My
first book! 'A Dysfunctional Success' is about right
- I got sick and tired in the eighties and nineties of
being described in the press as one of pop's great losers,
so I looked at my life and how I'd arrived at where I am
now (or was then) and realised that I was really quite
successful - it just depends on how you measure it. At
some point shortly before I finished the book I wrote:
'I
didn't want to write a showbiz biography, the sort that
chronicles the early struggle for fame, works through a
successful middle period, and chronicles the downfall via
a collection of lurid drug-related episodes and boring
contractual details, finally fizzling out in a collection
of lame anecdotes designed to demonstrate what a great
guy I am now that life's being good to me and I'm on the
straight and narrow. WH Smith is already full of crap like
that.'
Then it
dawned on me that that was quite possibly what I'd done -
except that I don't deal in anecdotes - I hate anecdotes
- the very idea of anecdotes pisses me off. Anecdotes are
the province of middle-aged men - fleece-wearing middle-aged
men with large varifocal glasses who prop themselves up on
one arm against an available surface, cross one leg over
the other, and with a jutting hip launch into yet another
amusing anecdote. I don't do that. (Please God I don't
do that!!) I went on to point out
'...mine
has much more textured wallpaper, through-lounges and irrelevent
detail than most, which could well be its saving grace.'
And
I don't go into contractual detail though there is a fair
amount of lurid stuff in the later part of the book. But
mostly it's about growing up - life in the sixties and seventies
in suburban South East England, being an art student in the
frozen North East, renting flats, forming bands, falling
over and getting up again. And it isn't the story of Stiff
Records though they do get a mention.
The
best thing you can do now is buy a copy. |
