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4 oeuvres 412 utilisateurs 3 critiques

Œuvres de Nick Kent

The Dark Stuff : L'envers du rock (1994) 269 exemplaires
Apathy for The Devil (2010) 137 exemplaires
The Unstable Boys: A Novel (2021) 4 exemplaires

Étiqueté

Partage des connaissances

Nom légal
Kent, Nicholas
Date de naissance
1951-12-24
Sexe
male
Nationalité
UK
Lieux de résidence
Paris, France
Professions
music critic
musician
author
Relations
Romance, Laurence (wife)
Courte biographie
From the author's bio in The Dark Stuff (Penguin, 1994):
"Nick Kent was born on 24 December 1951 in North London, where he spent his formative years. At the age of 19, while studying English Literature at Bedford College, London University, he began contributing articles and reviews to the self-styled British underground press and was quickly asked to do the same for the 'New Musical Express' (NME). There followed a long period of collaboration with the latter stretching through the 1970s, during which time Kent also enjoyed a career as a musican with the Sex Pistols and recording with his own group, the Subterraneans. In the 1980s he moved on to pen articles for The Face, Arena, the Sunday Times, Details, Spin, Vox and numberous other periodicals. In the 1990s he moved to France, where he worked as a scriptwriter for BBC2's Rapido. He currently works as both scriptwriter and director of two French TV shows as well as contributing a weekly column to France's daily paper Liberation. He currently lives in Paris with his girlfriend, writer and TV personality Laurence Romance, and their young son, James. Although his work has appeared in numerous published collections, The Dark Stuff is his first book."

Membres

Critiques

 
Signalé
Mcdede | Jul 19, 2023 |
I was quite surprised with Kent's simple style of writing. At first, judging the book by its cover, it's true, it seemed like a simple rock 'n' roll take, but not so. At least not for the first half of the book anyway.

Kent tells of his life as a child, a teenager and getting smitten with hormones, non-moans and the likes. Gripes. Loves. His first tastes of music. The Beatles. The Rolling Stones. Getting aurally smacked by Led Zeppelin, seeing them in concert, getting backstage due to a mate.

School, moving away from home, starting out with writing about music and then, as the 1970s and Kent's youth really gets going, so does his writing. As stated, it's simple yet nothing's lost by that; it's a bit like Morrissey's lyrics; even though they're simple there is a lot behind it (even though this is actually short-changing Moz).

As Kent moves into writing for NME and getting his paws dirty in private with the likes of Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones plus getting his lingual traits in order, he meets with Lester Bangs and the Creem unit while visiting the USA for the first time. He also contracts STDs and starts doing heavy drugs.

A lot of the writing is about the waves of music during the 1970s; from the folk to the rock to the punk and into his heavy drug-use which inevitably turned him into a pathetic, homeless junkie.

Most of this book is very entertaining, interesting and funny; Kent jabs at himself with swagger as he should; the man is actually the reason why "Metallic KO" came into existing in the first place, and if that wasn't enough he actually was there during a lot of what happened; Iggy's getting into David Bowie, talking with Lester Bangs about interviewing Lou Reed, sticking around the making of "Exile On Main St".

Even though Kent does a good job at staying humble throughout most of the book, there is a bit of grumpy old man in here which doesn't suit the general taste of the book, and reminds me of how he's portrayed - and of how he portrays himself - in Julien Temple's "The Filth And The Fury": a belligerent, pompous person who tries to be somebody he's not. On the other hand: who's not, at some times?

All in all: a lot better than a bunch of autobiographies on music, but quite the way away from the poetic, autobiographic side of books, e.g. Patti Smith's radiant "Just Kids".

Get this and you won't be disappointed.
… (plus d'informations)
 
Signalé
pivic | 1 autre critique | Mar 20, 2020 |
Want to read it but bought for Essi's birthday.
 
Signalé
velvetink | 1 autre critique | Mar 31, 2013 |

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Statistiques

Œuvres
4
Membres
412
Popularité
#59,116
Évaluation
4.0
Critiques
3
ISBN
23
Langues
2

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