Interview with Ian Glasper from way back in 2007 when his 2nd book had just come out. The 3rd installment was called 'Trapped in a scene' and the latest one 'Armed with anger' is due out any time now... I liked Ian, friendly guy and he got me a flux of pink indians interview which i will post on here next...
.Ian Glasper.
Ian Glasper is the author on two excellent books on the UK punk scene from the early 80's, Burning Britain, featuring the studs and spikes bands, and, The Day The Country Died, featuring the anarcho side of things as well as this ian has been in several bands as bass slapper including Decadence within, Burnside and Stampin' ground & is currently in Suicide watch.....
1) Just how big a job was it to track down all those old punks? who was the biggest suprise in how they'd turned out? who was the biggest dick (c'mon you can dish the dirt!)
it was a mammoth task, to be honest - each book took about 2 years from start to finish, and that's working about 2 hours a night, six days a week... bear in mind, I have a full-time 'proper job', 2 kids, and I'm in a couple of bands too! but a lot of great people helped hook me up and point me in the right direction, and you know what you can do with a little help from your friends...
the biggest dick was probably the old singer from The Underdogs - remember their awesome 'East Of Dachau' single? he blatantly wasn't interested in my book, and was basically an obnoxious twat on the phone... it's not as if writers are queueing up to write about The Underdogs, is it?
but on the whole, everybody was really positive, and both books were a joy to assemble...
the biggest dick was probably the old singer from The Underdogs - remember their awesome 'East Of Dachau' single? he blatantly wasn't interested in my book, and was basically an obnoxious twat on the phone... it's not as if writers are queueing up to write about The Underdogs, is it?
but on the whole, everybody was really positive, and both books were a joy to assemble...
2:have the books sold well? have you been suprised at the amount of interest? Who else apart from the poison girls didn't wanna play ball? anyone demand sums of money to talk to them?
they seem to have sold pretty well, upward of 5000 copies each anyway, which I'm assured is pretty respectable! I'm kinda surprised by the response, but deep down I was quietly confident that if I just wrote the books I genuinely wanted to have appear on my own bookshelf, there would be plenty of other people from the same generation, social background, music scene, whatever, that could relate to them
it wasn't that the Poison Girls didn't want to play ball - they just never got back to me... they may not have wanted to play ball, but I don't know that for certain! it's a shame really, 'cos they were one of my 'priority' bands when I compiled the initial list of bands to chase up, but I could only wait so long before letting down the publishers and disappointing all the other bands who HAD got back to me
no one asked for money to be interviewed, but I had to ply Pete and Del from the Test Tube Babies with booze all night, which ended up costing me a bit!
no one asked for money to be interviewed, but I had to ply Pete and Del from the Test Tube Babies with booze all night, which ended up costing me a bit!
3:how is the 3rd book coming along? any idea of a publishing date? is it going to contain a huge piece on the importance of decadence within??!!
I'm about a quarter of the way through book # 3, and it's shaping up to be even bigger than the anarcho book! when I say 'bigger' I mean literally, it's going to be the thickest book on UKHC ever... well, the first book on UKHC ever, but that's a moot point...
publishing date? think mid-to-late 2008... or thereabouts... ish!
if Decadence Within HAD been important, there would no doubt be a huge piece on them in the forthcoming volume, but they weren't, so there won't be... although there will be a modest chapter on them for the sake of completism and historical accuracy, you understand! :)
publishing date? think mid-to-late 2008... or thereabouts... ish!
if Decadence Within HAD been important, there would no doubt be a huge piece on them in the forthcoming volume, but they weren't, so there won't be... although there will be a modest chapter on them for the sake of completism and historical accuracy, you understand! :)
Both the Burning Britain and the more recent Day The Country Died books are well worth investing in, good to read, full of informative pieces on all the main players from the scene back in the day, as well as giving plenty of space to the smaller bands of the era, which is nice!...get 'em at good bookshops, or better yet try some punk distro' such as active distribution: http://www.activedistribution.org/index.php
Many thanks to Ian for taking the time to answer the questions, find him at:
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