New Book - We Were There: How Black culture, resistance and community... by Lanre Bakare  

We Were There: How Black culture, resistance and community shaped modern Britain by Lanre Bakare (Author)  

Out today (17 April 2025) via Kindle, Hardback and Audible formats

Site note 

Check out the Kindle preview (at end) or the Audible preview (below) which details the author's experience while viewing Tony Palmers 'This England' 1977 Granda Tv Northern Soul documentary which is explored further in the first chapter 'Chapter 1: Northern Souls – 1977'

Audible Preview

Tap here to listen to Audible Preview (5 min)

Release notes

We Were There is about a Black Britain that for too long has been unknown and unexplored – the one that exists beyond London.

'A vital corrective that enhances our understanding of black British history' STEVE MCQUEEN
'Utterly brilliant' DIPO FALOYIN
'Captivated me from the first page' PRAGYA AGARWAL
'Essential reading' EKOW ESHUN

From the late 1970s to the early 1990s Britain was in tumult: rocked by Margaret Thatcher’s radical economic policy, the rise of the National Front, widespread civil unrest. With anti-immigration policies in the political mainstream, Black lives were on the frontline of a racial reckoning. But it was also a time of unrivalled Black cultural creation, organising and resistance. This was the crucible in which modern Britain came into existence.

We Were There brings into the spotlight for the first time extraordinary Black lives in once-rich cities now home to failing industries: the foundries of Birmingham, the docks of Liverpool and Cardiff, the mills of Bradford. We are in Wigan, Wolverhampton, Manchester and the green expanse of the British countryside. We meet feminists and Rastafarians, academics and pan-Africanists, environmental campaigners and rugby-league superstars; witness landmark campaigns against miscarriages of justice; encounter radical groups of artists and pioneering thinkers; tread dancefloors that hosted Northern Soul all-nighters and the birth of Acid House.

Together, these voices and stories rewrite our idea of Black British culture. London was only ever part of the picture – We Were There is about incorporating a vastly broader range of Black Britons into the fabric of our national story.

Alive with energy and purpose, We Were There decisively expands our sense of who we are. Confronting, joyful and thrilling, this is a profoundly important new portrait of modern Britain.

Kindle Link

https://amzn.to/4ims0t0

Hardcover Link

https://amzn.to/3GbAkOJ

Guardian Review

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/apr/16/we-were-there-by-lanre-bakare-review-reimagining-black-britain

Contents

About the Author

Introduction
1. Northern Souls - 1977
2. Free George Lindo Bradford, 1978
3. Jah Warriors - Birmingham, 1979
4. The Ghost of William Huskisson - Liverpool, 1081
5. Black Art an'done Wolverhampton. 1982
6. The Black Door - Manchester, 1086
7. The Last Fort-1087
8. The Myth and The Bay. Cardiff-1988
9. The English Disease. Edinburgh-1989
10. People of the Future 1990
We Were There: Coda
End Notes
Acknowledgements
Credits