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Band Biographies

Started by Gregory Torso, October 30, 2017, 01:32:59 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

jobotic

Quote from: Serge on March 08, 2018, 04:45:46 PM
Mainly because Jones didn't really know him at all. He probably interviewed him a couple of times, and would bump into him at industry bashes - hence the fact that whenever he writes a book about Bowie, he reuses the same pic of him standing next to him at some awards ceremony as if to imply 'look what great mates we are!' as opposed to 'look who I once got a photo of myself standing next to.' But it's not like they hung out, or as if Bowie had him on speed-dial whenever he felt the need to talk to a bald-headed tory cunt.

So who did he have on speed dial for when he felt that need?

Serge

You're not going to believe this, but it was William Hague.

SteveDave

There's a passage in the book where Dave calls Dylan by accident whilst trying to reach his mum.

wosl

Rejigged the cover for you, Dylan, to make your name the proper, seemly size.  Don't know what they were doing, making your name as prominent as Bowie's and not okaying it with you before publishing.


studpuppet


Serge

Yes! That's the book I'm most looking forward to at the minute. I've just re-read David Stubbs' Krautrock book, which further whet my appetite for it.

I've just tried to read the new book by Daniel Spicer on Turkish Psychedelia, and holy fuck, it was a struggle I wasn't equal to. He just seemed to let all of his worst 'I write for The Wire' tendencies loose. It's a scene that cries out for someone like Julian Cope to write a book about.


billyandthecloneasaurus

Quote from: thraxx on December 02, 2017, 08:16:10 PM
I enjoyed very much Will Carruther's Playing the Bass with Three Left Hands.  About him rather than the bands and music, but there's still a lot about Spacemen 3, Spiritualized and J Spaceman and Sonic Boom.  I tore through it in about 4 hours.
Yeah I'll throw in my customary +1 to this as it's a great book, and I'll vouch for him being a top geezer as he was my mum's lodger for a few years of my childhood.  I actually have a bow that he made for me when I was a kid upstairs somewhere that's similar to the one he mentions in the book.

Neville Chamberlain

I finished it a while ago, but Steve Hanley's The Big Midweek is a rollicking good read. My main take-away from it is that the real loony in The Fall was always Karl Burns and his bizarre firecracker obsession.


studpuppet

Quote from: Serge on March 11, 2018, 07:43:39 PM
Yes! That's the book I'm most looking forward to at the minute. I've just re-read David Stubbs' Krautrock book, which further whet my appetite for it.

*Flounces up and down the room because I have contacts in the right places*

Mind you, I probably won't get round to reading it before the paperback gets published...


Serge

Heh, a friend of mine with similar contacts has been posting pictures of his copy on Facebook. This is when I regret no longer working at Rough Trade, as by now, I would certainly have blagged my own copy!

marquis_de_sad

Quote from: magval on February 01, 2018, 10:53:39 AM
I've just finished The Dirt, the Motley Crue autobiography which I've not read since I was a teenager. [...]

The bits that have stayed with me are 1) Nikki Sixx injecting heroin into his cock 2) Nikki Sixx getting a stern telling off from his Japanese manager while on tour in Japan for acting like a tosspot 3) Mick Mars' terrible illness and his stoic attitude to life. The Mick Mars stuff is the only worthwhile stuff in it to be honest.

magval

That's right, yeah. I had a copy of Mark E Smith's Renegade in my hand in HMV the other day and was put off by the comparison on the back to The Dirt.

Is it any good, though? I've no interest in The Fall but a good book's a good book and most reviews focus on how apparently funny it is.

imitationleather

Quote from: magval on March 19, 2018, 09:22:07 PM
That's right, yeah. I had a copy of Mark E Smith's Renegade in my hand in HMV the other day and was put off by the comparison on the back to The Dirt.

Is it any good, though? I've no interest in The Fall but a good book's a good book and most reviews focus on how apparently funny it is.

I think Renegade is a bit of a let-down. It's basically a big interview with Mark where he is ranting for hours. I found it more uncomfortable than funny. When people write about Mark, then it is funny.

Neville Chamberlain

It's patchy. When it's good, it's very good - when it's bad, it's just standard grumpy-old-pissed-up-man ranting about how things used to be better.

The Big Midweek is far, far superior. I'm a massive Fall fan, but it's a good read for anyone, I reckon.

Egyptian Feast

Quote from: Neville Chamberlain on March 20, 2018, 12:21:08 PM
It's patchy. When it's good, it's very good - when it's bad, it's just standard grumpy-old-pissed-up-man ranting about how things used to be better.

The Big Midweek is far, far superior. I'm a massive Fall fan, but it's a good read for anyone, I reckon.

Absolutely. There's plenty to enjoy in The Big Midweek even if you have no interest in The Fall and it is a much funnier book.

thraxx


I've found a copy of 'Manchester, England' by Dave Haslam, which is a biography of sorts of the Manchester music scene. Has anyone read it and is it any good?

I've had a shufty of a few pages and it doesnt bode well. Lots of pompous shit about music hall in the 19th century and ian brown.

Someone tell me if i should commit to reading this please for cryin out loud! I have a rule that once i start a book I must finish and I'm releluctant to commit to this one without a recommendation.

smudge1971

It is for the historian rather than the musically curious. It is decent if you want a 1000 reasons why Manchester is the best place ever. If you've ever been anywhere else don't bother. 

Dannyhood91

Miles Davis autobiography is cracking stuff.

timebug

One of the best autobiographies I ever read was
'All The Rage' by Ian McLagen. Full breakdown on
the activities of The Small Faces, The Faces, Dylan,
The Stones, The (re-formed) Small Faces etc.
Comes across as a really decent bloke who loved
his music,and really disliked Rod Stewart!
Also liked the Springsteen one, but Mac's book has
it for me,and I have read it about three times so far!

Bennett Brauer

A Christmas release for an autobiography from the Runtmeister (as Danny Baker probably calls him). I remember seeing an early draft extract on a forum a few years ago that included an anecdote about Rundgren taking Brian Wilson to a Larry Coryell & the Eleventh House gig in the 1970s, where Wilson got up on stage uninvited and started dancing wildly before being led away.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Individualist-Digressions-Dreams-Dissertations/dp/0997205652/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1542939877&sr=1-1

Dreadful cover, and I hope to Muhammad (peace be upon him) the fucking price comes down.

sevendaughters

Has anyone ever ready Bobby Jameson's blog? He's the guy in the title of the Ariel Pink album. He's a bit of a ghost at the feast of the 60s/70s. Worked with Jagger, Zappa, and others, albeit fleetingly, and his main talents appear to be snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, getting screwed, and writing about it.

QuoteI started making up things about myself to deflect the interest in me, but it just seemed to make things worse. I took to wearing one "black glove" as a goof, and it got famous. I did a story with a London newspaper on "the Glove," which it became known as, and people took it seriously.

Somewhere during this time frame I had a visit from Brian Jones, and we liked each other right off. He came by my place one afternoon and we just talked about a lot of things. He was intelligent and sensitive and did seem taken by his own fame. He told me about his passion for animals as we sat together smoking hash in my flat. We spent the afternoon hanging out for the most part.

A year later by some quirk of the universe, Brian's picture would end up as the photo on the cover of the Chris Lucey album "Songs Of Protest And Anti Protest," which I wrote and recorded when I went back to America in 1965. I did not speak to Brian again, but have always remembered the day we spent together. I consider myself lucky to have had that time with him, and it is those kinds of moments from my past that I hold on to. They are some of the things that made it all worthwhile in the long run.

As the publicity increased, I was introduced to a very popular club in London called "The Ad lib Club," where everyone who was anyone went at night. It was the "In Place" in 1964 and I was like the "American Pop Prop" along with P J Proby, so it was easy to mingle with just about everyone.

I used to sit at the little tables that lined the walls of the place and drink Mateuse wine with the Beatles. Every time John Lennon saw me he'd say. "Eh, here comes "The Glove." Hey Jameson whot's wrong with yer hand mon, do ya ave a diseese or somethin?"

Not the best-formatted blog but one of those things I read in two sittings, just gawping
http://bobbyjameson.blogspot.com/


Bennett Brauer

Quote from: marquis_de_sad on November 23, 2018, 08:28:16 PM
It's shockingly bad.

Looks worse than some self-published books. It's his heritage record label that's putting it out, but you can't say it's totally their fault, it being a rehash of the cover of an album he did as 'TR-i'. It was already hideous in 1995.


Anyway, I'd recommend Bill Bruford, The Autobiography. Good on Crimson and Yes, written with economy and dry humour.

a duncandisorderly

Quote from: Bennett Brauer on November 24, 2018, 01:24:38 AM
Anyway, I'd recommend Bill Bruford, The Autobiography. Good on Crimson and Yes, written with economy and dry humour.

bruford's book sits next to a mighty tome on lennon, several on the beatles, the aforementioned 'bad vibes', a few of maconie's punning efforts, lemmy's excellent 'white line fever' & many others on my shelves. I'm fond of the andrew loog oldham books, both his own story & the abba book that apparently he had nowt to do with, but there's his name on the cover. many of mick wall's books. the stanley booth stones book, & a couple of others about them... 'hammer of the gods', obvs... copey's chronicles... books about or by members of gong, man, ELP, tangerine dream, yes, hawkwind, the fall, the clash, the slits (viv albertine's book is excellent), can, kraftwerk, sabbath, ronnie spector, nirvana....

what struck me about bruford's is that it reveals him, & not fripp, as being the mardy twat in crimson. I ran into him at a gig in camden (he was there to see his son's band, who were supporting the band I'd gone to see) & told him I'd been watching an unauthorised copy of his own band's "sight & sound in concert" or whatever it was, from 1978.... he gave me his business card so that my mate at the bbc could send him a copy too (this resulted in it later being published by voiceprint), & in his thank-you letter, he told my mate that he'd been very immature as a musician in that post-yes, post-crimson period, & that seeing this gig with dave "not that one" stewart, allan holdsworth & jeff berlin had done nothing to improve his self-opinion. in the book, which came some years after this exchange, he goes into this in a bit more detail, but the overall feeling you get from him is that he started out quite full of himself & didn't really get this knocked out of him until the second (80s) spell in crimson. for fans only, I'd say.

Bennett Brauer

Interesting, thanks. He still comes across as occasionally self-regarding in recent interviews (in a weird transtlantic accent), but I think that's likely an interview-only persona.
Not sure about your "for fans only" comment, but maybe I should read it again. Some drummers-only stuff, but from memory it was quite interesting on evoking the 1970s grind of touring and the internal politics of being in a band in general.

a duncandisorderly

Quote from: Bennett Brauer on November 24, 2018, 02:57:56 AM
Interesting, thanks. He still comes across as occasionally self-regarding in recent interviews (in a weird transtlantic accent), but I think that's likely an interview-only persona.
Not sure about your "for fans only" comment, but maybe I should read it again. Some drummers-only stuff, but from memory it was quite interesting on evoking the 1970s grind of touring and the internal politics of being in a band in general.

yes, he talks like that IRL too... quite a self-conscious sort of chap. I've seen other interviews with him, besides meeting him myself... a drummer with business cards...

but there are other accounts of the road-life & internal politics of rock bands that are better, IMHO- more conversational, less tubs-centric. what I meant was that you'd enjoy it if you knew much of anything about bruford's career, but not so much if you'd just picked it up to read about 70s rock-band life in general.

New Jack

Quote from: studpuppet on March 14, 2018, 02:06:58 PM



Don't know how the FUCK I missed this. But I bought it and I'm already excited by the first few lines about an empty old cinema with mattresses on the walls!

Quote from: timebug on June 25, 2018, 10:22:33 AM
One of the best autobiographies I ever read was
'All The Rage' by Ian McLagen. Full breakdown on
the activities of The Small Faces, The Faces, Dylan,
The Stones, The (re-formed) Small Faces etc.
Comes across as a really decent bloke who loved
his music,and really disliked Rod Stewart!
Also liked the Springsteen one, but Mac's book has
it for me,and I have read it about three times so far!

Your poems need work

Bogbrainedmurphy

Quote from: imitationleather on December 10, 2017, 10:47:15 AM
Both Peter Hook's and Bernard Sumner's books about New Order are disappointing in their own way. Maybe when they're very old and have buried the hatchet a bit (if that ever happens) there will be a decent tome about their time in the band to come out, but their hatred for each other completely takes over both and makes them quite unpleasant and exhausting to read.

I've just made it past the Caroline Ahern period in Substance and will probably finish it soon. Had to have two goes at this book, not least because it's absolutely gigantic, but the bitterness (and downright moaning) is just too much at times. He's unkind to Gillian which I didn't like, but his constant sniping over Bernard is tiresome.


The Culture Bunker

t'other day I picked up the autobiographies of Lol Tolhurst (drummer then keys player in the Cure till he was sacked for his drink problem) and Elvis Costello, fiver for the pair in Fopp. The former is nice enough, but you kind of wish he'd written it while he was a bit more fucked off with Robert Smith, as the tone so far (up to them recording 'Pornography') is a bit "my old mate Rob is a genius".

Costello one I worry he'll skip past all the interesting bits (ie when he was making brilliant music whilst acting like a complete twat for large periods of time) and just babble on about making albums with Burt Bacharach and how wonderful his current wife is.