According to founders Andy Crysell and Mark Maddox, the No Way Back project aims to unlock lessons from the past rather than wallow in nostalgia, shedding light on lesser known stories around various subcultures and music genres.

An eponymous book, designed by Daniel McGhee and Lee Belcher (BAM), is the first instalment of a plan to share future material via podcasts, documentaries, merch and events. The journalism featured within No Way Back has been sourced from a range of printed titles including Ritz, Sounds, Village Voice, the New Statesman, Smash Hits, NME, Spin and the Observer.

Covering the period from 1977 to 1989, it shows writing in its rawest form, at the point of capturing breakthrough events across music alongside the parallel shifts in visual culture. 

Conceived by Crysell, a former music and subculture journalist and agency founder, and agency and consultancy founder Maddox (previously managing editor of Mixer magazine), No Way Back has involved some lengthy research. “It was an iterative process: once we locked-in one piece, it naturally pointed us toward the next, until a shape began to form,” Crysell says.