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London's Burning: True Adventures on the Front Lines of Punk, 1976-1977
London’s Burning is the story of punk rock as it happened, stripped of hindsight and future legend, and laid bare. Here are the Damned and the Adverts on tour, the Sex Pistols swearing through their prime-time television debut, the Tom Robinson Band conducting a club full of skinheads through the anthem “Glad to Be Gay,” rioting Rastas running through the carnage that closed the Notting Hill Carnival, Sid Vicious arguing about which was David Bowie’s best song. At the same time, it is a personal story of a confused but dedicated sixteen-year-old looking not just for kicks and great music, but for a cultural revolution--and finding one in his back yard.
344 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2009
6 people are currently reading
129 people want to read
About the author
Dave Thompson
266 books42 followersEnglish author Dave Thompson has spent his entire working life writing biographies of other people, but is notoriously reluctant to write one for himself. Unlike the subjects of some of his best known books, he was neither raised by ferrets nor stolen from gypsies. He has never appeared on reality TV (although he did reach the semi finals of a UK pop quiz when he was sixteen), plays no musical instruments and he can’t dance, either.
However, he has written well over one hundred books in a career that is almost as old as U2’s… whom he saw in a club when they first moved to London, and memorably described as “okay, but they’ll never get any place.” Similar pronouncements published on the future prospects of Simply Red, Pearl Jam and Wang Chung (oh, and Curiosity Killed The Cat as well) probably explain why he has never been anointed a Pop Culture Nostradamus. Although the fact that he was around to pronounce gloomily on them in the first place might determine why he was recently described as “a veteran music journalist.”
Raised on rock, powered by punk, and still convinced that “American Pie” was written by Fanny Farmer and is best played with Meatloaf, Thompson lists his five favorite artists as old and obscure; his favorite album is whispered quietly and he would like to see Richard and Linda Thompson’s “I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight” installed as the go-to song for the sad, sappy ending for every medical drama on TV.
Kurt Cobain, Phil Collins, Alice Cooper, Joan Jett, David Bowie, John Travolta, Eric Clapton, Jackson Browne, Bob Marley, Roger Waters and the guy who sang that song in the jelly commercial are numbered among the myriad artists about whom Thompson has written books; he has contributed to the magazines Rolling Stone, Alternative Press, Mojo and Melody Maker; and he makes regular guest appearances on WXPN’s Highs in the Seventies show.
However, he has written well over one hundred books in a career that is almost as old as U2’s… whom he saw in a club when they first moved to London, and memorably described as “okay, but they’ll never get any place.” Similar pronouncements published on the future prospects of Simply Red, Pearl Jam and Wang Chung (oh, and Curiosity Killed The Cat as well) probably explain why he has never been anointed a Pop Culture Nostradamus. Although the fact that he was around to pronounce gloomily on them in the first place might determine why he was recently described as “a veteran music journalist.”
Raised on rock, powered by punk, and still convinced that “American Pie” was written by Fanny Farmer and is best played with Meatloaf, Thompson lists his five favorite artists as old and obscure; his favorite album is whispered quietly and he would like to see Richard and Linda Thompson’s “I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight” installed as the go-to song for the sad, sappy ending for every medical drama on TV.
Kurt Cobain, Phil Collins, Alice Cooper, Joan Jett, David Bowie, John Travolta, Eric Clapton, Jackson Browne, Bob Marley, Roger Waters and the guy who sang that song in the jelly commercial are numbered among the myriad artists about whom Thompson has written books; he has contributed to the magazines Rolling Stone, Alternative Press, Mojo and Melody Maker; and he makes regular guest appearances on WXPN’s Highs in the Seventies show.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
April 22, 2015
I’m fairly knowledgeable about ye olde Punk Rock, both from first hand experience, and having devoured many a musical tome and magazine article, and this is one of the very best punk memoirs I’ve read. Focussing on the all important 1976-77 period, Dave Thompson very credibly brings the era back to life through a mixture of his own memories and a summary of what was happening as the months rolled by.
Dave Thompson avoids analysing his account and this works particularly well. We are reminded that the term punk barely existed in 1976 and the stirrings of what would contribute to a seismic shake up of the UK music scene during the long hot Summer of 1976 were wide and varied and, depending on how you choose to construct the narrative, might embrace pub rock stalwarts like Dr Feelgood, Roogalator, Kilburn and the High Roads etc, or the emergence of Patti Smith and the Ramones etc, and so on and so on.
Dave Thompson newly arrived in London, having just left school, soaks up each and every experience as he meets some of the movers and shakers at the numerous gigs he attends. He has some great anecdotes to tell, the horrific racist reaction of the Reading festival crowd to the appearance of The Mighty Diamonds, early gigs by the Sex Pistols, the tragic tale of Dagenham Dave and The Stranglers, the Notting Hill Carnival 1976, punk bashing following the Grundy incident, and much more besides.
I am a couple of years younger than Dave Thompson so my own experiences are somewhat different however this account tallies with my own memories, and the evocation of late 1970s London is spot on. Like I say, this is one of the very best punk memoirs. If you’re interested in the era, the music, or London’s social history, this is essential.
Dave Thompson avoids analysing his account and this works particularly well. We are reminded that the term punk barely existed in 1976 and the stirrings of what would contribute to a seismic shake up of the UK music scene during the long hot Summer of 1976 were wide and varied and, depending on how you choose to construct the narrative, might embrace pub rock stalwarts like Dr Feelgood, Roogalator, Kilburn and the High Roads etc, or the emergence of Patti Smith and the Ramones etc, and so on and so on.
Dave Thompson newly arrived in London, having just left school, soaks up each and every experience as he meets some of the movers and shakers at the numerous gigs he attends. He has some great anecdotes to tell, the horrific racist reaction of the Reading festival crowd to the appearance of The Mighty Diamonds, early gigs by the Sex Pistols, the tragic tale of Dagenham Dave and The Stranglers, the Notting Hill Carnival 1976, punk bashing following the Grundy incident, and much more besides.
I am a couple of years younger than Dave Thompson so my own experiences are somewhat different however this account tallies with my own memories, and the evocation of late 1970s London is spot on. Like I say, this is one of the very best punk memoirs. If you’re interested in the era, the music, or London’s social history, this is essential.
December 25, 2012
This is one of my favorite books on the early punk scene and I've probably read almost all of them. I love it because it basically tells the story of the early UK punk scene without any attempt to analyze what was actually happenning. The author was just a young kid at the time who who not in any bands, but was just going to shows and documenting his experiences in a journal. This approach just made the book work for me; I was jealous that he got to see the Pistols, Clash, Adverts, Damned, etc.. when the whole punk scene exploded while I was thousands of miles away just dying to get my hands on the those early singles. Dave Thompson put us into that vibrant scene where everythng just changed dramatically over a few short months. I still love that music and am grateful to the author for letting us share what was an unbelievable life-changng experience.
January 19, 2011
In the spring of 1976, Dave Thompson was a 16-year-old London lad wrapping up secondary school and looking at an uncertain future in a country beset with rising unemployment and social strife. His major interest was music, and while he was open-minded and adventurous in his tastes, he had a very limited budget. As it turned out, this was a perfect combination for witnessing the emergence of British punk rock, and in "London's Burning" Thompson provides us with a fascinating and very engaging chronicle of 14 months spent immersed in one of the great watershed moments in the history of rock'n'roll.
Thompson, a long-time professional music writer who has authored dozens of books about bands, musical styles, and record collecting, among other topics, brings some finely-honed writing skills to this memoir, which moves with a frenetic pace and energy similar to the punk movement itself. The book opens with the Patti Smith Band's first shows in the UK in May 1976 and concludes with a June 1977 Bob Marley concert following the release of his Exodus album. In between these events Thompson takes us on a journey through the pubs, clubs, neighborhoods, and streets of London, where he meets a motley collection of young musicians and fans disgusted with the dead-end state of contemporary rock music and struggling to find their own voice through a more energetic and simple style. Inspiration comes from some American musicians like Patti Smith, Johnny Thunders, and Iggy Pop, as well as from the aggressively confrontational Sex Pistols who more than compensate for their initial musical limitations with an attitude that challenges every listener to disregard received notions about rock music and discover their own voice, a challenge that many take up.
A coherent definition of punk rock as a musical style has never been easy to come by, and Thompson's narrative is helpful in illustrating why. Punk arose from a variety of disparate sources, including young musicians just getting started as glam rock ran out of gas, provincial youth crudely aping simple songs they could (sort-of) play without the benefit of a musical education, bands hustling after meagre paid gigs in pubs, and slightly older musicians willing to try new styles in order to carve out a career niche. Most came from the lower end of the socio-economic ladder and in many instances from ethnic and cultural minority backgrounds. For many of these people, a drive for both clear personal expression and direct connections with audiences were much higher priorities than skilled musicianship and stage professionalism. The latter, in fact, seemed to create unwanted walls between performers and audiences. To the extent there was anything like an "ideological" concept of punk in its early phase, this was probably the result of public relations-minded individuals like Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren and Clash manager Bernie Rhodes, who sought to position their charges in conscious opposition to the dominant styles of rock music and manners.
As for the music itself, it tended to coalesce around the lowest-common-denominator forms: loud, fast, simple, and direct. British punk groups did much to expand the potential range of subject matter for rock lyrics, embracing everything from the mundane to the sublime, and Thompson makes very clear how the voices of women, homosexuals, and non-whites found creative outlets at the center of punk when such voices were either silenced or marginalized in other sectors of the rock world, bringing new energy and perspectives in their wake and making connections that helped expand punk's influence.
To this day many historical accounts of British punk rock ignore the enormous significance of reggae to its cultural milieu, but Thompson makes an excellent case for reggae as an indispensible part of punk's identity and probably more vital to its politics than the ham-fisted sloganeering of McLaren and Rhodes. In the book, Thompson meets his girlfriend at a reggae festival and soon takes up residence with her in a multicultural squat in the Notting Hill neighborhood in London, a major center for the West Indian population and also a frequent target of police abuse. Thompson is there in August 1976 when the police provoke a violent "riot" during a Notting Hill cultural fair and in the ensuing months his consciousness of the intersections of class, race, and gender oppression in an increasingly reactionary British political climate is raised to higher levels, gathering insights that also shed light on punk's engagement with the same issues.
Thompson argues that by the end of 1976, the British mass media had moved from ignoring punk, to belittling and patronizing it, to condemning it with open hostility and threats of retribution. While part of this vitriol was surely just an easy way of avoiding more difficult issues in contemporary Britain, its short-term effect did much to forge a popular mythology of punk rock (and punk rockers) as hateful and violent. In fact, this portrait was almost entirely false, as most punk rock musicians and fans were decidedly non-violent and socially tolerant. Hostile media attention, however, meant open season on punks from violent street hooligans, police, and club owners (who became reluctant to book punk bands). By the summer of 1977, the media finally decided to move on and Thompson concludes his memoir by suggesting that punk's delicate cohesion fell apart at this point as well. The music would go on, and new bands and sub-genres of punk would emerge in other places, but British punk's spontaneous growth phase was over.
Whether or not you agree with Thompson's interpretation - and there is much to argue with here - "London's Burning" is a really worthwhile attempt at explaining what made early British punk rock so exciting and inspiring to those who created it. Whether they realized it at the time or not, the British punks did much to cultivate the most democratic impulses in rock'n'roll, something that has happened every so often since the birth of the music itself, and it is this joy, humor, and rage that gave the music a new lease on life ... until next time.
Thompson, a long-time professional music writer who has authored dozens of books about bands, musical styles, and record collecting, among other topics, brings some finely-honed writing skills to this memoir, which moves with a frenetic pace and energy similar to the punk movement itself. The book opens with the Patti Smith Band's first shows in the UK in May 1976 and concludes with a June 1977 Bob Marley concert following the release of his Exodus album. In between these events Thompson takes us on a journey through the pubs, clubs, neighborhoods, and streets of London, where he meets a motley collection of young musicians and fans disgusted with the dead-end state of contemporary rock music and struggling to find their own voice through a more energetic and simple style. Inspiration comes from some American musicians like Patti Smith, Johnny Thunders, and Iggy Pop, as well as from the aggressively confrontational Sex Pistols who more than compensate for their initial musical limitations with an attitude that challenges every listener to disregard received notions about rock music and discover their own voice, a challenge that many take up.
A coherent definition of punk rock as a musical style has never been easy to come by, and Thompson's narrative is helpful in illustrating why. Punk arose from a variety of disparate sources, including young musicians just getting started as glam rock ran out of gas, provincial youth crudely aping simple songs they could (sort-of) play without the benefit of a musical education, bands hustling after meagre paid gigs in pubs, and slightly older musicians willing to try new styles in order to carve out a career niche. Most came from the lower end of the socio-economic ladder and in many instances from ethnic and cultural minority backgrounds. For many of these people, a drive for both clear personal expression and direct connections with audiences were much higher priorities than skilled musicianship and stage professionalism. The latter, in fact, seemed to create unwanted walls between performers and audiences. To the extent there was anything like an "ideological" concept of punk in its early phase, this was probably the result of public relations-minded individuals like Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren and Clash manager Bernie Rhodes, who sought to position their charges in conscious opposition to the dominant styles of rock music and manners.
As for the music itself, it tended to coalesce around the lowest-common-denominator forms: loud, fast, simple, and direct. British punk groups did much to expand the potential range of subject matter for rock lyrics, embracing everything from the mundane to the sublime, and Thompson makes very clear how the voices of women, homosexuals, and non-whites found creative outlets at the center of punk when such voices were either silenced or marginalized in other sectors of the rock world, bringing new energy and perspectives in their wake and making connections that helped expand punk's influence.
To this day many historical accounts of British punk rock ignore the enormous significance of reggae to its cultural milieu, but Thompson makes an excellent case for reggae as an indispensible part of punk's identity and probably more vital to its politics than the ham-fisted sloganeering of McLaren and Rhodes. In the book, Thompson meets his girlfriend at a reggae festival and soon takes up residence with her in a multicultural squat in the Notting Hill neighborhood in London, a major center for the West Indian population and also a frequent target of police abuse. Thompson is there in August 1976 when the police provoke a violent "riot" during a Notting Hill cultural fair and in the ensuing months his consciousness of the intersections of class, race, and gender oppression in an increasingly reactionary British political climate is raised to higher levels, gathering insights that also shed light on punk's engagement with the same issues.
Thompson argues that by the end of 1976, the British mass media had moved from ignoring punk, to belittling and patronizing it, to condemning it with open hostility and threats of retribution. While part of this vitriol was surely just an easy way of avoiding more difficult issues in contemporary Britain, its short-term effect did much to forge a popular mythology of punk rock (and punk rockers) as hateful and violent. In fact, this portrait was almost entirely false, as most punk rock musicians and fans were decidedly non-violent and socially tolerant. Hostile media attention, however, meant open season on punks from violent street hooligans, police, and club owners (who became reluctant to book punk bands). By the summer of 1977, the media finally decided to move on and Thompson concludes his memoir by suggesting that punk's delicate cohesion fell apart at this point as well. The music would go on, and new bands and sub-genres of punk would emerge in other places, but British punk's spontaneous growth phase was over.
Whether or not you agree with Thompson's interpretation - and there is much to argue with here - "London's Burning" is a really worthwhile attempt at explaining what made early British punk rock so exciting and inspiring to those who created it. Whether they realized it at the time or not, the British punks did much to cultivate the most democratic impulses in rock'n'roll, something that has happened every so often since the birth of the music itself, and it is this joy, humor, and rage that gave the music a new lease on life ... until next time.
October 31, 2021
Frenetic overlook of the beginning of punk rock music from 1975-1976. Seems a bit thin at times but a great overview for fans and people who are curious. I found it interesting in the UK music scene where it started and then eventually moved to NYC. There was high inflation and many out of work at the time. The music reflected that frustration.
July 27, 2012
Great history of Punk Rock in London. Gives recommended playlists for each chapter.
July 18, 2017
Thompson's memoir is refreshing insofar as it's not another reflection of a band member, manager, or roadie; nor is it another in the growing number of oral histories of the era (though many people get their say in this book). Instead it's the reflections of a fan who was there at the nascent stage of British punk, when London was awash in poverty, squats, racial strife, and pop music excess. What I appreciate if the poignant but clear-eyed way he portrays being 16/17 in the midst of personal and cultural change.
December 28, 2025
Picked up a copy of this from a a second hand book store recently. It's about a guy who was never in any punk bands but was basically a fan of live rock music across London from the early 1970s.
Very cool to read from his perspective and he paints a great picture about how stagnant the music scene was before the Clash, The Damned and the Pistols came along.
Very well written and super easy to read, with some great insights from some one who was there at ground zero in 1976.
For any true fans of punk rock this is well worth reading.
Very cool to read from his perspective and he paints a great picture about how stagnant the music scene was before the Clash, The Damned and the Pistols came along.
Very well written and super easy to read, with some great insights from some one who was there at ground zero in 1976.
For any true fans of punk rock this is well worth reading.
January 23, 2020
The rise of punk in London from someone who was there. Not a band member, manager, venue owner, not even a roadie. Just a teenager who found something he could latch on to. Somewhere that gave his life some meaning. Different from the usual memoir from this era. A worthwhile addition to punk retrospectives.
Ray Smillie
Ray Smillie
February 19, 2009
London’s Burning by Dave Thompson is treading ground that has been trod many times before, the birth of punk: 1976-1977. As much as this might seem redundant, and the subtitle “TRUE ADVENTURES ON THE FRONTLINES OF PUNK” might seem a bit overdramatic, it does kind of embody Thompson’s approach to this time period, which is that of the anticipation and excitement of a young kid in a burgeoning new scene. It’s hard to read a punk memoir about this iconic era without an overwhelming sense of name-dropping, especially since Thompson is a well-known music journalist. However, Dave Thompson does cover these facets in his introduction and seems well aware of the baggage that comes with revisiting this subject.
The difference in London’s Burning is that Thompson watched the birth of punk through the mind of a wide-eyed teenager. One of my favorite passages is this, on page 78:
“You’re fifteen, sixteen years old, for Christ’s sake, which means you’re barely even human yet, just a walking talking piece of sponge, absorbing everything as though it’s the most exciting thing on earth, and then filtering out the dross when you pause to take a breath.
Patti Smith mattered to me because she was tearing down a sacred cow, and the Pistols were impressive because they then proceeded to slaughter it. Groups like Roogalator, the Feelgoods, the Rods, and the Heavy Metal Kids were important because they were so much fun, and the Ramones had an impact because they sounded like the best drugs were meant to make you feel.”
The sentiment here is what I like most about London’s Burning – the fact that Thompson as a teen does embody this spirit, embracing pub rock bands and indie icons alike. Each mattered for a specific reason, and that is totally indicated by his approach to this groundbreaking year, mentioning all of the bands that were important to him, not just the ones that sound cool. Not only does Thompson present himself as an excitable young kid, but most of the musicians involved with changing rock n’ roll forever are also illustrated as the curious, naïve, young kids that they were. This is appealing to me because honestly, who wants to hear about rock stars? I am more interested in the kids who started the scene regardless of the shitty response they got from the crowd, the kids who moved to London during one of the highest rates of unemployment in the city’s history, because they were just too stoked to start their own bands.
There definitely is some rock-idolatry, which is a little hard to swallow. On page 61 Thompson writes, “’Jesus, I’m twenty-one,’ Danny Kustow would despair at nights. ‘How can I ever become good enough to break into this music business, with all these great musicians like Pete Townshend and the like already before me?’” Granted, it’s understandable that younger kids in the 70’s would have stunted thoughts like this one, but that doesn’t make it any more digestible. This kind of sentiment can sometimes seem pretty dated.
Dave Thompson’s memoir of one very specific and influential year comes from the kind of attitude I like – unpretentious, appreciative, and real. Being a kid in punk should be exciting, and Thompson makes sure that the reader knows it started that way, too.
-- Kate Wadkins
Maximum Rocknroll
The difference in London’s Burning is that Thompson watched the birth of punk through the mind of a wide-eyed teenager. One of my favorite passages is this, on page 78:
“You’re fifteen, sixteen years old, for Christ’s sake, which means you’re barely even human yet, just a walking talking piece of sponge, absorbing everything as though it’s the most exciting thing on earth, and then filtering out the dross when you pause to take a breath.
Patti Smith mattered to me because she was tearing down a sacred cow, and the Pistols were impressive because they then proceeded to slaughter it. Groups like Roogalator, the Feelgoods, the Rods, and the Heavy Metal Kids were important because they were so much fun, and the Ramones had an impact because they sounded like the best drugs were meant to make you feel.”
The sentiment here is what I like most about London’s Burning – the fact that Thompson as a teen does embody this spirit, embracing pub rock bands and indie icons alike. Each mattered for a specific reason, and that is totally indicated by his approach to this groundbreaking year, mentioning all of the bands that were important to him, not just the ones that sound cool. Not only does Thompson present himself as an excitable young kid, but most of the musicians involved with changing rock n’ roll forever are also illustrated as the curious, naïve, young kids that they were. This is appealing to me because honestly, who wants to hear about rock stars? I am more interested in the kids who started the scene regardless of the shitty response they got from the crowd, the kids who moved to London during one of the highest rates of unemployment in the city’s history, because they were just too stoked to start their own bands.
There definitely is some rock-idolatry, which is a little hard to swallow. On page 61 Thompson writes, “’Jesus, I’m twenty-one,’ Danny Kustow would despair at nights. ‘How can I ever become good enough to break into this music business, with all these great musicians like Pete Townshend and the like already before me?’” Granted, it’s understandable that younger kids in the 70’s would have stunted thoughts like this one, but that doesn’t make it any more digestible. This kind of sentiment can sometimes seem pretty dated.
Dave Thompson’s memoir of one very specific and influential year comes from the kind of attitude I like – unpretentious, appreciative, and real. Being a kid in punk should be exciting, and Thompson makes sure that the reader knows it started that way, too.
-- Kate Wadkins
Maximum Rocknroll
June 1, 2015
A fun venture back to the mid-70s and London. Definitely the best thing I've read from Mr. Thompson, who seems to drop the know-it-all attitude he brings to other works and writes from direct experience, being on the front lines when Punk exploded. Here he really does know it all, or at least the people he writes about, like TV Smith and Gaye Advert of the Adverts, Rat Scabies and Captain Sensible of the Damned, and being on the periphery of the Sex Pistols self-mythology as it was being created. Also a good read to understand the influence that the reggae scene played and why so much of the Clash and other's musical output at the time had touches of reggae throughout, as well as the genesis of the second wave of ska and the creation of Two-Tone. Mr. Thompson also brings to light some of the bands that were part of that highly influential scene but didn't make an impact in the States, like the Tom Robinson Band and the Maniacs. Cool stuff to check out on YouTube and get lost down the rabbit hole for awhile. He does spend way too much time writing about the fear and violence perpetrated by thugs and the police on anyone that looked "punk", I imagine it was a fearsome time, but we get the point, no need to keep circling back to it every late chapter. All and all, a quick, fun and friendly read.
June 24, 2016
Library Journal Review:
The social, political, economical, and musical elements that coalesced into shaping the genre of punk have been well documented. However, very few books tell the early beginnings of punk from the perspective of a sixteen-year old in the midst of a musical revolution. Dave Thompson was that kid, working in a record store in London in the late 1970s and witnessing first-hand the humble beginnings of punk rock. Although the narrative is personal, the emphasis throughout is on musicians who influenced and launched the DIY (do-it-yourself) movement. Thompson covers the influential moments of both well-known acts (Patti Smith, the Sex Pistols, the Damned) and lesser known acts (the Adverts, the Maniacs, and Roogalator). As one of rock music’s most prolific authors, Dave Thompson has authored more than a hundred books over the last 25 years. This most recent effort reminds us of what punk music looked like before it became a career and a topic in college classrooms. Recommended for all public libraries; this will particularly appeal to punk enthusiasts, musicians, and every member of the punk generation.
The social, political, economical, and musical elements that coalesced into shaping the genre of punk have been well documented. However, very few books tell the early beginnings of punk from the perspective of a sixteen-year old in the midst of a musical revolution. Dave Thompson was that kid, working in a record store in London in the late 1970s and witnessing first-hand the humble beginnings of punk rock. Although the narrative is personal, the emphasis throughout is on musicians who influenced and launched the DIY (do-it-yourself) movement. Thompson covers the influential moments of both well-known acts (Patti Smith, the Sex Pistols, the Damned) and lesser known acts (the Adverts, the Maniacs, and Roogalator). As one of rock music’s most prolific authors, Dave Thompson has authored more than a hundred books over the last 25 years. This most recent effort reminds us of what punk music looked like before it became a career and a topic in college classrooms. Recommended for all public libraries; this will particularly appeal to punk enthusiasts, musicians, and every member of the punk generation.
June 10, 2009
The book's main strength is that it looks at the cool bands kicking around London before punk broke, and examines why or why they didn't flourish once punk coalesced, or congealed, e.g., The Stranglers, The Kilburns, Heavy Metal Kids, and Roogalator, and what the bands that did take off stole from those left behind.
It also hits on the usual topics, the Roxy, rising unemployment, the relative staleness of the bigger groups, racism and the Notting Hill Carnival riot, and does an overall fine job of relating what the author and his girlfriend felt about it all at the time, especially their exhilaration of being in the middle of something new, vital and true to their lives.
The last couple of chapters, however, felt rushed and a bit out of place, but nonetheless any of fan of this music will find something to like in this enjoyable account of a year that changed music for the better.
It also hits on the usual topics, the Roxy, rising unemployment, the relative staleness of the bigger groups, racism and the Notting Hill Carnival riot, and does an overall fine job of relating what the author and his girlfriend felt about it all at the time, especially their exhilaration of being in the middle of something new, vital and true to their lives.
The last couple of chapters, however, felt rushed and a bit out of place, but nonetheless any of fan of this music will find something to like in this enjoyable account of a year that changed music for the better.
September 9, 2009
I'm a sucker for these "history of..." music books. That said, many of them are crap. This one is pretty good due to the fact that it was written, not by an industry insider or sycophantic hanger-on, but by a regular bloke who happened to be a big fan of London's live music scene in the 70's. I could certainly relate to Thompson's almost compulsive need to cram as many shows as he could into the week. I did the same thing for a good decade in the 80's.
I admire Thompson's focus on some of the more peripheral bands like Roogalator, Maniacs and Heavy Metal Kids. No chauvinist, Thompson gives props to the NY bands, especially Patti Smith Group and The Ramones.
I admire Thompson's focus on some of the more peripheral bands like Roogalator, Maniacs and Heavy Metal Kids. No chauvinist, Thompson gives props to the NY bands, especially Patti Smith Group and The Ramones.
October 20, 2009
OK, this might sound a little strange for me considering the subject matter...but I couldn't finish this one. I just got bored with it, can you believe it?! It's basically a big long list of all the punks the author knew before they became famous. There are some interesting parts, mostly having to do with social and political events leading up to and including the year this book takes place, which is why I rated it more than one star. And to be fair, beyond the Jam and the Clash, I was just more into American punk than British. If you dug the British scene more, you might think this book is great. But still---Lexicon Devil it ain't.
September 14, 2012
Eh... there were moments of brilliance, but on some level this failed to exceed. The personal experience of the early days of punk comes across, but it would have benefitted from a small-scale/large-scale shift.
February 3, 2011
The writing was pretty dry and I did skim a bit, but it was really interesting and fun :)
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews