Review by Annabel
Myers is one of those British authors who writes something totally different every time he puts pen to paper, with the exception that almost all of his novels are set in Northern England. His previous title was the Goldsmiths Prize-winning epic chunkster Cuddy, retelling the life of the unofficial 7th-century patron saint of the North of England, St Cuthbert, which sits closest to his 2017 prize-winning novel The Gallows Pole with its historical setting. Then there are his more contemporary novels, such as Beastings (reviewed by Kim here), and a book of non-fiction Under the Rock (reviewed by Rebecca here).
Rare Singles is a contemporary Northern novel with a rock ‘n’ roll heart, so I was bound to love it. However, to be specific, we are talking a particular kind of popular music here, the phenomenon that is Northern Soul. Mod-influenced, and prominent in the late 1960s and 1970s, especially in clubs in the Midlands and North, Northern Soul favoured rhythm and soul records from minor labels over major hits, they typically had a fast beat, allowing for an athletic style of dancing. Devotees dressed for it and obsessed over collecting rare soul records. It may have peaked in the mid-to-late 1970s, but lives on still with continued interest in the music and weekenders allowing devotees and performers new and old to participate. This is the world of Rare Singles.
We begin though, in Chicago, where Earlon ‘Bucky’ Bronco is at the pharmacy collecting his meds. He’s getting older and everything hurts, so only the opiates can take the edge off for long enough for him to get things done. He’s struggling to make ends meet, and more so since he lost his wife.
When he was a young man, he wrote and recorded a handful of songs, one of which, plus its B-side, was released finding minor success, but a spell in detention put paid to any hope of a building that into a career. So Bucky found jobs doing whatever, met Maybell, and the two lived a good life if never flush with cash, until she died a year ago. Imagine his surprise when an invitation to fly over to the UKr to perform his hit at a Northern Soul Weekender in Scarborough arrives. They’ll pay his plane tickets, bed and board and a couple of grand performance fee for the guy who wrote ‘Until the Wheels Fall Off’. Bucky Bronco will be the star of the show.
One of the organisers of the Weekender is Dinah. Unhappily married to a slob of a husband and uninterested son, she lives for the Northern Soul nights, immersing herself in another world. She meets Bucky at Leeds/Bradford airport.
A woman stood to one side, nervously scanning the slow trickle of yawning businessmen, solo flyers and parents carrying pyjama-clad children floppy with fatigue. She was carefully holding a piece of paper in front of her with both hands, on which was written: EARLON ‘BUCKY’ BRONCO: KING OF SOUL. She spotted him first. She saw a big old man with a limp that he disguised as an easy-going rolling shamble, and mournful eyes. His tall frame was holding too much weight, most of which was gathered around his midriff. Yet still there was an air of dignity in the way in which he carried himself. Regal, almost. Bucky’s dry eyes fell upon the sign, then her. She smiled.
Soon he’s installed in the rather run-down Majestic Hotel on Scarborough’s seafront. The lift isn’t working, the windows won’t open, the bed-springs are dodgy, and a seagull is nesting outside the window, but he can see the grey expanse of the North Sea. Now, he needs a nap as jet lag is making itself felt, as is his arthritis: this is the moment he realises he’s left his bag of pills on the plane; withdrawal beckons.
Bucky has struck lucky in being found by Dinah though, and as the weekend progresses they will become solid friends, and he will help her formulate her own future as much as she his. Bucky is also lucky to find another friend in Shabana, the Afghani hotel cleaner, studying to become a civil engineer in her spare time. As the weekend progresses, Bucky will have many adventures as he goes out in search of booze to dull the pain and bumps into people, some nice, others not so. Will he survive to make it to the performance on the Sunday night is the question? With Dinah and Shabana on his side, surely he will; however, his grief, a year on exactly from losing Maybell to cancer, is threatening to overpower him.
Alongside the drama of this human story, Myers gives us some acute observations on the state of the nation, the shabbiness of how refugees like Shabana are treated, the disaffected, like Dinah’s husband and son, but Dinah and Shabana both have hope and alongside the sympathy and affection generated for Bucky, you can’t help but be uplifted by their journeys, (Oops! Used the ‘j’ word.) And there is also the power of nature always, like the seagull, making itself felt. Myers writes some fantastic descriptions of the sea.
The sea that night was riotous, a primal roar of tidal power. It moiled and boomed and bared its teeth. […]
[…] the waves grew ever taller, ever bolder, before collapsing into weeping heaps that disturbed 200 million tiny pebbles and flung them at the barren beach with spite. It was erosion and resculpturing at a granular level.
Although I’ve meant to read Myers for ages – I have several titles on my shelves – Rare Singles was my first encounter with this author. What a good place to start. With lovable fully realised main characters in Bucky and Dinah, and an irresistible setting, this is a heart-warming and feel-good novel that you can dive into and enjoy thoroughly from start to finish. Highly recommended.
Annabel is a co-founder of Shiny and one of its editors.
Benjamin Myers, Rare Singles (Bloomsbury Circus, 2024). 978-1526671905, 209pp. hardback.
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This was my first Myers, too, and I loved it as much as you did. I’m going for The Perfect Golden Circle next, I think.
I have that one too, plus The Gallows Pole on my shelves.