DAMAGED GOODS BOOKS TO PUBLISH TWO NEW BOOKS ABOUT THE PERFECT UNION OF PUBS AND CRISPS!
‘UP THE PACKET – ONE MAN’S CRISP ODYSSEY’ BY SIMON WILLIAMS – PUBLISHED MAY 14TH
DERELICT LONDON PRESENTS: LONDON’S DEAD PUBS – BY PAUL TALLING – PUBLISHED JUNE 25TH
Following previously released books on Johnny Moped, New Order and two volumes of Paul Talling’s acclaimed Lost Music Venues series, Damaged Goods Records further expand their side hustle with two new books to be published by Damaged Goods Books this May and June. Almost as if it was planned, the subject matter for both books compliment each other as much as they do in real life, pubs and crisps!
First up, ‘Up The Packet – One Man’s Crisp Odyssey’ is published May 14th. Compiled by former NME journalist, Fierce Panda Records head honcho, all round indie rock legend, and crisp packet collector Simon Williams, ‘Up The Packet’ details one man’s journey through rock n’roll and eating crisps.
Since 1977, Simon has amassed more than 8,000 crisp packets.They are all empty, they all live in shoeboxes, and they are all different. Apart from the swapsies.
‘Up The Packet’ is a tale about those crisp bags and their amazingly zinging innards: from the Tayto potato to the Spudos spud; from the wartime birth of Golden Wonder to the 1990s stock & awe of Walkers; from the ‘70s kid-friendly frenzy to the growth in grown-up snacks and into the indie credibility revolution. It takes the reader on a crunchy cultural journey through the entire history of the potato crisp, packed with solid packet factettes and frankly wild snacking theories. Oh, and it delivers some fabulous new full colour pictures of crisp bags through the past 50 years in the ‘Don’t Look Bag In Anger’ pull-out photo spread.
But that isn’t all, because ‘Up The Packet’ packs in a heap of music references, as you may or many not expect from a book title which riffs on the Libertines’ debut album. Who is a Soho Salad? Why is Motörhead’s Backstage Buffet? What is Kid Jensen? Where is the actual epicentre of the actual crispy rock’n’roll universe? Is there parking?? Will there be snacks??? The fashions, the fads, the songs, the TV ads, the crazy flavourings and the hazy lost favourites and - of course - the long and fact-finding road from Smiths Salt’n’Shake to Splodgenessabounds, ‘Up The Packet’ is a crisp-lover’s paradise in rock’n’rolling form.
For Crisp lovers, collectors, nostalgia geeks, and fans of retro graphic design.
Simon will be discussing his book at a lot of events which are just being set up but the first one will be at the lovely ‘Old Ivy House’ in Clerkenwell along with a Firece Panda band ‘Bag Of Cans’ (Click below for tickets)
DERELICT LONDON PRESENTS: LONDON’S DEAD PUBS – BY PAUL TALLING – PUBLISHED JUNE 25TH
Next up, Derelict London Presents – ‘London’s Dead Pubs’, published June 25th. Following from London’s Lost Music Venues Vol 1 & 2, author Paul Talling turns his attention to the capital's lost drinking dens. If you enjoyed his previous books, you'll enjoy this one too. Read about The Ruskin Arms in Manor Park where the Small Faces used to rehearse; The Star in Croydon where Jimi Hendrix, Captain Beefheart, Cream, and Fleetwood Mac all played; and Putney's White Lion who hosted punk and new wave bands including X-Ray Spex, Tubeway Army, Crass, Monochrome Set and The UK Subs. In addition to the many music-related anecdotes Paul broadens this book out into an alternative, sticky-carpeted history of London, viewed from the bar of some of its most iconic (and now sadly gone) drinking dens.
A well-stocked jukebox, bar snacks, and pints of Whitbread, Fuller's, Truman's or Courage on tap. Nothing quite matches the atmosphere of a London pub. But since 2004, one in five pubs across Greater London have closed. This book pays tribute to many of the great public drinking places we've lost, while also celebrating some pubs that have returned from the dead.
Paul Talling is best known for the 'Derelict London' website and has been giving guided walks across all parts of London for over 20 years. With over 200 original photos of pubs in all states of dereliction plus some that have luckily come back from the dead, London's Dead Pubs laments the drinking spaces we've lost and also points to places where it's still possible to drink in the (usually) convivial atmosphere of a great London boozer today.
The Rock N Roll Book Club has just announced this launch night book event with Paul Talling over in Walthamstow’s Trades Hall (great place, good beer & prices), Paul will be chatting with Ian Damaged about the new book plus looking at some of the venues in the other two Lost Venues books too.
Click the image for more info & tickets
Cheers
Ian & Duncan