Another Must if you were around in the 70's :-) Written by Steve (Speedmachine) Redman.

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Product Description

TAKE A TRIP!!! Then come on a journey back through time to The punk rock explosion of the 70's and the Unrest of the 80's, as Thatcher's unwanted "Bastard"children faced up to unemployment, Race war and the death of the hippie dream Join the helter - skelter sub- culture of London's Real alternative mavericks with our anti-hero, Steve (speed machine) Redman, a true One off, tomfoolery enhanced, prankster. RIDE his matt black "n" chromium plated Triumph chopper through tall tales of dark Deeds and drug-fuelled adolescence. SCREAM in terror as mindless violence Is perpetrated on London's innocent Bystanders. RECOIL at the sexual encounters of the Perverse kind. ACCESS all areas with a backstage Pass to a chaotic crash course of a Doomed musical career. JOIN a cast of thousands, willing partners In crime, unsuspecting players in "the Game of life" according to rules laid Down by the REVERAND BASTADOS F.T.W.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #743364 in Books
• Published on: 2006-11-21
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 300 pages

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Customer Reviews

He knows from self-destruction
At first the uncorrected spelling and grammar, and stream of consciousness style of narrative was a bit annoying, but then I realised the story wouldn't be the same told any other way, and I rolled with it. But, hey! This ain't declaring itself to be a high-brow academic tome, instead it's a brutally frank and honest, no holds barred account of a Sex, Drugs & Rock'n'Roll (and there's more than enough of that to go round for everybody) odyssey through author Steve Redman's life

After touching upon a fairly conventional childhood growing up in North Acton complete with the usual parental conflicts (at least with his father anyway), things would never be the same after discovering Hawkwind and then drugs. After that there was no turning back, and the author devoted his life to booze, birds, barbs, billy, bikes, bands and body art - in no particular order, although all figured pretty highly in Redman's list of preferred recreations, along with other any other narcotic you might care to mention.

Taking its name from a track off Mick Farren's 1978 album Vampires Stole My Lunch Money, Redman's Ladbroke Grove / W11 influences are obvious from the outset. The book boasts a stellar cast including the likes of a certain Ian Kilminster (Lemmy) from Motorhead, Mick Farren and sundry other Pink Fairies and Hawkwinders. One of the main focal points is the melting pot of Ladbroke Grove and Portobello Road, where all manner of cultures clashed. From the leftover 60s hippy freaks, acid casualties, Hells Angels and other Outlaw Bikers, through the Stonehenge festival, dreads, punks and beyond to the new psychedelia and scuzzy grebo of the 80s and 90s - it's all here as the author gamely regales us with tales of his part in it all along the way. Redman's own musical aspirations were often thwarted because he was so out of it most of the time (see hilarious incidents involving Nik Turner's Inner City Unit), but nevertheless he still found time for his own projects, and even secured a modicum of success with own bands such as F.T.W.

It's inevitable that somewhere amidst all the chaos Redman would succumb to his own personal demons - no doubt exacerbated by multiple drug and drink habits - and he had a breakdown in more recent years. But having got into art, and, since then, writing and poetry, he emerges more hopeful and optimistic on the other side of it all. Don't get me wrong though, this isn't one of those salutary "I was a teenage drug fiend / gang banger / hoodlum / crack whore / armed robber / rapist..." etc. etc. (insert stereotypical off-the-rails bad role model as applicable) tales where the main protagonist sees the light and declares undying faith in the power of God by becoming a born-again Christian. Oh no! Although Redman is undoubtedly equipped with ample levels of charm, wit, and intelligence, at times a ruthless streak belies the fact that he could be a right nasty piece of work when crossed, and I'm sure he'd be the first to agree. It's depressingly bleak at times, but also often very funny, and Redman A.K.A. Speed Machine remains as defiantly unrepentant as a martyr being burned at the stake, for want of a better analogy, and he maintains a healthy dose of irreverence and misanthropy throughout - it's as if the acronym F.T.W. was invented just for him.

So, it's as relentlessly a nihilistic tale from the seedy underbelly of West London life in the 70s and 80s as you're ever likely to read. I wish this book had been published when I was researching my own book on the Deviants and Pink Fairies (gratuitous opportunity for blatant self-promotion - Keep it Together!: Cosmic Boogie with the Deviants and Pink Fairies), as it provides some useful insights into the Portobello Road alternative culture of the 1970s and 1980s. Read it to believe it.

Truth and morality
It's hard to believe that Ian Dury had this in mind when he wrote the words Sex Drugs and Rock and Roll but this, I believe IS the true story. The truth behind the facade behind the facade. Steve Redman in his self-conscious stream of consciousness (if that's possible) tells the truth about what went on. Down there on Portobello Road, behind the trendy stalls and middle-class shoppers was the seedy underworld at the centre of which the author pivots like a demented and tooled-up drugged-up dervish. And he is the real deal. There is morality too as the book appears to be a catharsis, shocking and outrageous in its expression. It's the tale of a survivor told with self-deprecation, humour and not an ounce of grammar!

MAYHEM AND MADNESS !!!!!
THIS IS A CRACKER! I LOVED IT AND COULDN'T PUT IT DOWN. THIS BOOK ILLUSTRATES THE UNDERGROUND OF MUSIC DURING THE 70'S, THE URBAN LEGENDS, LIKE THE SQUAT CULTURE, THE DRUG CULTURE (TUINOL, A PERSONAL FAVOURITE IS ILLUSTRATED IN ALL IT'S GLORY ON THE FRONT COVER, YOU EITHER KNOW OR YOU DON'T) AND REMINICES THE OTHER DRUGS NO LONGER MADE THAT MADE THE PUNK SCENE WHAT IT WAS. BEING AROUND IN LONDON DURING THOSE YEARS, IT'S FANTASTIC TO READ ABOUT EVENTS I WAS AT. IT'S DEFINATELY NOT A BOOK TO READ TO THE KIDS, BUT IF YOU LIKE STORIES OF THE DARKER KIND, THIS IS FOR YOU! SOME OF THE TOPICS COVERED ARE OF THINGS WE HAVE ALL DONE OR WOULD HAVE LIKE TO HAVE DONE. RECOMMENDED TO ALL THOSE WHO ARE STILL KIDS AT HEART OR THOSE WITH TEENAGE KIDS THAT THINK THEY KNOW IT ALL AND ARE THE FIRST TO DO IT. REMEMBER NO FRILLS, NO GLAMOUR, NO ONE IS SAFE FROM THIS MAVERICK OF AN AUTHOR.