Three music-obsessed, suburban London teenagers set out to make their own kind of pop music: after years of struggle, success came to David Sylvian (and Japan) and to Mark Hollis (and Talk Talk); Kate Bush became an overnight star. But when their unique talents brought them international acclaim, they turned their backs on stardom. ‘Just when I think I’m winning’, sang Sylvian on ‘Ghosts’, a 1982 Japan hit, ‘when my chance came to be king, the ghosts of my life grew wilder than the wind’. Haunted by doubt, spooked by fame and shocked by the industry’s sexism and rapacity, Sylvian, Hollis and Bush were driven to brave new destinations. Inspired by artists from every genre, and by their own creative originality and inner psychological struggles, they forged something new, changing how we hear pop music and the role of its creators in modern society.

Focusing mostly on Sylvian, with Hollis and Bush also explored, Ghosts uses their journeys to define post-pop for the first time. Revealing both personal ghosts and a larger cultural history, the post-pop story is about music and fame, ambition and fear, happiness and melancholy. The journey, as one from noise to silence, is ultimately about life itself.

Matthew Restall is a historian of Latin America and popular music. London-born and raised in England, Spain, Venezuela, and Japan, he currently holds the Sparks Professorship in History and Anthropology at the Pennsylvania State University, USA. Having written some thirty books on Latin American history, his first book on pop music was Blue Moves in the 33 1/3 series, and he is now writing On Elton for Oxford’s Opinionated Guides series. He dreams of retiring to write on nothing but pop until he drops. matthewrestall.com