?”
Tim: “Ronnie Size – Brown Paper Bag. Skitz/Roots Manuva- Where my Mind is At. Goldie- Inner City Life. Gangstarr – Full Clip. And of course Andy C.”
Mau Mau Biography
With roots planted in the surf and country vibes of the North Devon coast, Mau Mau brings an air of rural sophistication to the art he has been knocking out for over a decade. He has painted his way around the world, with artwork appearing on everything from shipwrecks to surfboards to billboards to city walls, in locations as far flung as Jamaica, Australia, Egypt and Thailand.
Closer to home, Mau Mau has chalked up a reputation through the environmental and politically astute threads that have consistently run through his artwork; Bitterly topical with a tongue-in-cheek sweetener. Mau Mau’s prolific body of work away from canvas and wall spaces provides testament to his strength in depth.
On the domestic front, his Sewerside clothing line and T-shirt designs spawned a cult following in the Nineties, as did games offshoot, Fear Trade. Subsequent work for Surfers Against Sewage, Greenpeace and THTC cemented his reputation for meshing art with social and environmental commentary.
Meanwhile, disc sleeve/logo artwork and music video animation for the likes of Dizzee Rascal, Roots Manuva, Herbaliser, Skitz, Rodney P and Estelle has brought international recognition for his talents as a graphic designer.
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