Born in Manchester, England, Frank Owen received an American studies degree from Keele University, and later went on to earn his MA at the Birmingham Centre of Cultural Studies. He trained as a radio journalist at the BBC. In the 1980s he moved from London to New York to become the music editor at Spin magazine. His work has also appeared in Details, Arena, Elle, LA Weekly, and US. He’s the author of Clubland: The Fabulous Rise and Murderous Fall of Club Culture and No Speed Limit: The Highs and Lows of Meth. He lives in Florida.
Like a line of coke begs for another bump (or so we've been told),
Clubland is a compulsive page-turner.” —Miami Herald
“Clubland satisfies by meting out the justice that many ‘90s party
kids never got to see—or perhaps never wanted to. Clubland sees
through the smoke, mirrors, and Ketamine.” —The Village Voice
“Positively riveting . . . to be enjoyed even by those who’ve never
stepped foot anywhere more stimulating than a Howard Johnson’s.”
—San Francisco Chronicle
To anyone who's ever wondered what went on in the 1990s' most notorious nightclubs, Village Voice reporter Owen has a highly engaging answer. He weaves together three strands of masterful reporting, focusing on Peter Gatien, the nightclub impresario who owned Limelight and the Tunnel in Manhattan; Chris Paciello, the gangster who started Miami Beach's Liquid; and "club kid king" Michael Alig, the party promoter and Gatien employee who murdered his friend Angel Melendez. Alig's drug-addled story is the most grotesque and chilling: a few weeks before he hacked off the legs of his dead friend, he had thrown a "Blood Feast" party in which some guests "came covered in raw liver and slabs of beef." The author has apparently settled down now; "life is too precious to waste spending your time lurking around VIP rooms and getting high." At one time, though, he was a true believer in clubs and raves "as perfect but temporary democracies of desire," and is saddened by the crime that came to surround them. He has a distinctive writing style, recklessly mixing metaphors-one woman is "the proverbial tough cookie laced with arsenic straight from the pages of a hard-boiled novel"-and packing his chapters with noirish "wise guys" and "feds." It's a treat for fans of true crime, but armchair party animals will also appreciate the lengths to which this reporter goes-the book opens with Owen seeking, buying and tripping on the drug ketamine. Agent, Todd Shuster. (May) Forecast: This book will appeal to fans of mobster lore, celebrity DJs and drug culture. Both James St. James's 1999 book Disco Bloodbath and this year's film Party Monster, starring Macauley Culkin, treat Michael Alig, the character who takes up about a third of Clubland. Neither were mega-hits, but the story has a solid niche audience. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
Like a line of coke begs for another bump (or so we've been told),
Clubland is a compulsive page-turner." -Miami
Herald
"Clubland satisfies by meting out the justice that many '90s
party kids never got to see-or perhaps never wanted to.
Clubland sees through the smoke, mirrors, and Ketamine."
-The Village Voice
"Positively riveting . . . to be enjoyed even by those who've never
stepped foot anywhere more stimulating than a Howard Johnson's."
-San Francisco Chronicle
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