The Wrong Outfit

by Al Gregg

'The Wrong Outfit' by Al Gregg, is a powerful novel about a boy called Adam Nedman, who grows up through the 1970's and 80's and is greatly affected by both Football and Punk. Perhaps Adam was just in the wrong place at the wrong time? Or perhaps he was in the right place but at the wrong moment? He could never quite work it out. Or maybe it was just from that very first moment? Mayberight there, right then. From birth. Like he was marked out by something. Like he was . . . . Damned. Well, that's how it felt sometimes. From home life to football terrace. Through school dazeto punk chaos. Perhaps there had never been any doubt? Adam was in the wrong outfit . . . . 'At times, a journey into Punk Rock's own "Heart of Darkness" Al realistically captures the moment Punk Rock finally implodes. If you want to know what it was like to be a young Punk Rocker, on the ground, at the time - you won't find a better/sharper book than this' Dave Parsons (Sham 69) 'A brilliantly talented new writer' Honey Bane 'Replete with childlike wonderment and an aficionado'sknowledge, Al Gregg might just as well do for Chelsea and Punk Rock, as what Nick Hornby did for Arsenal and Bruce Springsteen. A must for all purveyors of thepunk movement. An absolute must for all football fans' David Marx (Forward writer for Alex Ogg's'No More Heroes')

416 pages, Paperback

First published August 23, 2010

Reviews

[Nathan Hillyer · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really really wanted to like this book more. I could see that Al Gregg had put a lot into it, and the subject matter is all stuff I am into as well, especially the bands he writes about. Growing up as a an early punk is something I can relate to, so I kept wondering why I was having trouble with it. Then a couple of sections helped me realize the difficulty. I assume this is not really a fictional work, but it pantomimes a work of fiction in the third person from the perspective of 'Adam.' But this falters a few times when he writes for example, "I think after a while the Head was worried about Adam becoming part of the furniture." The 'I' appears conspicuously like an observer out of nowhere, but the 'I' is inherently Adam. So, I accepted that this is basically an autobiographical work of Gregg's life. This is where the motivation of The Wrong Outfit loses its sense of direction because the book doesn't seem sure what it wants to be. The advantage of fiction is that one can embellish a story with intrigue, conflicts, character development, and make things happen that the reader will become hooked into. The problem with autobiography is that our honest lives are seldom as interesting as fiction UNLESS we take some pretty huge risks. Otherwise it is a collection of anecdotes. The necessary risk for autobiography is rigorous honesty and vulnerability. One has to dig rather deep into areas where the author and even his or her friends might feel naked. I understood this wouldn't completely happen pretty early on in the book when Adam is given 'special treatment' at his first boarding school because something is wrong at home. On the one hand, it skirts the edge of vulnerability because we never see nor experience what that is wrong - ever. My thought was - OK, it's none of the reader's business. ??? None of the reader's business... Huh? Yeah, it might not be our business, but then why read it? The reader either should be identifying with the writer/character as a human being, or just leave it out completely. We all have sensitive material in our lives, but the more one leaves out, the more the reader feels like he or she isn't trusted with a life being put on display in the first place. A whole chapter is dedicated to Adam copping off with two girls at the same time at a teenage sneakaway piss up in a field of haystacks, but we rarely are given more than a nod to other girlfriends in Adam's life as affecting him at all. Adam gets kicked out of the house by his parents, but we have no idea why or what happened. Might not be such a big deal, but why not clarify it? In fact, getting to know the people in Adam's life takes a backseat to describing Chelsea matches and bands. I don't mind that it is Chelsea particularly, but a LOT of what is written is like reading a match day program or historical team report, stuff the avid fan might be nostalgic for but the average reader doesn't need to be bogged down with. The team itself doesn't matter because I managed to read Fever Pitch about Horby's Arsenal fanaticism without any trouble. The Chelsea parts that grab the reader are when we are given a story about traveling away to Millwall or Luton because the writing is about the tension of the experience from the character's psyche. These human moments drove me forward in the pages, especially when Adam confronts his disillusionment with the racist fans in the terraces. Similarly, being stalked and victimized by racist skinheads at the last Sham 69 gig or on the way to see a band play in London give us a glimpse at a character in peril and survival. I have had similar experiences and feelings of disillusionment, so it resonated. But then a lot of the writing is about bands as if it is being written for a music press article. This band did this and had these members, and they recorded this with this producer who was brilliant because he was in this other band, which had these brilliant songs etc. I found myself skimming over large sections of this type of writing even though this is music I like. So, in the end, I just kept getting frustrated by my own expectations or desires for what the book could be. Was it fiction? Was it simply an autobiographical collection of anecdotes written for a select group of people in the author's life? Was it a history of Chelsea from the eyes of a fan or a history of punk bands from the eyes of a fan? The answer is that it is a mix of all of that. It may be geared to only a specific type of reader like a friend of the author or someone who is having fun reminiscing. Ironically, the second to last paragraph of the book completes the book with a very poignant reflection from the character in his surroundings in time and space. I highlighted it, in fact, because it was the kind of thing I wanted more of. But here is the thing: my assessment of this book is because I thought it had a lot of potential in a direction I wished it could have taken. Others might enjoy the memory ride.