Mark Paytress

This book was hard to read because it had so many of the band's problems spelled out. I loved reading about Siouxie & the Banshees since they are one of my favorite groups, but not how many issues had to be resolved to get their music made. I also became uneasy with how they treated their many guitarists who came and left over the years. This book is for the dedicated fan (like me) but would be too much for the general reader. Not a biography per se but a series of interviews with the author broken into chapters chronologically over their long career. Marc Almond whom I like, is interviewed. Some time spent recalling LA but it is not usually spoken of in flattering terms. They played their first gigs at the Whiskey which at the time was a hard rock venue and probably not suited to their style of playing which is more theatrical and atmospheric. I've never seen them perform live and in the book Siouxsie Sioux (Susan Janet Ballion) says that they already played their last reunion tour after initially breaking up as a band. Siouxie says that she sometimes dressed in stage costumes with Native American affectations since she was fascinated by them as a child. Great information on the creative process and on some of their most famous songs. Photos, Index and Tour locations.… (mere)

A glossy album-style book with lots (I mean lots!) of Bowie photos from his childhood through to the late 1990s. Paytress is a very good writer and I enjoyed his text - the lyric-laced photo captions were fun. An excellent potted history of Bowie's cultural significance for the period covered.

My only gripe is the format of the book, which is arranged as a chronological examination of Bowie's changing styles, interspersed with "features" about significant subjects, such as collaborations with other artists, influences on Bowie's music and stage shows, etc. These are often plonked unceremoniously within the flow of the main text, often out of context with it, and on one occasion the flow is just cut off, with no continuation after the feature. But that's just nit-picking - it's still a great book for the Bowie fan and/or fashionista (only one of which I can claim title to).… (mere)

"A good concert is one you can't remember".

That's me; 52 rows back, 18 from the left...This seemed a great read to start with, but then I started getting confused about what a "good gig" was. I really think this book couyld have been one of the great coffee table almanacs if it had been more in-depth on the gigs noted, and call me old, but some of those listed, especially form the 90s onwards, seemed like fillers.

While it was great to see that Woodstock (both '69 and '99), Monterey, the original WOMAD, Live Aid, and other gatherings were included, they seemed very sparse on actual information about them which is not telling anyone who wasn't there anything about them or their histroical significance. Same goes with a lot of the band concerts - while the punk era seemed to get some detail added to them (especially around everyone's anti-heroes The Sex Pistols), some had little or nothing to say. There were some interesting insights from everyday people who attended, and more of this would have been great.

I was bemused that the Eighties was represented only by a few bands including Jesus and the Mary Chain, Prince, and Public Enemy, but as the decade really belonged to big-hair and new-age-romantics they were consipicously missing. And the 90s onwards (other than that written about Nirvana and Jeff Buckley) lost me completely and I just read through hoping for the end.

This does have some great pictures in it of some of the biggest names in pop and rock, but this book was let down by its choices and writing.… (mere)