![]() Prior to the late 80s acid-house revolution, few guitar groups crossed over to taste mainstream success, but that all changed when the Madchester explosion chased indie kids onto the dancefloor and made stars of The Stone Roses, Happy Mondays, and Inspiral Carpets. ![]() Though singer Holly Johnson published his book A Bone In My Flute in 1994, guitarist Brian ‘Nasher’ Nash’s Nasher Says Relax presents a more accessible and straight-up account of the band’s multi-platinum-selling bout of global superstardom followed equally swiftly by their spectacular crash and burn. Strangely, their story has rarely been recounted in detail, but ex-Sounds contributor George Berger’s diligently researched The Story Of Crass remains the most in-depth account of their pioneering quest to operate autonomously outside of the traditional music industry system.ĭuring the 80s, though, few pop phenomena could hold a candle to controversial Scouse chancers Frankie Goes To Hollywood, whose sexually explicit ‘Relax’ topped the UK charts for five weeks in 1984. Arguably the career of Oi! figureheads, Canning Town quartet The Cockney Rejects, rapidly slid down the pan after their football hooligan followers horrifically smashed up Birmingham’s Cedar Club in 1980, but singer Jeff ‘Stinky’ Turner’s Cockney Reject (which features a foreword from Morrissey) recalls their mercurial career with an earthiness you can almost taste.Įqually furious, if more polemically inclined were anarcho-punk trailblazers Crass, who ran their DIY empire from a communal home on the edge of Epping Forest. Punk later begat a number of sub-genres which, though often derided by the press, attracted large street-level followings. ![]() Beggars Banquet only initially started as a label because no one else would sign their first band, The Lurkers, yet the rarely publicized details of said West London punk quartet’s booze-sodden story (near-fatal meningitis attacks and American recording sessions with millionaire producer Phillip Jarrell being merely the tip of this looming iceberg) are recounted with unflinching honesty by drummer Pete Haynes in his superb, yet rarely cited God’s Lonely Men. Nihilism and controversy were, however, perhaps better suited to punk, which terrified the music industry so much that most labels were scared to sign punk bands after Sex Pistols’ EMI debacle. But while its subject matter is hard to stomach, it’s a brave, compelling book for those made of stern enough stuff. A hard-hitting portrait of the notorious British jazz-rock organ and saxophone virtuoso whose innovative musical abilities were demonically pursued by everything from drugs to bad career moves and sexual abuse, it pulls few punches. Nico’s later years may have been shrouded in darkness, but she never descended to the hell Jimi Hendrix biographer Harry Shapiro describes in Graham Bond: The Mighty Shadow. ![]() Elsewhere, his portrayal of subsistence-level touring in the former Eastern Bloc is truly hair-raising, and there are (sometimes unintentionally) hilarious cameos from post-punk Mancunian cult heroes such as Eric Random and John Cooper Clarke. Some of the drug-related minutiae is not for the faint-hearted, but the author’s affection for his subject always shines through. But while Suze Rotolo later seemingly lost her youthful beau to Joan Baez, there’s little bitterness in her dignified yet vibrant memoir, which vividly recalls her heady, bohemian existence with Bob Dylan in the early 60s before the pressures of fame tore them apart.Īlso an iconic figure during the 60s, fashion model and Andy Warhol superstar Nico appeared on the massively influential The Velvet Underground & Nico LP, but Songs They Never Play On The Radio (written by her latter-day pianist James Young) focuses on her final years existing in semi-obscurity in 80s Manchester. The author of A Freewheelin’ Time: A Memoir Of Greenwich Village is usually recalled as the wistful-looking girl resting on the shoulder of the idealistic young boyfriend on the cover of 1963’s The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan. So, while we’ve recently revisited a number of the most enduring biographies written in the name of a myriad of musical genres at uDiscover Music, we’re also keen to reappraise some of the most criminally unsung, yet riveting reads known to rock, in our list of the best music books you’ve never read. While many books richly deserve the adulation they attract, shelves full of underappreciated publications gather dust before they’ve even had the chance to register in the wider public consciousness. Dubiously attributed to sources ranging from Machiavelli to Winston Churchill, the phrase “history is written by the victors” is generally used in relation to military offensives, but it could just as easily relate to successful literary campaigns.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |