It was a pretty ambitious undertaking - to tell the whole history of dance music in a single book, but the results speak for themselves.
"Last Night A DJ Saved My Life", Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton's lovingly researched and thoroughly entertaining chronicle of the DJs rise, became an instant classic - and required reading for anyone even remotely interested in dance music's evolution.
By tracing the story and influence of the DJ and his music, the book argued forcefully that DJs have steered the course of popular music at least as much as musicians.
Now, nearly a decade since its original publication, the authors have released a fully updated edition of "Last Night A DJ Saved My Life", with five completely new chapters, covering more recent styles including acid house, drum and bass, UK garage, hi-energy and the various Balearic scenes.
This 'directors cut' is nothing less than the definitive history of dance music. And to accompany their book, Bill and Frank have compiled this tasty compilation. It seemed only reasonable that the pair should once more plunge into their collections to dredge up a few nuggets of dance music history.
Several of these you'll know well, but some we're sure you've never heard in your life. These tracks are here because a) they have some relevance to the DJs story, and b) they're all great songs.
The album is on two CDs, but that's surely the wrong format: it should be an ink-smudged C90, because it has little to do with today's DJing - or not the commercial end.
It offers no floor-filling anthems or banging choons. It will not soundtrack your stag do in Ibiza. This is dance music for people too cool to dance.
The first song is "The Preacher and the Bear" by the Golden Gate Quartet - a 1930s harmony quartet.
Then there's '60s soul (Marsha Hunt), disco (Skatt Bros), James Brown.
CD1 ends with "The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel" - which, with its jostling samples of Chic, Queen, Blondie and more, could itself pass for a mini-history of DJing.
CD2 is where it gets really geeky.
There's Ryuichi Sakamoto's "Riot in Lagos", an electronic free-for-all that sounds like the Clangers playing on a ZX Spectrum.
There's Pierre Henry's "Psyche Rock", which sounds like the Kingsmen's Louie Louie coming under simultaneous attack from a spaceship and a demented bell-ringer.
Even when the compilers include an act everyone knows, the Jackson 5, they flee from the obvious hits and pick "I Am Love Part 1&2".
On the whole, though, this is kaleidoscopically varied, imaginative and above all fun.
They've rummaged through the old, and emerged with what for many listeners will be new.
Enjoy !
Last Night a DJ Saved My Life: The History of the Disc Jockey
Last Night a DJ Saved My Life