Clothes Music Boys - Viv Albertine

This book  was first published in 2014 but is one that  has stayed on my shelf and I have read it several times since. Viv Albertine was the guitarist in the all-girl band The Slits. As part of the burgeoning London punk scene of the late  Seventies, Viv and her band combined the best of punk and reggae  and mixed it with an uncompromising  Fuck You! feminist vibe. Whist she tells the story of the band  the book captures so much more of what was going on around the punk scene at the time. On-off girlfriend of Clash guitarist Mick Jones (Train in Vain written about her) and  best mates with Sid Vicious, Viv Albertine  knew everyone and was at the heart of everything. Her story gives a fascinating insight into the rapidly exploding and then imploding punk scene. Her stories are peppered with tales, references and spoilers about the musical heroes of the period. Anyone whose youth was shaped by those times will  find plenty here to savour, and be jealous of her access to so much of what was going on. After The Slits split up, and other parts of the scene began to fall apart Viv moved on to discover a new career in publishing and video. Along the way getting married and divorced  - her struggles to conceive and triumph over cancer. And then, slowly,  over a long period rediscovering perhaps the part of herself that got lost in motherhood and career (like so many before her). Taking, for the first time, proper guitar lessons she  begins to perform again and in doing so finds once more the confidence and boldness to  look an audience and life in the eye and say this is me and this is what I do. Viv Albertine is a great writer of unflinching honesty and this is a really great book. Thoroughly recommended.

To Throw Away Unopened is the follow up book by the same author and is equally, brutally honest discussing family life and life in general.