How We Used Saint Etienne to Live

The essential guide to veteran British indie favourites Saint Etienne — the story of how they made music out of memories, and how we made memories out of them.

Do you remember how we used to live? Saint Etienne do. But they also remember a load of other stuff that never happened, so maybe they aren’t the best people to ask.

How We Used Saint Etienne to Live is the story of how these veteran crossover favourites have spent three decades making music out of memories — and how we made memories out of them. It’s a book about dreams in hearts and records in charts. It’s a tale that involves tape splicing, town planning, Now compilations and Saint Etienne’s biggest hit "He’s on the Phone".

Using original interviews with all three group members Bob Stanley, Pete Wiggs and Sarah Cracknell, How We Used Saint Etienne to Live picks up the problems of nostalgia and history where their dreamlike 2021 album I’ve Been Trying To Tell You and their film festival at the BFI left off. It's packed with facts, analysis and flights of fancy.

Ramzy Alwakeel is a British news journalist and music writer. He was the editor of the Islington Gazette, Hackney Gazette and Ham&High before becoming head of news at HuffPost UK. His first book, Smile If You Dare: Politics and Pointy Hats with the Pet Shop Boys, was published by Repeater in 2016. He lives in London with his husband and an increasingly unmanageable collection of records.