Do You Believe in the Power of Rock & Roll?

by John Robb

“'John Robb is as punk rock as The Clash.” — Alan McGee   Do You Believe in the Power of Rock & Roll?—A history of alternative rock from music writer John Robb, with the music still ringing in his ears. This collection follows Robb’s journey from the late 1970s, when he was first caught up in punk’s high-octane thrill, to the present day, via the early days of the rave scene, the birth of electronic and techno, and myriad bands that spun off on their own idiosyncratic paths.  Robb was the first person to write about Nirvana, he coined the term Britpop, and he documented the Stone Roses’ rise out of Manchester before anyone else was interested. He was at every pivotal gig, and has interviewed every key player in the business, including Jordan, the queen of punk, founding father of new American rock Steve Albini, goth-rock guitarist Daniel Ash, infamous Oasis co-founder Noel Gallagher, and music greats like Lemmy and Poly Styrene. Few others have witnessed first-hand so many important moments of the last forty years of rock history. Here, they come together to form the essential history of a personal quest to document the ever-changing soundtrack of the modern world.

Genres: Music, Rock N Roll

393 pages, Paperback

Published October 3, 2023

About the author

Author/Music Scribe/TV Presenter/Environmental Activist and Bass Player for perennial post-punk survivors The Membranes, John Robb is a man who cannot sit still. When he’s not touring with his band (they recently toured in Europe with The Stranglers, The Chameleons and Fields Of The Nephilim), he’s presenting, moderating or writing for his popular UK music site Louder Than War. John has previously written the best-selling books “Punk Rock : An Oral History” and “The North Will Rise Again : Manchester Music City 1976-1996”. His latest opus is the 550-page “The Art Of Darkness : The History of Goth”, an in-depth account that he feels presents the first major and comprehensive overview of Goth music and culture and its lasting legacy.

Starting with a night out in a Goth club, it then takes us on a deep-dive into the wider culture, exploring the social conditions that created ‘Goth’ in the post-punk period. It examines the fall of Rome, Lord Byron and the romantic poets, European folk tales, Gothic architecture and painters, the occult to modern-day Instagram influencers.

The book is built mainly around the 80s post-punk Goth period featuring interviews with Andrew Eldritch, Killing Joke, Bauhaus, The Cult, The Banshees, The Damned, Einstürzende Neubauten, Johnny Marr, Trent Reznor, Adam Ant, Laibach, The Cure, Nick Cave and many others. …it looks at the music, style and the political and social conditions that spawned the culture and the great music, fashions and attitudes - clubs that defined it, and is also a first-hand account of being there at some of the legendary gigs and clubs that made the scene happen...

Reviews

[John]

An odds and ends assemblage, rather than the tighter theme that distinguished his punk rock oral history which he edited about a dozen years ago. The title's rather tired, but the cliched phrase may not have been meant ironically. For John Robb's a veteran of the scene, and as my exact contemporary it's always instructive to see how a fellow fan (and in his case, far better bassist than me) sees trends.

As a follower of The Fall, and supporter of peers as Jesus + March Chain, Peter Hook/ Joy Division, Stone Roses, Linder, and Echo + the Bunnymen, I admit poring over these interviews from across the decades. Steve Albini opens up honestly, and while my familiarity with Daniel Ash, Manic Street Preachers, Lemmy, Poly Styrene, Sonic Youth, and the Cure is more passing than deep, nevertheless I found in those talks engaging conversations. It's noteworthy Robb was at least as claimed here the first journalist to get a hold of Nirvana; their back and forth remains valuable, sharp and poignant.

So while not a compendium for the ages, it did get me as intended to look up a Mancunian outfit, World of Twist, from the start of the Nineties, who like so many contenders never made it big. That Robb spans a commendably diverse and eclectic roster from which to cull his team of contemporary musicians testifies to its value, for he takes the trouble to highlight the marginalized as well within.