Totally Wired: Postpunk Interviews and Overviews [Kindle Edition]

I read Mark Stewart, Jah Wobble, Ari Up, Dennis Bovell, James Chance, Lydia Lunch and Steve Severin first. All the greats then journeymanned onward to Paul Morley and Phil Oakley. Initially enthralled, an uneasy feeling gradually crept up and tapped me on the shoulder; Revisionism. This interviews reflect the biography of the author as he pushes us to shoe gazing the aepothesis of music...according to him.

The Morley interview, reinforced in the Oakey talk, is a self serving obsessive justification; the idea musical evolution is linear. The narrative in this chunk of clunk is punk rock died with the the Damned 1st album, eventually replaced by something more wholesome; fey wimp middlebrow shoe gazing purp. This is where the book nosedives ahd hopefully should be buried in an unmarked grave and latterly where Jon Savage's vision ascends.

Non, DIJ, Sol Inv, Young Gods, Swans, Butthole Surfers, Foetus, Psychic TV, Wire, Neubatuen, Test Dept Killing Joke, Ministry are all written out of the canon. Odd because Malady Maker championed this genre. Revisionism; Punk existed to usher in fey pop. The musical journey of Reynolds, the uber ego. Here he twists the arms of his subjects to justify his personal acned journey to intertia. Latterly he champions "black" music with all the aplomb of the vicars son Tim Westwood.

I wonder who he left out as he edited the book???

Bags of Coke, backhanders damp patches on the bed are conveniently ignored in Revisionism. Mammon is absent from the discourse apart from the refuseniks Ari and Mark S. Gang of 4 appear almost apologetic for making political observations in the late 70's.

Renolds believes in middlebrow linear progression; Elvis to Shakin Stevens, Rhytmn n blues to rhythm n beats, Shakespeare to Jeffrey Archer, George Grosz to Tracey Emin, Duchamps to Jeff Koons, Heartfield to Banksy, Buzzcocks to the Killers, Cramps to the Strokes. He never questions the dearth of talent as this maps his own ascent.

He also ignores artistes revealing troubled psychological ruptures. Green sank into depression, Phil Oakey hit the abyss. Stuart Goddard, (Adam Ant) not interviewed also suffered. Suddenly a sociological pattern emerges. Studiously ignored because it does fit in with the Sound of Music.

Probing the more succesful underground overground artistes with their artistic vision erosion without exacerbating their psychological unease could have been cathartic.

Perhaps if less people had surrendered their integrity, the sea of depression blanketing the UK during the most affluent era could have been explored. Affluenza; having success without feeling it.

I would encourage everyone to read these interviews....once. Even the most silly of people had thoughts, missing from celebs moderne.

It's just for those who are truly hungry, try Jon Savage to ingest something more wholesome than this wimp rock writhing pop doodles.

If you're remotely interested in the post-punk era of the late 70s/early 80s this book of interviews by Simon Reynolds of important (though in a few cases quite obscure) figures from the era is absolutely fascinating.

Rip It Up... presented Reynolds's history of the - I hesitate to say genre of such a disparate bunch of music, maybe attitude is a better word because post-punk was more about being forward-looking than sticking to a particular musical formula. It's inevitably shone through the prism of his own tastes and interests to some degree; I didn't personally have a problem with that and he is quite even-handed for the most part.

But in the process of writing it, he inevitably interviewed numerous musicians and others involved at the time and this book reproduces those, and other relevant, interviews, edited for relevance and clarity more than length, letting the artists speak for themselves. And most of them are absolutely fascinating if you're interested in post-punk. Apart from the interviews, there are a few essays by Reynolds, and lastly he ... interviews himself, mostly on the subject of why and how he came to write Rip It Up... This may sound as if he's slightly up himself, but as rock writers of the era go, he's refreshingly free of hubris and unfashionably interested in letting the music he loves speak for itself.

An all round excellent read.

Interesting interviews with interesting people. While Rip It Up is essential, I wouldn't say this is as it's just some interviews that goes a bit more in-depth with some of the subjects of Rip It Up, but it is definitely a pleasant read if you're interested in the era, or any of the personalities within.

I also enjoyed Reynolds' 'afterword', the interview with himself. If it's something I can understand that people are annoyed with (I'm not), it's his sort-of fanboy approach in Rip It Up. Here he openly admits that that was the point, as he feels the post-punk era is undermined by punk rock, and strongly deserves celebration. There's also the rallying call that some of the bands and scenes are hardly skimmed over with Rip It Up.

Is Rip It Up still the only decent book on this era? I can't wait for there to be released a book that covers more of what Reynolds' didn't, or for a book about the further evolutions of british rock (indie pop and so on).