Trip City
Trip City is a novel set in the underground world of London nightclubs and concerns a fictional designer drug called FX. It was written by Trevor Miller and published in 1989 by Avernus Creative Media—a book imprint founded by science fiction author Brian Aldiss.[1] The novel was packaged with a soundtrack cassette tape of original music by A Guy Called Gerald.[1] Trip City was reissued by Colin Steven's Velocity Press imprint on August 15, 2021 along with the soundtrack on vinyl for the first time.[2]
Plot summary
[edit]Tom Valentine wakes up in an unfamiliar loft apartment - not sure where he is or how he got there. Despite the chic surroundings, there’s blood on his shirt, evidence of a struggle and a Luger pistol on the Persian rug... Valentine is only certain of three things: The girl that he loved has been murdered. His mind has been warped by the effects of a powerful psychotropic drug and he only has one chance to bring the shrouded, corporate killers to justice...
From the back cover of the 2021 Re-Issue
[edit]In the summer of 1989, when Trip City was first released with a five-track cassette EP by A Guy Called Gerald, there had been no other British novel like it. This was the down and dirty side of London nightclubs, dance music and the kind of hallucinogenic drug sub-culture that hadn't really been explored since Tom Wolfe's The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. Maybe this is why Trip City is still known as “the acid house novel” and an underground literary landmark.[3]
Over the decades, Trip City became shrouded in scandal and mystery. The original London book launch literally descended into a riot – shut-down by the Metropolitan Police. Everyone from the makers of Raiders Of The Lost Ark through the director of Candyman tried to adapt the book into a movie - but imploded in the process. And the galleys of the 25th-anniversary edition were destroyed in a fire before they could even be proofed or printed.
Perhaps Trip City is uniquely summed-up by the original publisher, sci-fi legend Brian Aldiss, who wrote of the novel: “In the vintage of Thomas De Quincey's Confessions Of An English Opium Eater – but smack up to date. It's about a young man's descent into hell – a hell that looks very much like London.”
References
[edit]- ^ a b "A Guy Called Gerald Reprises 'Trip City'". DJ Mag. 3 October 2014. Retrieved 20 March 2020.
- ^ "Trip City by Trevor Miller". Velocity Press. 15 February 2021.
- ^ "1989 UK acid house novel, Trip City, to be republished". DJ Mag. 31 March 2021. Retrieved 29 March 2025.
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