Joel Lane – From Blue To Black (2000, reissued 2022)

“He kissed me fiercely. ‘This place is getting torn apart,’ he said. ‘Tower blocks, expressways. Building over the past. I’m glad. I used to stand here and think nothing could ever change. That’s why music is so vital to me. It’s a way of not being alone. Sending messages. Without that, we’re all trapped in the dark, none of it means anything. You know?’ I gripped his hand.”

“Stress can heighten your enjoyment of things – film and music in particular. You watch and listen more closely, not sure how much is really there and how much is in your imagination. That moment of going over is as close to the truth as you’ll ever get. Whatever comes after.”

Joel Lane was one of Britain’s key Weird Fiction writers until his untimely death in 2013. His reputation has only grown in stature since then, but because much of his work was published in small presses or has fallen out of print it has been frustratingly difficult to track down. Influx Press have begun bringing his work back into print, which is both a great service and incredibly timely. From Blue To Black (2000) is Lane’s debut novel, and its themes of social alienation, urban decay, class divisions, poverty, and the undercurrents of fascism in British culture have only become more relevant since then. Set in the early 1990s in Birmingham’s indie music scene, the novel recounts the rise and fall of fictional cult post-punk band Triangle, through the eyes of their bass player David and his tempestuous relationship with doomed lead singer Karl. While Lane remains better known for his short stories than his novels, From Blue To Black serves as a reminder of his skill at long-form fiction and demands to be reassessed as something of a lost classic. 

David Pelsall is the ex-bassist of defunct blues band Blue Away. In between bands and just emerged from an abusive relationship, he goes to see Triangle play in a small bar after the release of their first single but shortly before the departure of their original bassist. David is struck by the intensity and charisma of the band’s Irish lead singer and guitarist, Karl Austin, and agrees to replace their old bassist, becoming swept up in a passionate relationship with Karl at the same time. Karl, David and Ian Priest, Triangle’s drummer, rehearse their music, record their debut album and go on tour. Triangle’s powerful and striking music coupled with Karl’s unique lyrical perspective proves popular on the indie scene, but Karl is becoming increasingly detached from reality, more and more dependent on the booze, sex and drugs to keep him going. As David struggles to communicate with the man he loves and Triangle’s reputation increases, Karl starts to come apart at the seams.

 From this description one might assume that From Blue To Black doesn’t have any Weird or fantastical elements, and it’s true that the Weird inhabits Lane’s novel obliquely. However, it is most definitely present, even if only as a presence. Lane’s descriptions of Birmingham and the Black Country crackle with an otherworldly intensity. His images of urban decay revel in the uncanny. For Lane, the landscape is always haunted by its past, the disused factories by the collapsed industries that left them behind, the rotting estates by the people abandoned to poverty by the Tory government. In this atmosphere, the presences David feels in the shadows may be more substantial than the weird disorientation caused by the rock star diet of drink, drugs, adrenaline and lack of sleep. Music, the artistic medium of Karl’s choice and the only way he really knows how to communicate, has a long history of association with the occult precisely because it is an art that can be heard and felt but never seen, the sound waves permanently spectral. And perhaps Karl’s demons, the voices in his head, are from outside rather than reflections of Karl’s traumas. Lane revels in the ambiguity, keeping the reader unsure either way and subtly undermining expectations when one has decided. In the end, whether or not Karl’s demons are real is immaterial; the wages in trauma, misery and death are the same.

The famous maxim has it that writing about music is like dancing about architecture. One of the reasons that From Blue To Black succeeds is because Lane is very good at writing about music. The novel is infused with Lane’s love for and knowledge of the late 80s/early 90s UK indie music scene, and this passion and attention to detail means that he is able to ground the imaginary Triangle so well in that particular milieu that they feel like a real band that you just haven’t heard of. Triangle’s rise contrasted with their charismatic but troubled frontman’s collapse echoes the real-life drama of Joy Division’s Ian Curtis and the Manic Street Preacher’s Richey Edwards, and both bands are namechecked as references for Triangle’s sound. Each chapter starts with an epigraph quoting from either Triangle’s lyrics or those of their sonic and spiritual contemporaries, such as Felt, the Jesus and Mary Chain, and Kitchens Of Distinction. Indie group Kitchens Of Distinction, whose frontman Patrick Fitzgerald like Karl is openly gay and wrote and sang about gay issues in his lyrics, are a constant reference point throughout the book. Similar detail goes into Karl, David and Ian’s record collections, showing us their influences in a cultural context that rings true to the time and place. Lane has a way of describing not the mechanics of music but the way individual elements, a propulsive bassline, a jagged guitar riff, rapid drum patterns, combine and interact in an artful way to create a complete piece of music and work of art. He also beautifully captures the intensity and chaos of live performance, the routines and rigours of life on the road, the interpersonal tensions that shape and warp collaborative creative endeavours. The end result is that Triangle feel like a real entity, both composed of real people with real lives and passions, and part of a specific time and place in popular music.

From Blue To Black is not a didactic book, yet Lane’s socialist politics form the novel’s beating heart. The novel looks back to the early 90s and unflinchingly portrays a Britain rife with social alienation. The novel’s characters live in a world of collapsing tenements and council houses, in which the gap between the haves and the have-nots is marked and uncrossable thanks to years of Thatcher’s rule. Lane describes the feeling of desperation and defeat felt by anyone who was not part of the privileged class, one that resonates strongly today:

“I thought about the election. How feminists, like socialists, were living in a space narrowed by defeat. Most of them tried to hold on and wait for a chance to do more than believe. But others would rather choke than breathe tainted air. So they fought everything around them, accepting pain as evidence of the struggle. The moment of crisis froze into a way of life.”

This desperation is partly shaped by the casual prejudice of the mainstream culture, something that David feels strongly as a gay man, and Karl feels being Irish in England. Lane shows how the combination of alienation and hatred is fermenting into something deeply unpleasant, a nasty local strain of fascism marked by the likes of Enoch Powell that is in danger of overflowing at any moment. In this way, Lane’s novel anticipates the rise of the far right and the damage it has wrought in the UK. 

From Blue To Black is an intense and harrowing read, powerful as an evocation of Britain’s urban decay and a fantastic character piece. The novel’s fierce political engagement makes it a timely read today, even as it powerfully evokes the time and feel of a decade receding further and further into the past. Like Triangle’s music, the novel sinks its hooks into the reader, insistent on its powerful and disturbing vision. And like the music of Triangle would-be contemporaries Felt and Kitchens Of Distinction, From Blue To Black is ripe for rediscovery by a new generation.  

Available now from Influx Press