Do You Believe in the Power of Rock & Roll?
Forty Years of Music Writing from the Frontline
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- £9.99
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- £9.99
Publisher Description
Do You Believe in the Power of Rock & Roll? is a history of alternative rock from John Robb, with the music still ringing in his ears. This collection follows John’s journey from the late 1970s, when he was first caught up in punk’s high-octane thrill, to the present day, via the early days of the rave scene, the birth of electronic and techno, and myriad bands that spun off on their own idiosyncratic paths.
John was the first person to write about Nirvana, he coined the term Britpop, and he documented the Stone Roses’ rise out of Manchester before anyone else was interested. He was at every pivotal gig, and has interviewed every key player in the business, including Jordan, the queen of punk, founding father of new American rock Steve Albini, goth-rock guitarist Daniel Ash, infamous Oasis co-founder Noel Gallagher, and music greats like Lemmy and Poly Styrene.
Few others have witnessed first-hand so many important moments of the last forty years of rock history. Here, they come together to form the essential history of a personal quest to document the ever-changing soundtrack of the modern world.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this exhilarating compendium, Robb (The Art of Darkness), bassist of the British post-punk band The Membranes, compiles 40 years' worth of interviews in which he asked musicians the title question. Following the punk scene from the Hacienda nightclub in Manchester, England, to its spread across America as it morphed and mutated, Robb spoke to Nirvana about their guitar-smashing antics and "scuzzed pop-punk anthems"; Aphex Twin on his rise in the "nascent Cornish rave scene"; and Echo & the Bunnymen about their musical forebears, including David Bowie and Brian Eno. Shedding light on the role of political unrest, social change, and technological advancement in punk's musical evolution into post-punk and grunge, Robb's interviews capture both the genre's dynamic history and continued relevance to music fans as an outlet for an anti-establishment ethos: "Punk is like a virus throughout history.... It's passed on to the other generations," according to Jordan, a trailblazing punk fashion icon who worked at Sex, the London clothing boutique owned by Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren in the mid-1970s. Music fans nostalgic for the spiked hair, thrashing guitar riffs, and electric energy of the "punk revolution" will be eager to get their hands on this.
