A thread for reviews. I'll kick things off....
Shortly before ‘Confusion’ was due to go to press, author David Nolan sent the manuscript to the book’s subject, Bernard Sumner. Not that Bernard had requested it, but this was hardly junk mail. Previous attempts to involve Bernard had fallen on deaf ears but something had clearly changed. This time around, over 80 comments came whistling back from a now interested Bernard in response to point after point of the uncommissioned biog. What's more, every single one of these comments are included within the book, inserted verbatim, in Italics, after the section they respond to.
So what changed? Well the depth and accuracy of Nolan’s research, mined from official sources and supported by primary accounts, provides such a credible storyboard that to leave it unanswered could lend provenance to the parts where journalistic licence was exercised. Add to that, a good few contentious comments from ex-school pal and long term JD/NO roadie Terry Mason and maybe Nolan forced Bernard’s hand.
Suddenly it’s in both Nolan’s and Bernard’s favour for an additional dimension to be added to the book. And make no mistake the book is way better for it. Bernard’s personal feedback adds a gravitas to the piece which no amount of research would ever match. Bernard’s comments contain the usual blend of sarcastic one-liners and dry observation that have become his trademark. I must confess on opening the book to flicking through the pages and heading straight to Bernard’s comments before returning to the start and reading the book properly. These comments represent the books unique selling point, but it’s also the quality of the initial manuscript that provides the platform for those responses.
Nolan charts Bernard’s life story from the beginning. First page of the first chapter and we’re at Salford Registry Office checking out the birth certificate! Poor Bernard must have known the game was up when he read that. Further contributions are sourced from Salford Local History Museum, more old school mates “Barney and Hooky were quite into robbing”, former Cosgrove Hall colleague Chris Taylor “Bernard was the youngster – one grade up from tea boy”, Hacienda DJs and glass collectors not to mention the usual suspects Mason and the late Tony Wilson.
As Nolan’s investigations, allied to Bernard’s responses, drop the bomb on many myths they also unearth previously unpublicised sensitive details. As you’d expect family favourites like the name changes (with intriguing twist), accusations of nazi sympathies, the Smash Hits photographer on the US tour, Prozac Diary TV doc, working practices at the Hacienda and Bernard’s attitude towards touring all fall under the microscope. However they sit alongside a revealing account of Bernard’s upbringing thoughtfully contextualised within Salford social history and the inter-band dynamics which made working outside NO more and more appealing, the singer disclosing “my mother suffered from cerebral palsy” and “during Republic, Hooky didn’t respect Gillian, Gillian thought Hooky was a sexist pig, Steve was in a fix…….”
It would ruin the party to identify all the treasure hidden in the book but lets say there’s much to cause the hardcore fan’s eyebrows to be arched and plenty of morsels to be picked over by the ‘na na na-na-na’ (read the book) contingent on these boards.
If there’s a critiscism, chunks of the book are verging on a Terry Mason testimony. I guess as far as valid observers of how Bernard has changed from his Salford school days to that Sex Pistols gig through to international stardom are concerned, Mason’s pretty well got the market covered. Who else is there who’s been along for the ride and is willing to talk?.
Bernard eventually sacked Mason in 1989, after reflecting on the following Mason pleasantry while on tour in America “what’s up with you? (Barney), you only have to work 1 hour a day”!. Not generally a winner with your boss. But Nolan smartly includes the gratitude shown by their old friend when NO settle a huge medical bill for Mason after they’d gone their separate ways, to avoid undermining the star witness as a man with an axe to grind.
That said, Nolan’s cast reaches out beyond the obvious where possible, members of Section 25, Quando Quango and Crispy Ambulance along with the Hacienda’s longest serving staffer Leroy Richardson and Michael Eastwood (moist) ex flat mate of the new Mrs Sumner all provide insightful comments. Shadowplayers moved to front stage?. Nolan also makes good use of interviews given by Bernard over the years to reinforce notions and I suspect compensate for the initial lack of direct involvement from the man himself.
Fans aren’t ignored although Nolan seems (rightly) apprehensive of NO/JD message board culture. Surely there's a nod in the direction of NOOL’s forum with ‘muscles of fan authenticity are flexed and the tiniest glint of weakness is pounced upon and kicked to bits’. Anyone’s ears burning?!:D. However it’s the soft-centred Barneysangels.com that gets the better treatment ‘a blessed relief from the hard-core earnestness found elsewhere on the net’ including a small interview with proprietor Jennifer ‘I Heart Barney’ Vaughn. Other fan involvement includes a more confusing comment from Adriana Leoni who was in the front row during last November’s Buenos Aires NO gig. “You could see how happy Bernard and Hooky were” Adriana gushes. Er, sure you weren’t watching Madness the night before, by mistake, seniorita?!. B&H were snapping at each other from the second they stepped off the plane and I can’t recall a grumpier Barney on stage than at those South America gigs. But then perhaps I’m just pouncing and kicking, so lets put it down to first NO gig excitement and that when you Heart Barney, love is blind.
In the acknowledgements Nolan advises that ‘this is not a blow-by-blow account of Bernard Sumner’s recording career. It’s a book about his life and times’. It’s a comment worth bearing in mind. I didn't on the first flick through and felt it was a bit light on the music side of things!
. Don’t expect detailed analysis of the recording of Unknown Pleasures because it aint there. But if you’ve ever wondered about the truth behind the name changes, what Run Wild is about (not Steve and Gillian’s daughter), why the Oakwood (Special Needs) School gig has a private motivation for Bernard and how he’s involved with kids cartoon Jamie and the Magic Torch (no, he didn’t write the lyrics), well here’s your chance.
A thoroughly researched and highly readable account.
Well worth the £12.99 and available from Thursday August 30th (except for Borders on Oxford St who nabbed a few early copies and already have it in).
