Frankie say read this book.

Have I mentioned that I’m co-running an Indie Rock Tournament, with the willing/capable/gullible Greg? Because I am.

Next up, bookwise: Simon Reynolds’s Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978-1984 It’s really good. Even though it’s a cycle of “band is interesting, signs to label, oh, look at their decline”, it’s good. Even though it ends with Frankie Goes to Hollywood, it’s good. If you have any interest in the music of this era, I'd strongly suggest you check it out.

My one small complaint: he uses the exact same phrasing (roughly “Unlike some punk bands who claimed not to be proficient but who were actually skilled players, really had no clue how to play.”) for two bands, the Slits and the Raincoats. Who… happen to be the most prominent all-female groups in the book. And… Cinderella’s Big Score refuted that (well, at least for the Slits) before this book came out. I’d not mind so much, but there was a weird undercurrent of masculine/hard/phsyical/good and feminine/soft/intellectual/bad that went on in his book on electronic music, Generation Ecstacy And he co-wrote a book about gender and rock and roll! Shouldn’t he notice what he’s doing?

But apart from my gender squabbles… a fine book.