#postpunk #books: Recommended Read: Revolutionary Spirit: A Post-Punk Exorcism By Paul Simpson.

#books #postpunk #flashback

And so it came to pass … it appears that it was on the 7th of May 1979 - just before my 17th birthday - that I went to Middlesbrough Rock Garden to see the acoustic punk troubadour Patrick Fitzgerald supported by The Wall, from Sunderland, and The Teardrop Explodes, from Liverpool. As I remember, it was a bright sunny day outside the dingy music venue and quite appropriately, it was the bottom of the bill The Teardrop Explodes who stood out. I saw them again later that year at the Leeds Futurama, and they really were terrific. And I saw at least once more, when they were well on their way to deserved commercial success.

These are the sort of memory sparks that were kindled when I was reading Paul Simpson’s whipcrack of a memoir Revolutionary Spirit: A Post-Punk Exorcism. This really is a speeding read full of loss, hope, humour, adventure, tragedy, and an unerring belief in the power of the imagination.

At first glance. it looks like Simpson is a kind of Zelig of the post-punk music scene (s) but very quickly you realise how much of a prime mover he was, and how important he was to shaping the music , and the worldviews that came with it.

Simpson can really spin a yarn, and Revolutionary Spirit: A Post-Punk Exorcism is an engrossing look at a man coming to terms with his limitations and, more importantly, embracing his many strengths.

A corker, then.