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BACKSTAGE BABES AREA |
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BOOK REVIEWS |
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Best Books ...... Some of these may be out of print by the time you read this guide but check your local library for any titles you can't find in a bookstore. Non-Fiction Rock and Hard Places: Travels to backstages, frontlines and assorted sideshows by Andrew Mueller
I first met Andrew
in London back in 1995 when he was writing for Melody Maker
and I was impressed by his first book. It's a brilliant account of
his experiences on press assignments with various bands all over the
world. It is very funny in places, describing an early encounter with
Courtney Love back in 1991 when Hole were supporting Nirvana in LA,
to meeting Eddie Vedder travelling on the 1992 Lollapalooza festival
tour, to Radiohead in the US and experiences all over the place with
U2 on their 1998 PopMart tour. Lost in Music by Giles Smith
An excellent
personal view of growing up listening to pop music, something anyone
can relate to! The title says it all . This book can be put into the
semi-biography category for being Giles Smith's own influences but
like with Andrew Muellers's book, its author is only the observer.
Pamela Des Barres
is most known for her notorious groupie days as Jimmy Page's
girlfriend, amongst others (see Top Rock Chicks) but she's
also a successful author and this is one of her best. Rock Bottom
is a compilation of the true stories behind several rock tragedies,
many of who Pamela knew personally. There are the details of the
deaths of Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Marc Bolan and more, Sid
Barrett of Pink Floyd's journey to self destruction, the murder of
Brian Jones and plenty more on Sid Vicious, Kurt Cobain, John Bonham
from Led Zeppelin, Keith Moon, Johnny Thunders, Marvin Gaye, Jimi
Hendrix and Eddie Cochran.
Like Rock Bottom
this covers the true stories behind the myths and mad rumours of rock
legends whose wild excess and over indulgence lead to destruction.
There are contribution from various different music writers. Almost
everyone featured in Rock Bottom is in here, plus many more. How to Make It in the Music Business (Virgin career guides) by Sian Pattenden
This is a very
good guide to absolutely every job there is in the music
industry. The last chapter is on how to be a Wife/Husband/Lodger!
Author Sian used to be a features editor for pop magazine Smash Hits
and has written for a number of music magazines since, so she knows
many of contacts in her book are people she knows. This book
originally came out in 1998, so some of the contact addresses will
now be out of date but each chapter, on all kinds of jobs from being
a band tour manager, to a press officer to as pop star, is spot on
and I would recommend anyone out there wanting to work in the
business to read this book. Please Kill Me by Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain
Anyone who's a fan
of the American punk scene from the 1970s until present must read
this! It's packed with stories and quotes starting from the formation
of New York punk way back in the late 1960s with Lou Reed and the
Velvet Underground at Andy Warhol's Factory. Every punk band is
featured from Iggy Pop and The Stooges, to The Clash, Sex Pistols and
Nancy Spungen, New York Dolls, The Ramones, Blondie, Television and
loads more. Black Vinyl, White Powder by Simon Napier-Bell This book looks into the history and changes within the music business over the last thirty years. It couldn't have been written by anyone better, as Simon Napier-Bell is a well-known band manager. Over the years he's managed The Yardbirds, Marc Bolan and T-Rex, Wham! And 1980s New Romantic group, Japan.
Biography Wonderland Avenue: Tales of Glamour and Excess by Danny Sugerman
A true Rock 'n'
Roll life story, written by the author of The Door's biography No
one Here Gets out Alive. This is an interesting exciting and dark
account of Danny's wild youth growing up in Los Angeles. He
befriended Jim Morrison in his early teens and ended up working for
The Doors fanclub but all this eventually led to a serious heroin
addiction and near-death, all by the time he was 21! This is one of
the best books I've read by someone who got to hang around with rock
legends but managed to survive the drug hazed madness to tell the tale. Courtney Love: The Real Story by Poppy Z. Brite
&ldots; and this is
the real story! Everything is in her, from her disfunctional
childhood to wild days as an exotic dancer in the Far East, living in
Liverpool in the 1980s, following various bands on the Seattle scene,
to the formation of Hole and her infamous meeting with Kurt, this is
about the only book Courtney herself approved of and it's excellent.
She's one true Rock 'n' Roll survivor and this book tells all. (See Top
Rock Chicks profile). Marilyn Manson: The Long Hard Road Out of Hell by Marilyn Manson
Written by the man
himself, his story tells of how the geeky, spotty kid called Brian
Warner became one of the most successful and controversial rock
showmen of today. There are stories of on-the-road excess, numerous
band line-up changes, brushes with the law and Satanism. Tales of
mistreatment of groupies and drug use may offend! But this book shows
Brian, a.k.a Marilyn Manson, is an intelligent person and it's no
surprise that he admits that before he became a rock star, he wanted
to be a journalist or an author. He is also a keen artist and poet,
his story isn't just an interest for dedicated Marilyn Manson fans
but for anyone interested in rock music in general and the crazy
hedonistic lifestyle that often accompanies it. The Dirt: The Autobiography of Motley Crue by Motley Crue
They were the
wildest, most outrageous 'hair band' of the 1980s and nobody
partied as hard as they did. Motley Crue fought like a bunch of wild
wolves on acid and caused utter mayhem on tours. This is similar to
the Aerosmith autobiography Walk This Way, plenty of bad
behaviour, womanising and rock star excess! Tainted Life by Marc Almond As lead singer of 1980s New Romantic favourite Soft Cell, Marc scored several Top 10 Hits and the infamous song Tainted Love (actually a cover of a 1970s song by Marc Bolan's girlfriend Gloria Jones) was a number one smash in 1981, only to be re-released and be a hit again years later and covered again by Marilyn Manson in 2002! Marc has also been a successful solo artist and re-formed Soft Cell for 1980s reunion tours. His story is exciting and in a lot of places, very out of control but wonderfully eccentric.
Fiction Rock Star by Jackie Collins
Any Jackie Collins
novel is packed with glamour and the men are usually complete studs
and the women complete bitches. This one is Jackie at her best - the
story of a guitar hero called Kris Phoenix and his journey on the
road to superstardom, beginning with a present day scene, to the main
character's past hazy rock 'n' roll days starting out in a band in
the 1960s. There's the usual scandal, drugs, womanising and
outrageous characters - that are obviously based on real people! Namedropper by Emma Forrest
This is Emma's
first novel and it's obvious that the story is heavily based on her
experiences while writing for New Musical Express. It's about
a teenage girl's adventures with two very different rock stars she
befriends and the depressed wannabe she becomes besotted with; it's
funny, bitchy and in some places sad. Powder by Kevin Sampson
A story about a
rock band who are fictitious but, funnily enough, seem extremely like
Oasis! There's plenty of wild behaviour, true-to-life action and
chapters of sex, drugs and rock'n'roll. Lonely Planet Bay by Barney Hoskins Sometime music journalist Barney probably loosely based this story on Courtney Love and British rock journalist extraordinaire Everett True (who is mentioned in several Nirvana and Courtney Love biographies). It's about a notorious female rock star with a drug habit and a middle-aged music writer who becomes obsessed with her. There's a destructive and shocking ending but I won't give away too much! |
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