Reviews
'Icon. Trailblazer. Activist. Warrior. DJ Paulette has led the way for Black women and women everywhere in a global music industry riddled with racism and misogyny. She has blown apart the myths. This is a magnificent book. A manifesto for our times and a rallying call for the future.'Maxine Peake, 'Icon. Trailblazer. Activist. Warrior. DJ Paulette has led the way for Black women and women everywhere in a global music industry riddled with racism and misogyny. She has blown apart the myths. This is a magnificent book. A manifesto for our times and a rallying call for the future.' Maxine Peake 'Paulette continues to light the way for others, building in relevance and significance, wowing crowds, annihilating dancefloors. I would recommend Welcome to the club as an essential read for anyone and everyone. I thoroughly enjoyed it.' Craig Charles 'I now realise the weight of the obstacles and challenges Paulette overcame, her fortitude to compete in male-dominated arenas, the racism she undoubtedly encountered. Her mettle and contribution have clearly opened doors for the diversity and equality we strive for today.' Simon Dunmore 'With fierce resilience and passion, DJ Paulette's travels through clubland reveal her personal triumphs over life's adversities. A book filled with music and love, positivity and enthusiasm. ' Princess Julia, 'Imagine the DJ is taking notes while everyone in the club is dancing. Welcome to the club is exactly that, notes of a DJ - the irrepressible sunlight of DJ Paulette. A fascinating insight into the music business by a northern Black woman.' Lemn Sissay 'Icon. Trailblazer. Activist. Warrior. DJ Paulette has led the way for Black women and women everywhere in a global music industry riddled with racism and misogyny. She has blown apart the myths. This is a magnificent book. A manifesto for our times and a rallying call for the future.' Maxine Peake 'Paulette continues to light the way for others, building in relevance and significance, wowing crowds, annihilating dancefloors. I would recommend Welcome to the club as an essential read for anyone and everyone. I thoroughly enjoyed it.' Craig Charles 'Any list of the pioneers of the Manchester club scene, and the international scene it so heavily influenced, is not complete if it does not contain the name of DJ Paulette. Ours is a city which celebrates those who challenge elites, break down barriers and open doors for others to walk through. Paulette has done all of those things and more and that is why we are so proud of her.' Andy Burnham 'Paulette is someone I've always respected, admired and been inspired by. This book is beautifully written, incisive, dry, witty and real - true Mancunian honesty. What an adventure and a truly fascinating life.' Rowetta 'When I first met Paulette, as a DJ back in that pivotal space of early 1990s Manchester, I don't think any of us really understood what we were getting out of nightlife beyond raw enjoyment. Now we have had a chance to reevaluate those codes, to understand how much they meant in forming us as people. This book explains so much about why nightlife matters, beamed in directly from a vanguard position behind the DJ booth. It unravels all of our exuberance. Paulette understands the philosophy of the nightclub, because she was always there when it was at its very best.' Paul Flynn 'I arrived in 1990s Manchester, found a place to live, a job then got dragged up, went clubbing and there was DJ Paulette on the decks. That night she became my barely clothed club-kid kindred spirit. She made being an outsider look hot, and I wanted in. Her energy and music were the soundtrack to my queer gender bending dance floor years. Decades on I still want to be in her club. If music and clubbing played an important part in your life, then so will this book.' Kate O'Donnell 'I now realise the weight of the obstacles and challenges Paulette overcame, her fortitude to compete in male-dominated arenas, the racism she undoubtedly encountered. Her mettle and contribution have clearly opened doors for the diversity and equality we strive for today.' Simon Dunmore 'With fierce resilience and passion, DJ Paulette's travels through clubland reveal her personal triumphs over life's adversities. A book filled with music and love, positivity and enthusiasm. ' Princess Julia 'Paulette is a pioneer, a ground-breaker, a trailblazer and never afraid to hold a mirror up to the world to show that there is still so much more to do. A self-assured shimmy of a book that instantly transports you to the dancefloor and beyond. I love it!' Arielle Free 'A refreshingly honest and positive queer voice. DJ Paulette's memoirs are everything that club culture needs at the moment: Written with warmth and passion, this book continues the trend of female professionals telling their stories - the good and the bad ones - so that we learn how clubs can once again become the places of Peace, Love, Unity and Respect.' Dr Beate Peter, The Lapsed Clubber Project, 'Icon. Trailblazer. Activist. Warrior. DJ Paulette has led the way for Black women and women everywhere in a global music industry riddled with racism and misogyny. She has blown apart the myths. This is a magnificent book. A manifesto for our times and a rallying call for the future.' Maxine Peake
Synopsis
Hacienda resident and Manchester legend DJ Paulette celebrates the highs, lows and lessons of a 30-year career at the forefront of UK dance music as a ground-breaking Black female DJ., Featuring a foreword from Annie Mac In Welcome to the club, Manchester legend DJ Paulette shares the highs, lows and lessons of a thirty-year music career, with help from some famous friends. One of the Haçienda's first female DJs, Paulette has scaled the heights of the music industry, playing to crowds of thousands all around the world, and descended to the lows of being unceremoniously benched by COVID-19, with no chance of furlough and little support from the government. Here she tells her story, offering a remarkable view of the music industry from a Black woman's perspective. Behind the core values of peace, love, unity and respect, dance music is a world of exclusion, misogyny, racism and classism. But, as Paulette reveals, it is also a space bursting at the seams with powerful women. Part personal account, part call to arms, Welcome to the club exposes the exclusivity of the music industry while seeking to do justice to the often invisible women who keep the beat going.
