Green Day

by John Robb

After earning a loyal underground cult following, Green Day took their raw punk sound to a major label in 1994 with the release of their classic album Dookie , which went on to sell more than 10 million copies. Since then, the band has become a major mainstream rock act, and their unique mix of punk and garage has influenced an entire generation of musicians. Green Day’s ascension to the top of the charts is recorded here with insight from a host of band associates—among them Larry Livermore, the founder of Lookout Records; John Lucasey, owner of Studio 880, where the band recorded their American Idiot album; and Jon Ginoli, guitarist and singer with the band Pansy Division, who toured with Green Day on their Dookie tour.

128 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2008

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...