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Yes indeed Susan. I'm looking forward to reading all those books.

I've got Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth's book out of the library and a book on Kraftwerk. Not sure if I'll read them both cover to cover but there's a good chance if they pull me in and, like you, I do love a music book.

Yes, indeed :)

I've also just started that Altamont book you recommended me Susan...

Altamont: The Rolling Stones, the Hells Angels, and the Inside Story of Rock's Darkest Day

I'm enjoying it. Though feel that Joel Selvin could have done with a more rigorous editor as there are some jarring repetitions but, that's nitpicking, as it's good stuff so far.

Yes, interesting account of that fateful day though. I have had to stop reading the Ray Davies biography on the train as it is making me laugh too much. I love the account of Davies writing a Christmas song about a department store Santa who was mugged by a gang of schoolboys. In the video, Davies was Santa and the band the schoolboys and, apparently, the beating got a bit too real, with Dave Davies needing to be dragged off him! Honestly, it was as though the Kinks had a self destruct button.

Dave and Ray make Liam and Noel look like the best of mates

Very true :)

Just finished the Ray Davies biography: here's my review -
/review/show...

Susan wrote: "Can anyone recommend a good biography of Bob Dylan?"

I remember liking the classic biography No Direction Home: The Life and Music of Bob Dylan by the late Robert Shelton, who was said to have "discovered" Dylan - it's mainly about the 60s and has a lot of personal reminiscences. I also read a more recent bio which was a bit of a hatchet job, don't remember the title!

Thanks, Judy. No Direction Home is in my wishlist, so thanks for the recommendation :)

Susan wrote: "New book coming out on 30th May that might interest you, Nigeyb, and other members of the group (I know that we all like books and music!).

Roots, Radicals and Rockers: How Skiffle Changed the World by Billy Bragg"

I just got this email from Netgalley...

It's your lucky day! You wished for Roots, Radicals and Rockers: How Skiffle Changed the World, and you have been randomly selected to receive this book on NetGalley.

We hope you enjoy this book.

Wahay!

Roots, Radicals & Rockers: How Skiffle Changed the World is the first book to explore this phenomenon in depth - a meticulously researched and joyous account that explains how skiffle sparked a revolution that shaped pop music as we have come to know it.

It's a story of jazz pilgrims and blues blowers, Teddy Boys and beatnik girls, coffee-bar bohemians and refugees from the McCarthyite witch-hunts. Billy traces how the guitar came to the forefront of music in the UK and led directly to the British Invasion of the US charts in the 1960s.

Emerging from the trad-jazz clubs of the early '50s, skiffle was adopted by kids who growing up during the dreary, post-war rationing years. These were Britain's first teenagers, looking for a music of their own in a pop culture dominated by crooners and mediated by a stuffy BBC. Lonnie Donegan hit the charts in 1956 with a version of 'Rock Island Line' and soon sales of guitars rocketed from 5,000 to 250,000 a year.

Like punk rock that would flourish two decades later, skiffle was a do-it-yourself music. All you needed were three guitar chords and you could form a group, with mates playing tea-chest bass and washboard as a rhythm section.

Me too, Nigeyb :)

Hurrah - great news. I should start reading it in the next day or two.

Yes, I might start it at the weekend. Good to hear we were both approved :)

And now with its own dedicated thread...

/topic/show/...

:)

Thanks to Susan for pointing me in the direction of...




Altamont: The Rolling Stones, the Hells Angels, and the Inside Story of Rock's Darkest Day

At the halfway point I have to say it's getting better and better. Joel Selvin painstakingly details the nightmare that was Altamont - a perfect storm of violence and darkness.

Reading (actually listening to, but hey)....

Altamont: The Rolling Stones, the Hells Angels, and the Inside Story of Rock's Darkest Day

....prompted me to rewatch the Gimme Shelter film which is available on YouTube. Altamont was quite possibly the most nightmarish event ever. Still a brilliant - if v depressing - film.

Yes, I've seen that. A real nightmare - with the kids actually on the stage and you can feel that the Stones are really quite nervous about what is going on. I think, if I remember rightly, that Mick Jagger was punched in the face shortly after arriving?

That's right - Jagger got punched, and the Grateful Dead refused to play, so scary was it.

A combustible mix of v aggressive, paranoid people on bad trips and of course the Hells Angels. Factor in a low, four foot stage, no facilities etc etc. and it's a wonder there weren't more deaths. It's a perfect storm of disorganisation, violence and anarchy.

All of this comes across v clearly in the film.

Sam Cutler, the Stones tour manager, comes over well though - trying to overcome the problems. I think he just got left behind afterward by the Stones to deal with the fall out too despite having nothing to do with the organisation - or lack of. I'm sure the book will go on to cover the aftermath.

Yes, I think they were looking for a venue for ages and then obviously chose a really bad place. The Hells Angels were not a great idea either. However, in the Stones defence, I think they had used UK chapters of the Angels as security before and just didn't realise that the US version was a whole lot more dangerous...

Thanks again to Susan for pointing me in the direction of...




Altamont: The Rolling Stones, the Hells Angels, and the Inside Story of Rock's Darkest Day

Before I read this book all I knew about Altamont was gleaned from the Gimme Shelter film and a few magazine articles. Joel Selvin recognised that the accepted narrative was far too simplistic and so he wrote 'Altamont: The Rolling Stones, the Hells Angels, and the Inside Story of Rock's Darkest Day' to delve deeper, and set the record straight.

It's superb.

Click here to read my review

Glad you liked it, Nigeyb :)

By the way, I think you will really like Uncommon People: The Rise and Fall of the Rock Stars 1955-1994. I am about half way through it and it is very readable - lots of fun snapshots to dip into. I am getting to the end of the Seventies now, so I am not sure I will be as interested in the Eighties/Nineties, but I will see.

Just finished Uncommon People. My review if anyone is interested:

/review/show...

Sounds wonderful - thanks Susan

In between other books, I have been re-reading the first part of Mark Lewisohn's enormous Beatles biography Tune In, Part 1

Just as enjoyable second time around. Review here if anyone is interested:

/review/show...

The latest issue of Mojo magazine has a couple of terrific interviews.


One with Peter Perrett

The other with Nick Cave

It's also got an article about 'Roots, Radicals and Rockers: How Skiffle Changed the World' by Billy Bragg

This issue (July 2015)....

Just came across this listed on NetGalley, which might be of interest:
Into the Mystic: The Visionary and Ecstatic Roots of 1960s Rock and Roll

Nothing to do with music, but this is also on NetGalley and may appeal:
Long Road from Jarrow: A journey through Britain then and now

Nigeyb wrote: "The latest issue of Mojo magazine has a couple of terrific interviews."

That magazine -- hell, magazines in general -- are getting more and more difficult to find round these parts. NYC used to be heaving with shops that sold only magazines, but I couldn't point you towards a single one these days.

Really keen to read the Perrett interview, but not sure that I ever need to read another account of Cave's career...

Magazines are one thing that I really do not like reading online, Mark. You have to flick through magazines...

Susan wrote: "Magazines are one thing that I really do not like reading online, Mark. You have to flick through magazines..."

Plus, you know, with physical magazines it's so much easier to cut out the dreamiest photos of Harry Styles for your bedroom wall.

I had to look up who he was, Mark. My daughter could (being 10), but she is a Beatles fanatic, like me :)

Mark wrote: "Really keen to read the Perrett interview"

I just sent you a link to some photos of the mag I took. Hopefully you can read it that way.

Susan wrote: "Just came across this listed on NetGalley, which might be of interest:
Into the Mystic: The Visionary and Ecstatic Roots of 1960s Rock and Roll."

I've requested a copy - thanks Susan

Nigeyb wrote: "Mark wrote: "Really keen to read the Perrett interview"

I just sent you a link to some photos of the mag I took. Hopefully you can read it that way."


Many thanks for that... off to download now!

Good to hear, Nigeyb. I requested it too, so we will see...

Mark wrote: "Nigeyb wrote: "The latest issue of Mojo magazine has a couple of terrific interviews."

That magazine -- hell, magazines in general -- are getting more and more difficult to find round these parts...."

I really miss The Word - it was my fault it closed I'm afraid, I took out a subscription and it immediately folded!

They had a great readers' chat board as well.

Agreed Ruth. That readers' chat board lives on as the Afterword....




I had a subscription too.

The Word podcasts also live on - and I recommend them

Susan wrote: "Good to hear, Nigeyb. I requested Into the Mystic: The Visionary and Ecstatic Roots of 1960s Rock and Roll too, so we will see..."

My request has been granted but it only seems to be available as a protected PDF - do you know how I can get that onto my Kindle?

Oh, how annoying, Nigeyb! Me too.

Last time I just reviewed it (or rather didn't) saying I was unable to read it. You have to download it to your PC and I hate reading on my computer.

Last time this happened, they suggested:

The publisher has not enabled the Kindle option for A Secret Well Kept (which could be for various reasons including file size, formatting, etc.) so you cannot read this file on your Kindle or Kindle app. You can however download the title to your computer or any other device/app except the Kindle. I am including our device guide here for your reference. (I personally use and recommend the Bluefire Reader app.)

However, I can't download the app onto my kindle fire, so I just gave up on it.

Thanks Susan - I might try and get it on an iPad - though the last time I read on an iPad I thought it was a bit unpleasant as the screen is too bright

I must admit that I have just sent them an email saying I cannot review the book. I downloaded it to the computer, but I couldn't read it and so I just then sent a message saying sorry, but I can't review it. Bit of a shame but, hey ho, I have so many books to read and review that it isn't a huge loss...

Ruth wrote: "I really miss The Word..."

A few copies regularly turned up here in NYC two or three months after their UK publication dates, and I would always scoop a copy up whenever I chanced upon one. Easily my favourite magazine ever, and the closest I’d ever come to reading a magazine from cover to cover. In fact, it was via the pages of The Word that I first became aware of Patrick Hamilton, and the rest, as they say, is geography.

Mark wrote: "I sure didn't see this one coming... a brand new album, technically his very first solo effort, from the one and only Peter Perrett."

He's playing live in Brighton on 7 Nov 2017

Joy is unconfined

Nigeyb wrote: "He's playing live in Brighton on 7 Nov 2017

Joy ..."

How prepared are you to assist me in convincing Karen that we need to fly over for that?

Because, sadly, as far as I understand things, he's still subject to arrest for vehicular homicide if he turns up on American shores.

I saw him twice with the Only Ones when they reformed a few years back and he looked on his last legs then. Hopefully he'll be a bit stronger this time round. It's a miracle he's still with us based on his appearance, and what's he's spent the majority of his adult life doing.

Anyway, all that notwithstanding, you should crowdsource the airfare and come on over. Your accommodation is sorted!

Trust me when I say that I'm tempted, not least of all because it seems like ages since he was in such fine form. The two tracks off the forthcoming album, in my opinion, have only bolstered his legacy. And that's not my typical opinion when it comes to these sorts of affairs.

Our guitar player saw the reunited Only Ones in Tokyo, and raved about it. Of course, that was a bit different, because the sheer musicianship of that band was staggering and didn't rely 100% on Perrett's contribution.

Yeah, seeing The Only Ones back together in 2008 was emotional