Classic Rock - Motor Head (2019-07)

Salad Daze

Wayne Hussey OMNIBUS

The memoirs of an O.G. –

Original Goth.

As guitarist with the Sisters Of

Mercy and leader of The

Mission, Wayne Hussey was

one of goth’s chief architects.

Salad Daze is that scene’s first

major autobiography, charting

Hussey’s journey from geeky

Mormon kid to fully paid-up

hedonist in shades and

paisley shirt.

While his formative years are

too happy to be interesting,

things shift into gear when he

renounces religion and moves

to the den of iniquity that is late-

70s Liverpool. From then on it’s

a blur of rushed fumblings,

cheap chemicals and colourful

characters, among them

Courtney Love and Dead Or

Alive frontman Pete Burns.

But the highlight of the book

is his turbulent time with the

Sisters. Axes are gleefully

ground and the dry ice is blown

away – Hussey pegs singer/

nemesis Andrew Eldritch as less

Dark Lord, more “Rigsby from

Rising Damp”. That alone is

worth the price of admission,

and makes up for the fact it all

screeches to a halt just before

Hussey forms The Mission and

things get really interesting.

Roll on part two.

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Dave Everley

Woodstock

Diary 1969

Wienerworld

Illuminating darling

companion to main movie.

Originally created

around the

festival’s 25th

anniversary, D.A.

Pennebaker’s

Woodstock Diary

raided vaults still bulging after

Michael Wadleigh’s original epic

to create three hour-long films

that added memories from

organisers. First released on

DVD to mark 2009’s 40th

anniversary, and now reactivated

for the half-century, the diaries

have their own anarchic charm,

including more behind-the-

scenes footage along with acts

that didn’t make the original

movie, including The Band,

Mountain, Johnny Winter,

Incredible String Band, Ravi

Shankar, Janis Joplin, Tim Hardin

and Quill.

Artists who did appear before

are given different edits or even

songs, including The Who piling

viciously through My Generation,

Grace Slick magisterially belting

out White Rabbit, and Hendrix’s

astonishing Woodstock flight

showcasing one of his greatest

solo improvisations.

Capturing the good side of

Woodstock’s craziness, audacity

and naive optimism, it’s worth

seeing, even as an ultimate

antithesis of today’s corporate

vicar’s tea parties.

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Kris Needs

Record Play

Pause

Stephen Morris CONSTABLE

Joy Division and New Order’s

stories, told through their

drummer’s eyes.

Joy Division and

New Order are

a pair of bands

whose every

action, show,

record and

dispute has been written about

a thousand times (particularly

the disputes), and both Bernard

Sumner and Peter Hook have

written their accounts. Now

Gillian Gilbert’s husband (and

JD/NO drummer) Stephen

Morris steps in.

As is only right from the driest,

wittiest drummer in rock, Record

Play Pause is a deadpan, hilarious

and often moving account of the

twin stories of two of the most

important bands in 20th-century

rock music. Morris offers

a personal memoir that avoids

the score-settling his bandmates

engaged in, with anecdotal

brilliance and a love of music

that explains why, over 40 years

since Joy Division released their

first record, Stephen Morris is

still playing.

One of the best music books

by someone who actually

makes music.

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David Quantick

I Know Better

Now: My Life

Before, After

And During

The Ramones

Richie Ramone BACKBEAT

The man who wrote Somebody

Put Something In My Drink

writes a book.

For just four years

Richie Ramone

was at the centre

of the Ramones

maelstrom, yet it’s

that short span

which seems to have defined

his entire life. It’s surely why the

subtitle of this book is at pains to

emphasise the rest of the story:

‘There’s more to my tale than

the Ramones, honest.’ And with

P

art socio-political documentary,

part music film, Asbury Park, charts

the turbulent backdrop to a small

part of the Jersey Shore that helped define

rock and soul. It begins with the

demarcation of the East and West sides of

the city – literally on either side of the

tracks: the predominantly black West

Side, home to a fabled jazz and blues

scene, and to the east the altogether more

straightlaced community across town.

Somewhere in the middle was the

Upstage club, a crammed space that was

an early stepping stone for Bruce

Springsteen and the E Street Band.

Although the film ends with some

exclusive and stellar live jam footage of

Springsteen, Little Steven and Southside

Johnny tearing it up at the Paramount in

2017, it’s the story of the town’s history

and its fiery demise that really draws the

viewer in. How the beach reserved for the

black population was in fact the sewage

outlet along the shore. How mass

unemployment and ruinous living

conditions eventually led to the riots that

tore Asbury Park apart on July 4, 1970.

Little Steven and Springsteen are

especially good on capturing those

simmering tensions, as they are on the

days setting the Upstage alight in an

entirely different way. The Upstage

quickly became a focal point where

young musicians from all over the shore

would gather and jam. It was run by Tom

Potter, who cannily built the PA into the

stage so that any passing musicians could

get up and play. Springsteen cemented

his reputation there. “By the time I got off

the stage I’d made a lot of new friends,” he

says. He would later play there with a kid

called David Sancious, and offer him a

gig with his new E Street Band.

It took decades to rebuild the city, and

music’s redemptive power, in the shape of

the Stone Pony venue, helped bring music

back to Asbury Park. The Light Of Day

Music Festival and the LGBT-friendly

Paradise Club all helped drag Asbury Park

back on to its feet. “It was a little more

open, gay bars,” says Springsteen. “It was

still dangerous for those folks, but there

were places you could go that made

Asbury unique.”

As the camera pulls back to frame the

sunlight hitting the shore, the East Side is

beginning to thrive, but the West Side is

still a place in dire need of development,

like the rest of the city waiting to open

up again.

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Philip Wilding

The fall and rise of an iconic area of New York, told

by Springsteen, Southside Johnny and others.

Asbury Park: Riot,

Redemption, Rock ‘N’ Roll

Dir: Tom Jones

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