Legendary DJ Paul Oakenfold announces memoir, ‘Ready Steady Go’
The book will chronicle the producer's rise to fame in the DJ world
By Joe Goggins
Legendary DJ and producer Paul Oakenfold has announced details of his memoir, entitled ‘Ready Steady Go: My Unstoppable Journey in Dance’.
The book, set to be published via Welbeck on August 18, will chronicle Oakenfold’s life in music, from his formative experiences at club nights in New York and London in the 1980s and a life-changing trip to Ibiza in 1987 through to his meteoric rise on the trance scene in the 1990s. The memoir will also take an in-depth look at how his lifelong dyslexia has informed his creative choices.
“In a career like mine, you don’t get many chances to stop and reflect on what you’ve achieved,” said Oakenfold of ‘Ready Steady Go’. “Writing this book has given me the opportunity to reminisce on the many wild moments in my career from DJing at Stonehenge and the base camp of Mount Everest to working with legends like Madonna, U2 and many more to running my own record label.”
“It’s also made me think more about the crucial personal moments in my life, that had more of an impact on me than I first thought like growing up with dyslexia. That’s something that set me on a creative path that I owe a lot of my career to. I feel privileged to share my life stories with you and there’s many more already in the making for the next memoir!”
Oakenfold continues to record and produce; his latest record, ‘Shine On’, was released this past January. Last year, a documentary, ‘SoundTrek: A Music Journey to Mount Everest’, chronicled his 2017 trip to Mount Everest’s base camp where he played a set believed to have constituted the “highest concert on earth” at 18,000 feet above sea level.
‘Ready Steady Go’ is one of a slew of new literary works from musicians expected in 2022. Bob Dylan has announced plans for his first book of entirely new writing in nearly 20 years, which he’ll release in November; ‘The Philosophy of Modern Song’ will be a book of essays in which the legendary folk troubadour dissects the art of songwriting. Meanwhile, a first book from enigmatic super-producer Rick Rubin is also slated for release this year.