- Paperback: 368 pages
- Publisher: Fourth Estate (20 Jun 2005)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0007146396
- ISBN-13: 978-0007146390
- Product Dimensions: 23 x 15.2 x 2.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
468,451 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #33 in Books > Music, Stage & Screen > Music > Styles > Rock & Pop > Singers & Groups > Abba
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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
Praise for MANCHESTER, ENGLAND (The Sunday Times Music Book of the Year)
‘About bloody time. The city that gave us every significant band of the lasty 20 years has finally made it into print. ****' Uncut
‘A new kind of political history, firmly rooted in the expereince of popular culture.’
Michael Bracewell, Guardian
‘A serious book about the city's pop heritage was inevitable and Dave Haslam's Manchester, England does the job admirably. Awesome.' NME
' Filled with a personal love of music and urban life and Saturday nights.' Andrew O'Hagan
'Excellent' Mojo
Robert Sandall, Sunday Times
‘blistering, sometimes blustering attack on the nostalgic sanitisation of a troubled decade and offers a goodtaste guide to its music.’
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
18 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
"It's the 1970s, you're tripping up the street in your loon pants and afro hair-do, the glitter dripping off you. You just can't wait to get into the disco and strut under a spinning mirror ball to Abba's Dancing Queen, followed by the Bee Gee's Staying Alive. You're young, the world is wonderful, it's a great time to be around. Peep around the door of the club however, and you'll see a very different picture. Outside this cosy cocoon there's rubbish piling up everywhere, half the country's on strike, the music is tough, urban and subversive and the kids are literally fighting in the street.
The formal discription of the 70s is the one we're all familiar with - 'cheesy' theme nights in many clubs, Abba tribute bands and fancy dress shops during a roaring trade in stick-on sideburns and glitter wigs.
Sadly it's a false picture - like any commodity, the 1970s has been packaged and sold back to us in a neat and tidy box . . ." (Tom Henry, Bristol Evening Post)
The formal discription of the 70s is the one we're all familiar with - 'cheesy' theme nights in many clubs, Abba tribute bands and fancy dress shops during a roaring trade in stick-on sideburns and glitter wigs.
Sadly it's a false picture - like any commodity, the 1970s has been packaged and sold back to us in a neat and tidy box . . ." (Tom Henry, Bristol Evening Post)
No, not a review of 'Not Abba' but of 'Bovver' published in 2001, sounding just a little bit similar to 'Not Abba'.
"Was I the only person whose collection of 70s records didn't include anything by the Bee Gees?" asks Dave Haslam . . . er no Dave, apparently not.
I don't mean to knock, Dave Haslam has written an excellent, incredibly well researched book that calls on the experiences of many people who lived through that volatile decade, it's just that he does seem to bang on in an almost evangelical style that he's realised something that nobody else seems to have considered - that the 70s have been repackaged, reinvented, even rewritten in a glorious 'Abbafication of history', making it sound like some conspiracy theory put forward by the BBC and ITV to justify their programming on a Saturday night.
From Angela Davis and the Black Panthers to Erich von Daniken's Chariots of the Gods they all get a mention, indeed there aren't many subjects from the 70s counter-culture that don't get some sort of reference such is Dave Haslam's pursuit of putting the story straight - and for that I congratulate him.
Finally, a few more quotes:
"Welcome to the real 1970s - it ain't no boogie wonderland" - Bovver (2001).
"The real story of the 70s"; "a mindless boogie wonderland" - Not Abba (2005).
"The book [Bovver] is also a welcome antidote to the continuous assault of Abba tribute bands that seem to occur with frightening rapidity these days. There must be thousands of youngsters growing up today who honestly believe that music started and finished with The Swedes in the 70's - hopefully they'll read Bovver and look a bit further than 'Waterloo the Musical" - Gashead football fanzine (2001).
Chris Brown, author of Bovver
Format:Paperback
Very well put together book, which makes for interesting reading if interested in seventies pop culture. If I had any criticism to level it would be that it is at times obvious that the author favours writing about what sounds like his favourite bands of the time and perhaps neglecting to mention others equally as important. The Buzzcocks are a point in case....I don't agree with the author about their influence on music styles....perhaps because I never liked them.
All in all a very good book...well written and well reasearched.
All in all a very good book...well written and well reasearched.
Listmania!
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