null Skip to main content

Book subscriptions | Free UK postage on orders over £25

You Had to Be There

An Odyssey Through Noughties London, One Night at a Time.

Format: Hardback
RRP: £20.00
£17.00
Save £3.00 (15%)

Free UK P&P on online orders over £25

Adding to basket… The item has been added
NYP

'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.

Write a Review

There are no reviews for this product yet - be the first

Authors:
Harsh, Jodie
Year Published:
2025
Country of Publication:
United Kingdom
Format:
Hardback
ISBN:
9780571392414
Number of Pages:
320
Publication Date:
25/09/2025
Publisher:
Faber & Faber
Language:
English
Place of Publication:
London
SKU:
9780571392414

Customers also bought