Jealousy

Nick Kent didn't have to make a living knocking out cheap exploitation biographies...

He'd be twice the writer he is now.

Didn't Axl Rose mark his card a few years ago?

through and I'm enjoying it, never knew he was in the Sex Pistols in the very early days.

.....so interested what people's reactions are too it.

Hell, i'll prob just get it anyway, regardless of any bad reviews.

it mentions 'sonic cathedrals' and 'twin guitar attacks'

Amusing, very little fat, interesting in that he doesn't pull his punches in his or others fuckups and addictions. I really hate those rock biogs. that skate over the sex and the drugs, do they think we're not interested?
Suprised that Faber & Faber didn't bother to produce a hardback edition or include any photos.

Mick Wall saying that Nick Kent can't write is like some non-league centre forward slagging off Wayne Rooney.

I was surprised Kent's book wasn't in hardback either, think I will buy it when paid. I quite like Mick Wall's writing, his daily blogs are always interesting and he writes a good column in Classic Rock.

...you would think that Nick Kent was bloody Milton, the way people talk about him. I mean sure, he was very good, and I find his stuff entertaining, but... I dunno, there's a tendency for people to treat him the way English teachers treat Shakespeare. Maybe I'm too young to understand the impact of a writer living as if he were one of the rock stars he writes about, but is it horribly out of line to suggest that perhaps he was a bit of a try-hard? A bit of a wannabe?

Anyway, IMO, it's too easy to characterise Mick Wall's reaction as envy. MW is a perfectly fine writer, and he does have a point about NK's reliance on old pop music tropes and clichés.

I'll definitely read the NK book, but mostly for the gossip, not for the writing.

had been waving the flag for Nick Drake, Brian Wilson and Syd Barrett when their reputations were at their very lowest ebb c.1973 then yes.
Your right though, for a journalist he's a useless writer.

... so the book went On The List accordingly and I'll look forward to it, despite Wall's carping (and as already expressed above, he's hardly in the same league himself.)

Can I add, though, a very big pat on the back for Mark Ellen of this parish? His interview with Nick in the current edition is a wonderful piece: well written, entertaining, asks good questions and elicits good quotes and some thoughful responses. Well done, Mark.

The Observer the other week. Don't know why they gave her it to review.

I'd been tempted after Mark Ellen's article. Mick Wall's views spur me on to read it then. If it is as cliché ridded as he says then no problem round here surely.
Just an excuse for a game of Rock Cliché bingo.

Anybody fancy knocking up a game card?

Worth a read - but if you read it as I did a few years back on holiday with "The Great Shark Hunt" by Hunter S Thompson then the influences are plain - not necessarily a bad thing - even as a spotty teen I recognised that the idea of a journalist crashing and burning while trying to write a story, and that BEING the story, was all over the music press at the time. In the Word interview Nick Kent mentions older pros - people like Chris Welch - who took a different and more prosaic approach - although its a friendly enough comment he obviously saw it as old fashioned.

I think a lot of the appeal with Nick Kent is that he appears to be pretty sane and amusing, he really loves music and musicians, and he writes in a very readable way. He wasn't the white knuckle at the edge Byronic genius of myth but he couldn't have been less like the angry sarcastic teenage Stalinists who took over NME - I always felt they liked lyrics/attitudes but neverliked music, musicians or audiences.

And so far as cliches go, CSM is a master - "Listen up sistren and brethren" etc - unintentionally comical sometimes.

Loved gonzo journalism when I was younger but find it rather past it's sell by date now.