Andy Vaughan's 'Faded Lois Dreams' is the tale of a northern footy lad residing in London on the cusp of what would become known as 'Casual.' It thankfully avoids many of the genre's cliches and instead offers an emotional and intelligent insight into the mindset of a young man trying to make his mark in the big city, a city that is described in meticulous detail; the pubs, the busses, the shops, the football grounds, the sights, the sounds, the smells of a London and a fan culture that has largely disappeared in the past three decades.
The brilliant title says it all; this is a story of sharp dressing and dreams left unfulfilled, the passing of fashions, like the passing of our shared experience is now a subject for nostalgia. In the early 80s attending the match was often an ugly and frightening experience and yet, in today's santised, super-stadia Sky TV subsidised days, somehow the good old bad old days seem like a golden era. Vaughan captures the London that we all secretly loved and wanted to experience first hand, the London of back street boozers and smokey clubs playing soul, jazz funk and reggae, the hidden realm of swanky shops providing the latest continental clothing labels that ensured, at the very least, a token blimp of approval from the only people you wanted to impress in those days; fellow lads who were 'in on it' whatever, as Vaughan confesses, 'it' was. If you knew then there was no need for words, for media coverage or cultural approval, it just was and 'Faded Lois Dreams' documents the era with a humour, humility and humanity sadly lacking in too many books on the shelves these days.
Phil Thornton
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