TEENAGE KICKS: MY LIFE AS AN UNDERTONE BY MICHAEL BRADLEY
SKU: BK-371 BOOK TEENAGE KICKS OS$22
Teenage Kicks: My Life as an Undertone
“Michael Bradley’s story is a bitter-sweet, heart-warming and occasionally droll tale of unlikely success, petty feuding and playful mischief during five years of growing up in the music industry.”
Michael Bradley joined his school friend’s group in Derry, Northern Ireland in the summer of 1974. They had two guitars and no singer. Four years later the Undertones recorded ‘Teenage Kicks’, John Peel’s favourite record, and became one of the most fondly remembered UK bands of the post punk era. Sticking to their punk rock principles, they signed terrible deals, made great records and had a wonderful time. They broke up in 1983 when they realised there was no pot of gold at the end of the rock and roll rainbow.
Here comes Teenage Kicks: My Life as an Undertone. Wiser but not much richer, Michael became a bicycle courier in Soho after the Undertones split. “Sixty miles a day, fresh air, no responsibilities,” he writes. “Sometimes I think it was the best job I ever had. It wasn’t, of course.”
If you’re interested in the punk music scene, we also recommend: Smashing It Up a Decade of Chaos with the Damned by Kieron Tyler and The Anarchy Tour by Mick O’Shea
Punk had burst onto the scene with its aggressive raw energy, confrontational lyrics and rhythm guitars spewing out arrangements that were just unorthodox. It was that moment of revolutionary art, overturning what had gone before.
Our vast selection of Punk books reflects the importance of that subculture from the early 1970’s in New York, through London, The US West Coast, Riot Grrrl through to the current day. The curated selection includes the photography of Dennis Morris, Kevin Cummins, Sheila Rock and Janette Beckman, biographies of The Undertones, a history of The Roxy club and a good selection of women in Punk including Poly Styrene, Patti Smith, Jordan and Kim Gordon.
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