''DESTROY - Sex Pistols'' by Dennis Morris (Creation)
Dennis Morris was one of the few photographer that the band really trusted and that came across in his work. Johnny Rotten himself requested Morris to take the official Sex Pistols photos. I probably have thousands of pictures of the band and the ones by Dennis Morris are the best.This book covers most of what they did in 1977 including Sweden and the S.P.O.T.S. tour. There are some great pictures I've never seen before and best of all; he lets the photos speak for themselves without the usual ''Bill Grundy blah blah blah'' journalism or ''Anarchy'' and ''Rotten Boys'' computer graphics all over the pages.
It's one of the best documents of what Punk was in the beginning available. Sort of an enlarged and revised bigger and better version of Morris' 1985 ''REBEL ROCK'' book. 160 high quality pages of black and white photos.
Do yourself a favour, buy this book.
Highly recommended.
BABYLON BLUE: Michael Ninn's award winning film Shock.
DESTROY: Penzance Sept 1 1977
''BABYLON BLUE - an illustrated history of adult cinema'' by David Flint (Creation)
As Flint himself points out in his introduction, this is the history of US and european straight adult cinema, so no eastern porn or homo stuff in this one. OK, suits me fine, but since it's published in the UK, with it's extreme censorship laws, the illustrations are not really adult material at all. There are only topless photos, no dicks, cunts or cum shots. Calling the 8 page colour section ''stunning'' becomes right out laughable if you live in a place like Sweden where you can get your hardcore mags or videos at any gas station or convenient store.The text is better. It covers a lot, from the nudist films of the 60's to the 90's New Wave of Porn. There's a good chapter on the (sad state of) British porn films, and interviews with David F Friedman, Lindsay Honey and Antonio Passolini. Why Flint didn't interview Andrew Blake or Michael Ninn I don't know, since he likes their stuff so much. However, especially Ninn's films are covered well in this book, except of course for the all girl DIVA series - I guess they qualify as non-hetero porn and were more or less left out of the story - and Ninn's producer Jane Hamilton is interviewed too.
The book concentrates on the films themselves rather than the politics surrounding porn, although he touches these subjects too. The fact that the book is written in a country with an absurd, outdated and hypocritical official attitude to sex and adult material shines through not only in the illustrations and the chapter on UK films. Flint does his best to give porn a good name, understandable under the circumstances ok, but it makes the ''history'' a bit too one-sided. He rarely comments on the rape films of the 70's or the Max Steiner and Rob Black films of the 90's, while the better films, both in quality and for PR purposes, are given lengthy reviews.
These things said, it's still a good read and he knows his porn very well. This is book #12 in Creation's cinema series. Other books include the great Killing for Culture (#1), now revised and updated, and Meat is Murder. The whole series cover different parts of the not-so-mainstream film industry, mainly horror/gore and underground stuff. A lot of actors and directors started their careers in horror or porn and especially in the 70's quite a few did both, making this book tie in nicely with the others.
I still think Babylon Blue should have been published outside the UK, because the way it is now is a bit like a book on horror films without a single drop of blood pictured in it.
A good introduction to porn films but also a sad example of censorship ruining media.
''SATELLITE - Sex Pistols memorabilia, locations, photography, fashion'' by Paul Burgess and Alan Parker (Abstract Sounds)
Another good book on the Sex Pistols. This one has a little more text than ''Destroy'', but it's still mainly photographs, not so much of the band as their memorabilia. Most of it in color too.The first part is directions to and photos of key locations in London (places the played, lived or rehearsed at). Even the most dedicated fan must feel a bit stupid standing outside some amusement arcade staring at what once was the cinema Steve Jones visits in ''The Great Rock'n'roll Swindle''. At least there's no guided tour, yet anyway.
The second and biggest part is memorabilia. The bootleg section seems a bit too random, but the rest of it is great. The pages with SEX/Seditionaires clothes are the best. For most people this is their only chance to see what all the original punk gear looked like. McLaren and Westwood should have some credit for coming up with designs that can still get you arrested in London 25 years after they were first made! Some of these t-shirts I can't even wear in Sweden!
There's also a section on paper goods, with everything from pre-Sex Pistols Jamie Reid designs to Swindle promo posters, that's pretty good if a bit short.
A selection of band photos and a gig list ends this book. The photos are all very good, most of them never published before.
If you buy the numbered hardback edition you get a bonus CDR with some more images on it.
The only thing bad about this book is that it has created a new collectors' interest in the band and made prices go up even higher, taking the Sex Pistols away from the fans and into the investor's bankvaults.
''THE HOUSE OF WHACKS'' by Matthew Branton (Bloomsbury)
A pretty good novel by this new writer. I haven't read his other book ''The Love Parade'', but he shows a talent for picking the right subjects in this one. I'll quote the back of the cover to give you an idea:''An S&M supermodel, a visionary mafioso; a dying editress of pulp fiction, a legendary horror novelist; a screenwriter stuck in a warzone, a crippled stunt woman; a McCarthy black-listed cinematographer-turned-pornographer; two warring godfathers, and a heap of Nazi gold. Three perfect heists - same day - same place.''
What more can you ask for? And it is almost as good as it sounds! Matthew Branton has been compared to both Raymond Chandler and James Elroy and I can understand why, although he's not as good as them.
It was written in London in the late 90's but the story is set in Chicago in 1950 and seems inspired more by old film noir and Betty Page movies than some real events. Fast paced with interesting characters and some of the old gangster clichés that we all love. Read it.
