Futures and Pasts 1976-2026
Route, in conjunction with Louder Than Words Festival, are pleased to announce Futures and Pasts: A Festival Celebrating 50 Years of The Fall. This festival will take place over the weekend 5th-7th June 2026. Click here for more details and ticket information.
NEW:The Big Midweek Audio Book
Our bestselling title becomes an audio book. Stewart Lee narrates The Big Midweek: Life Inside The Fall, unabridged. Published 26th November 2025. Available now for pre-order on Audible, Amazon and Apple Books. Click here to watch an interview with Stewart and Steve.
Our Last Stand Launch
NEW TITLE: Our Last Stand by Paul Coventry tells the incredible story of how a gang of retired volunteers salvaged and transported two stands from Scarborough and erected them at the home of Featherstone Rovers. A book launch will take place at Featherstone Librabry and Community Centre on 17th December. Click here for more details.
Plainsong Play Fariña
New Video: Iain Matthews and Andy Roberts perform as Plainsong. This set of Richard Fariña songs comprised almost half of the setlist on their UK tour in Autumn 2025. Recorded at The CAT Club, Robin Hood, Pontefract, 19th October 2025 (evening gig). Watch here.
Pit-folk and Peers Book Launch Video
The book launch for Pit-folk and Peers: The Remarkable History of the People of Fryston took place on Saturday 11th October at Holy Cross Church, Fryston Road, Airedale. We have published a video of David Waddington's presentation at the launch. Click here to watch.
3 FOR 2 Offer
We have been publishing quality books for 25 years. You may have missed some of them. For a limited time, you can now grab three timeless titles from our backlist for just £10. Whenever we set up our stall, our £5 each or 3 for £10 offer on our backlist titles is always incredibly popular. Now, we're replicating this offer on our website. Our backlist titles are priced at £5, and you can grab 3 books for £10 if you enter the voucher code 3FOR2 at checkout. See the list of titles here.
Recent Podcasts
Ian Clayton makes a mix tape for Steve Pringle on Steve's Mix Tapes. | Listen here.
Ian Daley impromptu guest appearance on Off The Cuff podcast, talking with author Yunis Alam and Urfan. | Listen here.
Ian Daley makes a Route-book themed mix tape for Steve Pringle on Steve's Mix Tapes. | Listen here.
Helen O'Hara discusses Dexys' album Don't Stand Me Down on Giddy Carousel of Pop | Listen here.
Click here for an archive of Route authors guesting on podcasts.
NEW TITLE: Pit-folk and Peers Volume 2
The truly remarkable village of Fryston, a tiny coal-mining community with just one road in and one road out, is now the subject of a substantial two volume history, written by an esteemed professor and child of Fryston, David Waddington. It's astonishing in both its breadth and content. Volume 1 covers 1809-1908, and focuses on the inhabitants of the confounding Fryston Hall, the most significant 19th century cultural and political hub outside of London, thanks mainly to its eccentric occupant, Richard Monkton Milnes. It also covers the birth of coal mining in the village, the subsequent population by miners and their families, and the political turmoil at the turn of the century. The newly published Volume 2 covers 1909-2023, where the continuing historical account of the ‘pit-folk’ and ‘peers’ of Fryston extends from the village’s heyday of the early to mid-twentieth century, via its near extinction following pit closure in 1985, onto the subsequent, though controversial, attempts to revitalise it two decades later. Taken together, his two volumes uncover a local heritage arguably unrivalled elsewhere in the British coalfields.
Volume 2 will be officially published in September, but we are offering advance signed copies. Order now and be amongst the first to read it. To order both volumes together, select the Deluxe Edition.
Dub Sex Live In Concert
Dub Sex filmed live in concert at Manchester Polytechnic, 1988.This was one of a series of Dub Sex concerts filmed by Malcolm Whitehead and his team at Factory/IKON. The footage was unused at the time and then subsequently sat in a vault for a over a quarter of a century. We presented here for the first time in full. The concert captures an energised performance from Dub Sex at a pivotal moment in their development.
Outtakes On Bob Dylan Paperback Edition
Michael Gray's book Outtakes On Bob Dylan has been released as a paperback edition. Concious that shipping and customs costs were a barrier to many with the hardback edition, we have issued the paperback in a way to avoid such problems and thus make it much more accesible to international readers. It is now possible to order the book without any such additional costs. Click here for more details.
Recent Features
The Big Midweek Audio Book
Feature in The Quietus about Steve Hanley's interview by Stewart Lee about The Big Midweek audio book.
David Waddington - Pit-folks and peers Interview
Dave Waddington interviewed by Yorkshire Post. Reproduced here in a mining magazine.
Mark Hoyle in Conversation With Tony Walsh - What Happened?
Review in RGM magazine of a Swerve event at The Met, Bury.
'If you can avoid bitterness, it’s better for you in the long run'
Mark Hoyle interview by Duncan Seaman for Yorkshire Post.
From Hulme to The Haçienda with Mark Hoyle
Mark Hoyle talks to Jason Barnard of The Strange Brew about overcoming a tough childhood, how punk rock became his escape, and the role John Peel and Tony Wilson played in shaping his career.
The long-anticipated memoir from perennial face on the Manchester scene, Mark Hoyle, is finally here…
Iain Key writes the first review of Swerve for Louder Than War.
Pete Shelley put himself into that teenage mindset
Paul Hanley speaks with Duncan Seaman for the Yorkshire Post.
Ever Fallen in love? Mancunian-Irish drummer had... with Buzzcocks
Paul Hanley speaks with David Coughlan fof The Irish Daily Mirror.
“We’re Taking Control” – Former The Fall Members On New Release ‘Slates (Live)’
Steve and Pual Hanley, along with Marc Riley and Craig Scanlon talk about the release of the new live Fall album, Slates Live.
Kallax On Fire
Paul Hanley Q&A on Groovy Times. What records does he run back into the burning building to save?
‘He was just walking through Manchester, risking getting his head kicked in.’
Paul Hanley interviewed by Andy Murray for Northern Soul.
The Fall's Paul Hanley On Buzzcocks Book
Paul Hanley Q&A in The Quietus.
Records
HOUSE Of ALL's third album in two years. HOUSE Of ALL SOULS sees Karl Burns' return to making music again. Those close to the record consider it their best work to date. Released 14th February 2025. Click here for more details.
Podcasts | Regular Shows from Our Friends You Might Enjoy
Our friends at The CAT Club (Classic Album Thursdays) run a monthly album club in Pontefract, with very special guests invited to talk about the selected albums. The events are now recorded and feature on their podcast. The podcast can be found wherever you get your podcasts. Here's a link to the Spotify page, and the Apple Podcasts page. Have a browse, there'll unbdoubtedly be an album special to you. Learn more about The CAT Club here.
Hosted by Jason Barnard, The Strange Brew is a mixture of interview and music. There's a long list of distiguished guests in the archive, including some of our authors. You can listen to Helen O'Hara's show here, Iain Matthews & Ian Clayton talking about Iain's career, Michael Gray talking Bob Dylan and Tom Clayton talking about the time when quiet was the new loud.
Oh! Brother
Paul and Steve Hanley host this podcast about The Fall. Available on the usual platforms. Find all episodes here.
Funky Si's A-Z of Manchester
Funky Simon Wolstencroft and Jackie O'Malley podcast series about Manchester. Original 26 episodes take it one letter at a time, plus some specials. Available on the usual platforms. Find all episodes here.