Monoray bags ‘ultimate mod memoir’ by Acid Jazz’s Eddie Piller 

Monoray, part of the Octopus Publishing Group, has signed Clean Living Under Difficult Circumstances: A Life in Mod by Eddie Piller, with a foreword by Paul Weller.

Jake Lingwood, publisher, acquired world rights directly from the author and it will publish on 6th April 2023.

Described as “the ultimate memoir about ’70s and ’80s mod youth culture from the best known ‘face’ on the scene in the UK,” the book charts a journey of discovery for the young Piller, a schoolboy dabbling with punk, funk, record shops, discos and clothes.

“And then… WHAAAM!” the synopsis goes on. “Eddie’s life is changed forever as he and an unstoppable wave of like-minded kids fall headlong in love with ’60s mod culture, revived and reformatted for the ’70s and ’80s generation.

“Eddie takes us evocatively into a world of scooters, clothes and music. We run with the crowd to decaying seaside towns, East End backstreet boozers and sweaty teenage gigs, all fizzing with an uncontainable excitement and often exploding into violence.

“Written with humour, passion and attention to detail, Clean Living Under Difficult Circumstances sees Eddie meeting the Small Faces as a toddler, experiencing the 1979 mod revival, growing up through the more purist 1980s mod scene, and eventually setting up the Acid Jazz Record label which recently celebrated its 35th birthday and remains one of the most successful indie labels of a generation, giving rise to bands including Jamiroquai and James Taylor Quartet.”

In recent years Piller has seen success with the jazz and soul compilation series “Martin Freeman & Eddie Piller Present…” with the award-winning actor.

A fourth album will be released this year. He is also behind the BBC albums “Eddie Piller presents...” and he has also presented on radio stations such as Jazz FM, BBC Radio London, BBC Radio 6 Music and Kiss FM. In 2019 he founded specialist internet radio station, Totally Wired Radio (TWR), and also has a regular “Modcast” show where he interviews a diverse range of guests who have the mod subculture as a huge influence on their lives. 

Piller has recently written two books for Omnibus on the subject of fanzines, and has written nine documentaries for Sky, ITV and the BBC as well as two radio documentaries. He has been the headline DJ at Glastonbury and Bestival, and Paul Weller’s tour DJ.

Lingwood said of the announcement: “Eddie and I have been talking about getting his memoirs down on paper for years. He is a natural born storyteller and knows how important the chronicles of these years are to millions of people whose lives have been influenced by mod – a culture which has so often been misunderstood by the mainstream. The resulting book is a heady mix of nostalgia, thrills and a classic coming-of-age story. I think it will be one of the music-related books of the year.”

Piller said: “It’s funny but every time I mention that I have my memoirs coming out, people think it must be about Acid Jazz. This is much more exciting. It’s about real life...”