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About the book

1988

The small island of Tasmania off Australia’s south coast is a long way from England.

Turquoise blue skies, endless sunshine, pub bands and local radio. For a girl from Manchester with a passion for live music, it’s the perfect location.

Tasmanian band, The Fish John West Reject are living 400km away in Melbourne, recording their first album, Swim and playing regular gigs at The Punters Club. But when a boy brings his band back to the island for Christmas there is a chance encounter on the streets of Launceston, and the beginning of a memorable summer.

What follows is a love story, a search for belonging, and a musical journey of hope and ambition. With exuberance and irreverence the narrative explores the unforgettable moments that shape us. It records the frustrations of trying to be a rockstar, and the ordinary life of a band trying to break into the music business.

Like Two Mexicans Dancing is about the beauty of a large continent, a long way from everywhere. It’s about making friends, creating bonds, falling in love, and trying to find a home.

You can only fall in love for the first time once…

Not everyone gets the chance to cross the world and meet rockstars in the making. I did when I came to Australia in 1988.

As we raced towards the nineties the local radio stations were still playing vinyl.  We were  buying our music in-store at places like Polyester or Gaslight Records, and we could still play our BASF cassettes on the car radio.   I travelled light then, with a Walkman and a few mix-tapes,  I stayed in touch via handwritten letters, and I saved my coins for the payphone.

The nineties was such an amazing time to be in Melbourne – so many live music venues filled by pub bands and their legions of fans, so many hopeful and talented musicians hoping to launch their career.

If you want to remember that era, and a life that was less complicated, come and find out how Like Two Mexicans Dancing captures that time of innocence and hope.  It’s an unashamedly sentimental story about falling in love a long way from home.