Member Since: 3/22/2006
Band Website: theonlyones.biz
Band Members:
SOLE REPRESENTATION:
Nigel Kerr at ABS
Tel: +44 (0) 207 289 1160
Fax: +44 (0) 207 289 1162
Email: [email protected]
Influences: BOOKS
In the mid-80's, in Greece, I began writing.
Stories recalled at random from the The Only Ones screwed-up passage thru the latter half of the 1970's. There was no theme, no order, no chronology. Nothing linked the stories beyond the fact that they made me howl with laughter. The few people to whom I read aloud extracts laughed too. It wasn't so much the impressive number, as the breadth and the extraordinary -range, of Disasters the band managed to pack into just four years.
I found the disasters quite funny even as they happened. More so, than others in the band I think, or perhaps just sooner, I came to realise that no matter how good the records we made, or how exciting our live shows, we were never going to enjoy mainstream success. Any detail our record company overlooked, failed to screw up, misjudge or mistime we were more than capable of fucking up for ourselves.
Without ever being able to define them exactly, I began to feel the elements that made the band special were precisely the things that made the record companies so deeply mistrustful. We were never cartoon rock'n'roll 'rowdies', but the company men could smell something volatile in the air around us; they weren't sure what it was but they were certain they didn't like it.
After 18 months jotting down notes & writing passages along those lines I put the MS aside and returned to London where Johnny Thunders and Patti were having trouble getting the COPYCATS album started.
Copycats
When I returned to writing it was with a more definite aim, and with a commission from Schirmer who wanted a book about The Who. Like anyone who saw The Who live between 64-67 I wasn't short of subject matter. Schirmer commissioned a second book on Hendrix. In all I've written 3 books, all on different subjects but all pretetxts to write about the impact I felt on seeing the best live rock'n'roll bands, close-up, between the ages of 14 and 17.
MEATY BEATY - The Who's Singles - Schirmer 1997
EXILE ON MAIN ST. - Schirmer 2001
ELECTRIC LADYLAND - Continuum 2004
Buy it HERE !
Read excerpts Here !
The first two sold out their full print run, and the (c) reverted to me.
For the moment, they can only be found 2nd hand. The Spanish and Italian rights have been sold, and I'm looking for publishers In England and America.
Further Info and Reviews:
Wikipedia