Pete Astor - Richard Hell and the Voidoids Blank Generation

BLANK GENERATIONPraise for the series: It was only a matter of time before a clever publisher realized that there is an audience for whom Exile on Main Street or Electric Ladyland are as significant and worthy of study as The Catcher inthe Rye or Middlemarch The series is freewheeling and eclectic, ranging from minute rock-geek analysis to idiosyncratic personal celebration The New York Times Book Review Ideal for the rock geek who thinks liner notes just arent enough Rolling Stone One of the coolest publishing imprints on the planet Bookslut These are for the insane collectors out there who appreciate fantastic design, well-executed thinking, and things that make your house look cool. Each volume in this series takes a seminal album and breaks it down in startling minutiae. We love these. We are huge nerds Vice A brilliant series each one a work of real love NME (UK) Passionate, obsessive, and smart Nylon Religious tracts for the rock n roll faithful Boldtype [A] consistently excellent series Uncut (UK) We arent naive enough to think that were your only source for reading about music (but if we had our way watch out). For those of you who really like to know everything there is to know about an album, youd do well to check out Continuums 33 1/3 series of books PitchforkFor reviews of individual titles in the series, please visitour blog at 333sound.com and our website athttp://www.bloomsbury.com/musicandsoundstudiesFollow us on Twitter: @333booksLike us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/33.3books For a complete list of books in this series, see the back of this book 9781623561222_txt_print.indd 1 05/02/2014 16:04 Forthcoming in the series: Smile by Luis Sanchez Biophilia by Nicola Dibben Ode to Billie Joe by Tara Murtha The Grey Album by Charles Fairchild Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables by Mike Foley Freedom of Choice by Evie Nagy Live Through This by Anwyn Crawford Donuts by Jordan Ferguson My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy by Kirk Walker Graves Dangerous by Susan Fast Definitely Maybe by Alex Niven Sigur Ros: ( ) by Ethan Hayden Exile in Guyville by Gina Arnold and many more 9781623561222_txt_print.indd 2 05/02/2014 16:04 Blank Generation Pete Astor 9781623561222_txt_print.indd 3 05/02/2014 16:04 Bloomsbury Academic An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Inc 1385 Broadway 50 Bedford Square New York London NY 10018 WC1B 3DP USA UK www.bloomsbury.comBloomsbury is a registered trade mark of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc First published 2014 Pete Astor, 2014 Lyrics printed with permission of artist. If you feel we have printed something in violation of your copyright please contact the publisher.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. No responsibility for loss caused to any individual or organization acting on or refraining from action as a result of the material in this publication can be accepted by Bloomsbury or the author. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Astor, Pete, author. Richard Hell and the Voidoids Blank generation / Pete Astor. pages cm -- (33 1/3) Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-1-62356-122-2 (paperback) 1. Hell, Richard. Blank generation. 2. Hell, Richard--Criticism and interpretation. 3.

Voidoids (Musical group) 4. Punk rock music--History and criticism. 5. Punk rock musicians--United States. I. Title.

ML420.H359A88 2014 782.42166092--dc23 2013046267 ISBN: ePDF: 978-1-62356-856-6 Typeset by Fakenham Prepress Solutions, Fakenham, Norfolk NR21 8NN 9781623561222_txt_print.indd 4 05/02/2014 16:04 Track Listing Side One 1. Love Comes in Spurts 1:59 2. Liars Beware 2:45 3. New Pleasure 1:55 4. Betrayal Takes Two 3:33 5. Down at the Rock and Roll Club 3:37 6.

Who Says? 2:03 Side Two 1. Blank Generation 2:39 2. Walking on the Water 2:11 3. The Plan 3:53 4. Another World 8:03 9781623561222_txt_print.indd 5 05/02/2014 16:04 9781623561222_txt_print.indd 6 05/02/2014 16:04 Contents Preface viii Vision 1 Culture 6 Artefact 11 Worlds 33 Persona 57 Texts 73 Words 92 Postscript 111 Notes 113 Bibliography 122 vii 9781623561222_txt_print.indd 7 05/02/2014 16:04 Preface Richard Hell was the one for me. He embodied exactly the right mixture of nihilism and ego that a 16-year-old needed.

And he looked right. Like all the best rock and roll, here was someone as we would all find out in the passage of time who remained mired in the emotional onslaught that adolescence brings. And had no intention of doing anything other than continuing to wallow in its endless contradictions and rail against it with poise, poetry and an elegant sneer. Just another permanent adolescent, staring down the world. This was glamorous, elegant and damaged and signposted a universe of possi bilities and I wanted in. It was love at first sight.

Its hard to say exactly when the love affair started, because before youre really ready, so many things have to be in place Im coming down Wilmington Road on my bike. Under my arm is a copy of Iggy and the Stooges RawPower. Nigel Lynn has just lent it to me. He was the older boy who used to play tennis ball cricket with us on the recreation ground. I still remember the summers day when we were playing and he came past with some girls and his new Bowie cut; just like Ziggy, even down to the carrot orange colour. Like so many Bowie-ites, viii 9781623561222_txt_print.indd 8 05/02/2014 16:04 P E T E A S T O R hed stepped beyond what you were meant to look like in suburbia.

Also, hed quietly been one of the hardest kids at school, so there was no way anyone would dare to say anything about his hair or his clothes anyway. He was fully-fledged weird and that put him apart also: if the hard kids couldnt figure you out then they usually left you alone. Now hed left school as early as he could and had a job, had money and a Bonneville 650. He looked like a biker and his music tastes had got deeper and weirder. Id visit him occasionally, never wanting to bother him too long but desperate for leads as to what was good. It was 1974, and my world was changing and I knew Nigel Lynn and his record collection was full of ways out of my particular corner of suburban nowhere.

In his room hed built thin shelves along all the walls where he would display his favourite albums, cover out a whole wall of Bowie: Diamond Dogs,Ziggy, Aladdin Sane, Pin Ups. Plus, on other walls, this months favourites: Van Der Graaf Generator and Peter Hammill solo, Chameleon in the Shadow of Night. T. Rex, Cockney Rebel and some new American discoveries: the MC5, the Nuggets compilation and, of course, The Stooges. Once hed actually lent me Raw Power, produced and endorsed by Bowie himself, I was on my way. As well as being deeply flattered, I was fluttering with excitement at the thought of getting this home and playing it: that person on the cover completely out-Bowie-d Bowie in his is-it-a-man-or-is-it-a-woman? weirdness. Other, and more other even than Bowie, this one had a real grain of something like authenticity, with all ix 9781623561222_txt_print.indd 9 05/02/2014 16:04 B L A N K G E N E R A T I O N the tales of sleaze and harm, living a mythic life in an imagined America. Other, and more other even than Bowie, this one had a real grain of something like authenticity, with all ix 9781623561222_txt_print.indd 9 05/02/2014 16:04 B L A N K G E N E R A T I O N the tales of sleaze and harm, living a mythic life in an imagined America.