Hell Bent for Leather
Confessions of a Heavy Metal Addict
-
- $9.99
-
- $9.99
Publisher Description
A witty and self-deprecating memoir about headbanging your way through growing up.
Seb Hunter was a Heavy Metal fan and he's not proud. This is the story of his misguided 15-year Heavy Metal mission: from the first guitar (his dad's), to the first gig (conquering Winchester with his riffs), on through groupies and girlfriends and too many drugs to a faltering career in London, where outrageous egos, artistic differences and the dreaded arrival of Grunge (and a much needed haircut) kill the Heavy Metal dream.
Along the way Seb imparts the important distinctions between Thrash Metal and Glam and casts his connoisseur’s eye over the Metal guitar. You’ll learn when to play a drum solo, the correct way to wear Spandex and exactly what to do when you're in the middle of a field at the Donington Festival and you desperately need a piss.
Affectionate, irreverent, and very funny, Hell Bent For Leather is a moving story about growing up, of playing air guitar in your bedroom, of living with parental disapproval and of struggling with the laughter of your friends. It is a memoir about the glorious adolescent obsessions everybody has but no-one will admit to.
Featuring music from: AC/DC, Iron Maiden, Led Zeppelin, Judas Priest, Black Sabbath, Slayer, Kiss, W.A.S.P., Aerosmith The Scorpians and Guns ‘n’ Roses.
Reviews
'It's simple to milk laughs from metal, but surely much harder to use the genre to write a book that's simultaneously hilarious, strangely moving and which identifies the very essence of why music is so important to life. So raise a devil's horn salute to Seb Hunter, whose self-depreciating memoir of an adolescence dominated by Kiss and Iron Maiden rivals Giles Smith's Lost In Music as a perceptive and witty study of musical obsession. Anyone who has ever been in a rubbish band will wince with recognition at Hunter's doomed bid to become a rock icon, but metal's loss is writing's gain. Magic.' Q Magazine
'Hunter's memoir manages to be both funny and genuinely touching as he relives the developments that shook the metal world to its stack-heeled foundations.' Guardian
About the author
Seb Hunter was born in 1971 and went to a variety of schools in England before throwing it all away to become a rock 'n' roll star, at which he eventually failed. Since then he has worked in the book trade and currently lives in London.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In the mold of Chuck Klosterman's cult hit Fargo Rock City, Hunter brings a British accent to this exploration of the pop cultural phenomenon of heavy metal music and culture. Mixing his memories of small-town England with an encyclopedic knowledge of heavy metal, Hunter creates a book that, thanks to its combination of poignancy and hilarity, is as infectious as a well-crafted power ballad. Hunter's earnest take on the usual who's who of the metal world (Anthrax: "They were the U2 of Metal") is dead-on, but he truly shines when he goes the extra mile to give the unwritten rules that heavy metal bands and their fans must follow (true metal bands must release a double live album; "When it comes to coats you chose between two: denim or leather"). And not only does Hunter know the rules, he follows them too as he teaches himself the guitar and grows his hair long. Despite starting metal band after metal band (from Armageddon's Ring to Cat Ballou), his ill-fated attempts to follow in his heroes' footsteps never reach the heights of his rock and roll dreams. Finally, as years of believing in the fantasy world of heavy metal collide with the responsibilities and truths of the real world, Hunter must decide if the "rock and roll all nite and party every day" lifestyle is really for him. Given his love of Kurt Cobain and inclusion of Led Zeppelin's Physical Graffiti as a top five metal album of all time, true metalhead readers will have a great time disagreeing with some of Hunter's observations. Everyone else who reads this book will just have a great time. Photos.
