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allanheron's reviews
682 reviews
A Howlin' Wind: Pub Rock and the birth of New Wave by John Blaney
4.0
This is a very enjoyable book following the threads from the mod era of the 60's through to the end of 70's when Costello, Dury, Edmunds and Lowe were as near to the top of the pile as they were ever going to get.
There's a whole range of supporting players but the key men are Dave Robinson and Andrew Jakeman who, one way or another, seemed to have their fingers in every important musical pie going.
Personally, this represents a journey through a significant part of my own musical life and it was good to be able to put some flesh on an otherwise familiar tale.
Particular credit for the writing about Ian Dury. Oddly, it was very late in the book before the author mentioned Dury's history with polio particularly given the emphasis on the outsider image generated by the Kilburns. But the paragraphs on Dury's re-recording of Wake Up And Make Love To Me and finding his voice were spine-tingling.
I did think what happened to Chiswick Records was left uncommented on - once both labels came into the story the focus moved very swiftly onto Stiff.
Also, whilst the author has done a good job there were some frustrating lapses in detail (e.g. Tony Ashton was not the bassist in Family but the keyboard player. He's hardly an obscure name) and allows his prejudices too much oxygen (e.g. whether you like them or not, neither ELP, Yes or Genesis were playing stadiums in 1972).
The final section is a Where Are They Now? which develops a funny running joke about Sean Tyla who seems to have a link one way or the other with just about everyone else in the book
There's a whole range of supporting players but the key men are Dave Robinson and Andrew Jakeman who, one way or another, seemed to have their fingers in every important musical pie going.
Personally, this represents a journey through a significant part of my own musical life and it was good to be able to put some flesh on an otherwise familiar tale.
Particular credit for the writing about Ian Dury. Oddly, it was very late in the book before the author mentioned Dury's history with polio particularly given the emphasis on the outsider image generated by the Kilburns. But the paragraphs on Dury's re-recording of Wake Up And Make Love To Me and finding his voice were spine-tingling.
I did think what happened to Chiswick Records was left uncommented on - once both labels came into the story the focus moved very swiftly onto Stiff.
Also, whilst the author has done a good job there were some frustrating lapses in detail (e.g. Tony Ashton was not the bassist in Family but the keyboard player. He's hardly an obscure name) and allows his prejudices too much oxygen (e.g. whether you like them or not, neither ELP, Yes or Genesis were playing stadiums in 1972).
The final section is a Where Are They Now? which develops a funny running joke about Sean Tyla who seems to have a link one way or the other with just about everyone else in the book