Tenement Kid: Rough Trade Book of the Year

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To which a seasoned observer of Bobby Gillespie’s career might sigh and respond: well, of course he does. He reportedly took three attempts because he was too respectful of the original and had to be instructed to “stop fannying about – you’ve just got to f***ing destroy it. So far, so normal: he was born in 1961, the year Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space, and youthful dreams of that kind were common. His happy times on the Boys Brigade football team taught him the value of teamwork and organisation, while Jock Stein’s strategy in the 1967 European Cup influenced Primal Scream’s approach to playing live, where every gig should be “a commando raid on the soul”. Incidentally, there’s an undercurrent of Great Labels throughout the book- Tamla, Stax, Kent, Factory, Creation.

Will Sergeant’s recently published Bunnyman: A Memoir barely mentions Echo and the Bunnymen, focusing primarily on his working-class Liverpudlian childhood. Where it is less enjoyable is the occasional burst of politics (which is like having someone rant at you in a pub, stop and then glare at you daring you to contradict them) and some of the other commentary. I think it’s better to be governed by non-hierarchical nation-states that aren’t based on imperialist precepts and entrenched beliefs. At which point Tenement Kid concludes, with Gillespie basking in its success and the reader wondering what he’s actually like behind the posturing and hyperbole: a very odd way to end an autobiography.The chapters on the Thatcher era collisions of the Miners’ Strike and the later attempts at crushing the Rave scene are as good as anything I’ve read about that era – probably the best music-related book I’ve read this year, and essential reading for anyone who loves and cares about alternative music. I wanted to get to the heart of adult relationships, to make an adult record that was appropriate to my age. Personally I was a fan of JAMC, my interest in Primal Scream was peripheral, coming late to the dance and acid house scene. Previously, he described Scottish independence as “inevitable”, while emphasising that he in no way considered himself to be a nationalist. Online since 2010 it is one of the fastest-growing and most respected music-related publications on the net.

Primal Scream dude tells his story, including time served in Altered Images and Jesus And Mary Chain. Bobby Gillespie several times refers to himself as a Romantic – not in the soppy “Hallo trees, hallo sky! About being on stage between Robert Young and Andrew Innes, blasting Les Pauls through Marshall stacks, all of us on speed, feeling like a god. The book ends with the release of Screamadelica, which I never realised had been released on the same day as Nevermind.

I guess all nationalism is exclusive, not just English nationalism… When it happened, I thought, well, maybe this is English nationalism, which is, for me, frightening. It is accepted by you that Daunt Books has no control over additional charges in relation to customs clearance. No surprise when the posters on the kitchen wall were Che Guevara and the famous ’68 Olympics Black Power salute. Gillespie’s early life story – traced in this memoir up to the release of Primal Scream’s breakthrough album Screamadelica – is not especially remarkable but this son of a trade unionist and Collins employee has inherited his parents’ erudition as much as their left-wing politics and taste in music, so his diverse vignettes and cultural side-bars are eloquently argued. Tony Wilson claimed the 90s began on November 30th, 1989, when Happy Mondays and The Stone Roses appeared on the same episode of Top of the Pops.

By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Gillespie generously gives credit to pivotal personalities such as Alan McGee, the Reid brothers, Andrew Weatherall etc. Didn’t necessarily hate this, and it paints a more rounded picture of him, but did cause me to roll my eyes a few times when he went off on a music journalist style rant about some new random topic. Gillespie’s father is a former Sogat [print union] official who came second representing the Labour party in the 1988 Glasgow Govan byelection .Er ego/reality check son…I think it was more the case that your drumming was so forgettable that you were so easily replaced by a drum machine. They have released 11 albums including major hits, ‘Loaded’, ‘Rocks’, ‘Country Girl’ and ‘Kowalski’.