Trash: A Club, A Sound, A Home arrives via Faber and Faber on January 14th 2027, tracing the London Monday-night club through Alkan’s own memories and interviews with Peaches, Justice, 2manydjs, Scissor Sisters and more.
Erol Alkan is publishing Trash: A Club, A Sound, A Home, an oral history of Trash, the London club night he founded and ran every Monday from 1997 to 2007, out via Faber and Faber on January 14th 2027.
Trash was an iconic club in London that shaped the sound of a decade it ran. Run out of London and drawing lines to New York and Berlin, it built its identity on an unpredictable mix of indie, electro, post-punk, no wave and garage rock, and became a genuine breeding ground for the mid-2000s indie-dance crossover, hosting early live sets from LCD Soundsystem, Bloc Party, Hot Chip and Klaxons before any of them were big enough names on their own.
Rather than write it alone, he’s built the book around his own recollections alongside interviews with the people who were actually in the room and on the decks: Peaches, Justice, 2manydjs, Scissor Sisters, Felix Da Housecat, Tiga and Gonzales among them, in an attempt to actually explain why a club like Trash could happen at that specific moment, what it set in motion afterward, and why the conditions for something like it may never line up again.
Alkan didn’t tell anyone he was writing the book over the last two years, which he did from 5am to 8am every weekday between DJ sets at weekends.
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“When Trash closed, I vowed never to do the party again, and have stayed true to that ever since.
“These stories aren’t told in my voice alone. An oral history section contains interviews with 39 figures who were important to Trash and its development: resident DJs, some of the artists whose performances were pivotal in the course of the club, through to the staff and venue managers whose input cannot be overstated. Over 70 hours of conversation are combined with my own thoughts, experiences and memories of what contributed to the making of Trash, alongside dozens of previously unseen photographs. The resulting 100,000 words mark the most challenging creative journey I have ever been on. But it has also been the most satisfying.
I’ve spent the last two years devoted to writing. No remixes, no production, no other creative endeavour to get in its way aside from DJing on the weekends. I didn’t tell many people what I was doing simply because I had no idea if I had the capacity to finish it. I would wake up each weekday at 5am and write until real life began at 8. It was a big risk, but I felt the time was right in my life to take one.
I hope this book also shows that you don’t need much to start something. I was 22 when I started Trash, and whilst I had dreams of playing guitar in a band, the truth is I had no idea what I was going to do in life. I certainly didn’t feel a DJ career was possible as it seemed alien to a kid from Archway who had barely left his own postcode. Plus, DJs from our corner of culture weren’t seen as valid, and indie clubs didn’t hold the same value as dance clubs. But I think Trash helped change that.”
The Rough Trade exclusive edition comes signed by Alkan and bundled with an exclusive 20-track CD compiled by him, Trash: Obscured by Time, pulling together tracks remembered from the dancefloor.
Trash: A Club, A Sound, A Home is out January 14th 2027, available to pre-order now in hardback, or as a signed hardback with the exclusive CD via Rough Trade.
Niall Byrne is the founder of the most-influential Irish music site Nialler9, where he has been writing about music since 2005. He is the co-host of the Nialler9 Podcast and has written for the Irish Times, Irish Independent, Sunday Times, Totally Dublin, Cara Magazine, Red Bull and more. Niall is a DJ, co-founder of Lumo Club, event curator, Indie Sleaze club promoter, and producer of gigs and monthly listening parties & events in Dublin.
