Make Some Space - BookWyrm

135 pages

English language

Published Jan. 4, 2019 by Sweet Machine.

(1 review)

There’s an Edwardian confectionery factory in Hackney which doubles up as a time machine. 'Make Some Space' invites us through the front door of London's Total Refreshment Centre to meet a revolving cast of characters who created an accidental incubator of London’s new jazz renaissance.

The book combines Johnny Rotten’s politics teacher, new London jazz icons Shabaka Hutchings, Nubya Garcia and members of Ezra Collective, alongside Bob Marley, The Comet Is Coming, the Thompson Twins’ delay pedal, Wiley, and the 1912 Hackney mayor.

Emma Warren invites us to remember the venues and community centres that generated culture, and asks us to protect the few that remain.

1 edition

Adam reviewed Make Some Space by Emma Warren

A loving document of the DIY spirit of a fertile East London music space

4 stars

I always found Emma Warren to be a deeply knowledgeable interviewer of musicians, so I was interested in this effort of hers to document the years that Total Refreshment Centre was in existence. More of a jazz-focused space, and maybe a little more commercially focused than the DIY spaces I'm used to, but the tales of making stuff happen on a shoestring, the mixing and mingling and creating of a scene, as well as the eventual burnout of its main organizers, rang true.

While Warren's affection for the building and its happenings and community was clear, it didn't cloud the many facets of its story, told through interviews with a huge number of people connected with the space. The interviewees provided their viewpoints around the building's history, events, organisation and impact on the local community. There were equal parts frankness, criticism and praise from a wide variety of people. I …

I always found Emma Warren to be a deeply knowledgeable interviewer of musicians, so I was interested in this effort of hers to document the years that Total Refreshment Centre was in existence. More of a jazz-focused space, and maybe a little more commercially focused than the DIY spaces I'm used to, but the tales of making stuff happen on a shoestring, the mixing and mingling and creating of a scene, as well as the eventual burnout of its main organizers, rang true.

While Warren's affection for the building and its happenings and community was clear, it didn't cloud the many facets of its story, told through interviews with a huge number of people connected with the space. The interviewees provided their viewpoints around the building's history, events, organisation and impact on the local community. There were equal parts frankness, criticism and praise from a wide variety of people. I appreciate that at least one interviewee acknowledged that these spaces are usually the vanguard of gentrification, while others acknowledged the nitty gritty of dealing with neighbours and noise complaints.

In the true DIY spirit, in the final chapter of the self-published book, Warren explains how she put the book together so that others documenting their own scenes, venues or events may learn from her experience.