A Lanarkshire author who wrote about his time touring with Nirvana has released a new “insightful” book charting the history of record labels.
The 57-year-old author’s previously-published work could never be described as clichéd though, as it always attacks the reader from left-field.Get all the news from your area – as well as features, entertainment, sport and the latest on Lanarkshire’s recovery from the coronavirus pandemic – straight to your fingertips, 24/7.
“My aunt gave us her old record player and loads of vinyl,” Andy recalls. “It was a Scottish version of a Stack-O-Matic, probably from Stepek in Hamilton. You could play six records. It honestly changed my life, providing some escapism from the 1970s. Among those that Andy explores are Apple Records, founded by The Beatles, which was a “financial basket case” for many years before being turned around; Island Records, the Jamaican label’s first taste of success in the UK was the release of My Boy Lollipop by Millie Small, but subsequent artists signed included Roxy Music, Bob Marley, and Sparks.
“It is political too with 2-Tone, and Ghost Town was written after driving through Glasgow. Yet there’s also optimism and hope – short lived – with Postcard.” Nirvana’s manager Danny Goldberg, former president of Atlantic Records and chairman of Warner Bros, has endorsed the new book describing it as a “unique encyclopedic and insightful overview of the culture of record companies”.