Bad Vibes: Britpop and My Part in Its Downfall [Paperback]

'A compulsive read, part Oswald Spengler, part Spike Milligan, and very, very funny.' --David Peace

`A compulsive read, part Oswald Spengler, part Spike Milligan, and very, very funny.' --David Peace

'As acerbic and hilarious as you'd expect from a man who thought it completely reasonable to call a pop single "unsolved Child Murder". Haines clearly relishes - and shines in - his role as the Ancient Mariner at the Britpop party.'

`In this acidic counterweight to the story of the flag-waving pop elite documented in John Harris's Britpop romp THE LAST PARTY, Haines casts himself as the Britpop pariah, glaring through the window at the self-congratulatory oiks laughing inside ... There are enough punch-ups, bad drugs, mind games, self-sabotage, lunatic fans and bizarre self-surgery to make BAD VIBES occasionally read like NO ONE HERE GETS OUT ALIVE were it written about Philip Larkin rather than Jim Morrison ... This is an imperious and wincingly amusing memoir that's often so sharp it could take your eye out.'

`As acerbic and hilarious as you'd expect from a man who thought it completely reasonable to call a pop single "Unsolved Child Murder." Haines clearly relishes - and shines in - his role as the Ancient Mariner at the Britpop party.'

`Hilariously bilious ... Haines is wonderfully frank about his sometimes ridiculous behaviour ... and hilariously evokes The Auteurs' slow unravelling.'

`Witty, anecdotal and relentlessly vitriolic, this is a no-holds-barred demon exorcism by a man who clearly wants everyone to hate him. And, er, you will.'

`Hilariously unchummy, pugnacious and elegantly embittered.'

`Alex James' A BIT OF A BLUR this is not ... That's all the better, though, as this relentless nihilism stretches hilariously, snidely, and more often than not bitterly, across 256 pages. There's Auteurs insights aplenty should you want it and a bloody good read besides if you don't. Light reading it ain't. Thrilling reading it most certainly is.'

`These recollections of a bitter former pop star could be mistaken for a great comic novel...Compelling...An entertaining read...Haines is as funny as he is grumpy...The formless unpredictable life of the minor rock musician, forever jetting about on unspecified "promotional" duties or being loaded on to a tour bus like cargo rather than talent, has rarely been captured so acutely...Bad Vibes, good book.'

`As acerbic and hilarious as you'd expect from a man who thought it completely reasonable to call a pop single "Unsolved Child Murder." Haines clearly relishes - and shines in - his role as the Ancient Mariner at the Britpop party.'

`Hilariously bilious...Haines is wonderfully frank about his sometimes ridiculous behaviour...and hilariously evokes The Auteurs' slow unravelling.'

First, you fail. After four years of gigs no one attends, songs no one hears, perfect haircuts no one sees ...London in the late eighties - where the pubs still close in the afternoon and dance music rules - is no place for an avant-garde songwriter like Luke Haines to be. Luke Haines, after all, has never been to a rave. One near-death experience later and there's nothing left to lose. With just a ruined piano and a couple of cardboard boxes, you record a demo in your flat, form a new band and give it a pretentious name. Forget Blur/Oasis and Cool Britannia, none of that actually happened. This is the real story of English Rock in the nineties. Luke Haines has the inside line: from the teenage rampage of the early tours with Suede, mainstream success in France and failure in America, to the break-up of The Auteurs, the death of Britpop (the idiot runt-child of all music genres) and the birth of strange and frightening new projects Baader Meinhof and Black Box Recorder. In scathing and worryingly funny prose, Haines presents the evidence: Pulp, Elastica, Iggy Pop, Kurt Cobain (and his hatred of mushrooms), and the dark studio magic of Steve Albini. Plus the sackings, the surreal self-medicating procedures, how to be a bad loser at the 1993 Mercury Music Prize, and what it's like to be attacked on stage by a vicious, drunken dwarf. Bad Vibes is a pitch-black comic memoir from a legendary figure in the music world, variously described as pioneer, godfather or forgotten man of Britpop.

Luke Haines learned guitar in the red light district of Portsmouth and subsequently formally studied music at the London College of Music. His band The Auteurs missed out on the 1992 Mercury Music Prize by one vote - since then he has fronted other acts including Baader Meinhof and Black Box Recorder.