Jodie Harsh will release her memoir You Had To Be There next Autumn.
A pivotal figure in London club culture, Jodie Harsh is continually at the front-line of underground developments. Between her storied guest spots the DJ is currently curating weekly night Feel It at London’s OMEARA, with guests including everyone from The Blessed Madonna and Romy to Fatboy Slim and Confidence Man.
New book You Had To Be There looks back on a formative time in her life, while also assessing a pivotal time in London clubland. Arriving in the city in 2001 – aged just 15 – Jodie Harsh went straight to a club-night at the Astoria, and never looked back.
The book is a coming-of-age tale, set against a landscape that has irretrievably changed – hotspots include The Cross, Mahiki, Boombox, and The End, amongst others.
Criss-crossing the city in the wee small hours of the night, Jodie recounts a side of London most of us don’t get a chance to inhabit. She comments…
For a decade, I barely slept. I frantically jumped from club to club in a London that is now lost but not forgotten. My decadence almost destroyed me, but thankfully I kept on dancing. I’ve finally written the book I have always wanted to read, and I can’t wait to introduce you to the characters, and the places, that made it all so wild.
You Had To Be There will be published in Autumn 2025 via Faber.
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