There are a number of “memorabilia” books out there, but none, I repeat, none, are as intimate and lovely as "Glitter & Glue. Young, Loud and Ephemeral: Curating the Teenage Rampage" and no others cover the pivotal, crucial period 1972-79 so well. And there's only 450 of these, so get yer skates on.
The author is Dave Twist. More on him soon. The publisher is Easy Action, also a record company, and you should have many of their releases. Their blurb is a great strarting point:
"While chronicling his own fan-rampage – from the freak rock glamour of the early '70s through to punk…Glitter & Glue's collection also represents the journey that pretty much everyone involved in the early UK punk scene will have travelled, at least part of the way. (It’s) the first book to cover this extended time-frame with the full range of ephemera available – with some dedication – to the provincial teenage fan."
There are two forewords; and one quote from each should suffice to get your attention:
"Looking through this book is like stepping into a time machine that speeds one back into a music obsessed teenage boy’s bedroom in the early 1970’s. Not any teenage boy, mind you. Dave Twist’s collection of Third Generation Rock and Roll’memorabilia is second to none."
That's from Bobby Gillespie's foreword. Gillespie is that chap in Primal Scream. The other foreword is by this chap he knew back then named John Taylor (later in some band called Duran Duran):
"Dave just had a better sense of what was good, what was worth investing the little cash we had in, and taking the time to listen and understand it … I have friends in LA, music freaks who follow Dave, love his curatorial voice … sometimes it’s almost like being there."
As you may have gathered Birmingham-based visual designer and musician Dave Twist has a similar past to many folks his age - and some of these folks are rather better-known. The difference between all of them and Dave is that not only was he able to hang on to so very, very many of his “precious objects” as a teenage boy and young man, he was able to retain them into middle age and beyond. And then - he was persuaded to put these precious mementos into a historical context on Instagram.
He was persuaded that Instagram isn't quite a permanent record, and that the archeological treasures require their own physical representative. The result is “Glitter & Glue” which displays a wonderful collection which not so much belongs in a museum, but should form the springboard for a much bigger museum.
More from Easy Action's description:
"Over 200 colour layouts displaying magazines, fanzines, posters and flyers, badges, picture sleeve singles, rare long-players and rarer cassette tapes. All accompanied by detailed notes on each piece and the author’s personal recollections. A second section of the book features artefacts and photography relating to his own adventures – alongside Duran Duran’s John Taylor in Shock Treatment, and Dada, playing in Birmingham’s first punk band The Prefects, and with Stephen Duffy and The Jacobites’ Dave Kusworth in The Hawks."
Now, let me just put this book on my desk and play with it.
You know, play with this extraordinary artefact like you're a kid again. And you're opening up and album sleeve to a world you never knew existed; discovering, perhaps, the second MC5 LP, or the first Roxy Music LP with the outrageous fold-out cover, or the copy of the second New York Dolls LP, complete with clipped cover, in the remainder bin.
Or, in my case, being astounded at the minimal affront of “Faust IV” and asking Adelaide music label icon Doug Thomas to play it and ... my reaction was instant purchase on the outside, while inside my innards were going “what the hell!”
So. a dull, nondescript squarish box lands in your living room. You tear it open, glancing (and perhaps wincing) at the postage.
A badge falls out. It depicts the cover of the book: David Johansen from the front cover of the first Dolls LP, with his eyes blocked out. Superb. Then a sticker tumbles out. Presumably of the author, at an impressionable age, wearing what appears to be a hand-made Slits T-shirt.
Fellow ancients will recall the T-shirt ads in the back pages of the inkies (Melody Maker, Sounds and the New Musical Express) where, essentially, T-shirts would be made to cater for every passing whim or taste, and a band like The Slits caused a fairly ribald, grotesque garment to be proffered - it had nothing to do with either the band or their intent. If you wanted a decent Slits Tt-shirt you had to make it yourself.
Eventually the book itself slides out.
That cover.
I find myself wondering what a teenager would make of it today. I know my teenage self would have been drawn instantly to pick up “Glitter & Glue”. And probably buy it (perhaps skipping a couple of meals that week).
And now, let's open it up and delve into Dave Twist's teenage years.
One of the first pages is a reproduction of a magazine thing which I'd never heard of 16 Spec, and is frankly extraordinary. Alice Cooper is on the cover, his right half looking either beaten up or the result of a very heavy night, while his left side is shaved, with better eye makeup ... apart from being so very disturbing, the mag promises “100 Shocking Candid Pix!” and “The Real Alice” and “22 Outrageous Color Pin-ups”. It's a serious cultural cross-bleed moment, as the other outfits advertised on the front cover are: Slade, Sweet, Bolan, Iggy, Bowie and Lou.
Just so you get a little more of the idea of what the book shows, think badges, ticket stubs, LP covers, posters, magazines, torn-out pictures ... oh, of who, you say?
Well, the first page lists the following in the contents: The Monkees, The Velvet Underground, Alice Cooper, Rod Stewart, The Faces, Mott the Hoople, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Silverhead, Suzi Quatro, Cockney Rebel, Roxy Music, Kevin Ayers, Nico, John Cale, Rikki Nadir, Sparks, Be+Bop Deluxe, New York Dolls, Jobriath, Aerosmith, Blue Oyster Cult, Sensational Alex Harvey Band, Milk'n'Cookies ... do I make my point?
“Glitter & Glue” is a book to be cherished and savoured. Every page should be perused carefully, as though you were once more that teenage malcontent you wouldn't tolerate today, soaking every detail of each glorious gaudy BIG alternate reality sink into your hungry lizard brain.
I suppose you could look at it as a sort of nostalgia collection, gathering all these artefacts dropped like old bus tickets (remember those?): but while the glitter, glam, cross-dressing and general garish freakishness of modern rock'n'roll back in the 1970s was a means to an end for the bands, it was the gateway to an entire new way of perceiving the world.
Australians reading this interview need to be reminded that, while Your Favourite Band probably weren't going to play your local town hall, the venues where you could see them were a train or bus ride or three away - and then kipping at the railway station until the trains started moving again. In terms of changing and exciting new music, England was utterly spoilt for choice in the 1970s and early 1980s.
And, let me tell you, if you lived in straight, boring suburbia, then as now, you really need a way to get out. Most of the people I grew up with I not only didn't care for, I thought were idiots. No idea of how to live life. But there were a percentage who seemed to realise that they should not have a “future in a British Steel” (to paraphrase XTC).
Dave's story is not yours, it is not mine. But, like John Taylor and Bobby Gillespie, we all share so much within these pages. Dave Twist has retained his fannish love of music and a disposable culture which, like the Penny Dreadfuls of yore, risks being forgotten and discarded despite its once-gigantic popularity and influence.
For me, Dave's own introduction does raise a hell of a lot of questions. One of which is, how on earth did he get away with owning all this stuff when his parents were clearly so dead against it? Where on earth did he scrounge the money from (at 12?!). And, perhaps more relevant given the actuality of the book, how on earth did he keep it all, especially given that his folks (like so many other parents we all know) were quite capable of hurling stuff (like their son's records) which offended them into the street?
Time to ask some questions...
Dave Twist in 1978.
I-94 Bar: What hits me first is - how on earth did you get away with owning all this stuff when your parents were clearly so dead against it? And, for so very long!
Dave Twist: I guess that at a certain point they bowed to the inevitable and told themselves it was 'just a phase'. The issues with Alice and Andy Warhol / The Velvets were when I was very young - 12 or 13 years old - and there were moral panics in the daily press about both of those. Presumably at some point they came to realise that I had my head screwed on pretty tight and could love this stuff without turning to crime and worse.
I-94 Bar: Where on earth did he scrounge the money from at 12 to start collecting?
Dave Twist: So much of this stuff could be had for free - figuring the schedules of each label's display reps - and being there when the previous week's display came down. Some of the reps had a side-hustle going with a local record shop where they got a cut by dropping excess posters in there for sale. Stuff that commands hundreds of pounds today sold for pennies.
Later we became friends with a guy who'd been at school with one of the guys who ran Endale - who promoted the “Anarchy” tour and then The Clash and others - so we we'e covered for punk-era stuff that'd just been dumped in the office. And, I guess - I was a nice middle class boy who probably did receive more money from parents - and grandparents - than most.
I-94 Bar: Perhaps more relevant given the actuality of the book, how on earth did you manage to keep it all, especially given that your folks (like so many other parents) were quite capable of hurling stuff which offended them (like their son's records!) into the street? (Striking how familiar I find all this generational conflict, I recall my own family, and other friends, it was like a darker version of “How's Your Father?” crossed with “The Two Ronnies” as billy goats gruff).
Dave Twist: In truth, stuff did go missing or was torn up - but then replaced, either at the time or via eBay in later life. There are other stories that I didn't include - the Kids' Stuff fanzine that I used a crop from for the book's cover was torn up by my dad as he discovered it contained a picture of a sweat-drenched after-show Jerry Nolan with his hand down the front of his jeans.
I didn't include all of these battles as I didn't want to give the impression that he was an ogre. He was, actually a wonderful guy, just confused. He was so concerned for our safety that he would roll up outside Barbarella's or Rebecca's or wherever at two in the morning to safely taxi half of South Birmingham's Punk kids home. Everyone loved him.
I-94 Bar: Just so us here in Australia can get some perspective on you - could you give us a potted history of your design career, and that as a musician?
Dave Twist: As a musician, I played around with John Taylor as kids making a lo-fi racket on re-purposed junior level instruments. In 1977 we turned into a very inept and rather camp punk band called Shock Treatment. By 1978 we'd had enough of wanting to be a carbon copy of Eater or Slaughter & The Dogs and put together a group called DADA - who took their lead from both Eno and from what The Prefects were starting to develop in terms of what would become known as post punk.
Then I simultaneously joined a Stooges/Dolls influenced outfit called TV Eye while playing in The Prefects too - recording the Peel session with them that emerged a year later on Rough Trade and has been anthologised so many times.
TV Eye morphed into The Subterranean Hawks when Dave Kusworth, Paul Adams and I were joined by Stephen Duffy and Simon from the first Duran Duran lineup. I mean... it goes on - but those are the bands that cover the timeframe of the book.
Design wise, I started with punk collage pieces for Shock Treatment and DADA - then went on to design for Nikki Sudden and Dave Kusworth over many years. More recently, after working in Art Education for 20 years I've designed a great deal of stuff - most notably for the Easy Action and Caroline True labels - and, basically, any friend who asks me.
I-94 Bar: You followed bands for years in a visceral, imaginative sense - can you tell us about your first gig? Was it everything you imagined? What was bad about it, what was brilliant? (Hell, if it comes to that, do you remember your first beer?)
Dave Twist: First beer was probably something called “Breaker” which was a strong-ish (well for a 16-year-old) “malt liquor”. Then I quickly moved to Barley Wine as the cheapest, fastest route to oblivion in the Crown Hotel on Hill Street - Birmingham's punk pub. They also held regular and ruinous Pernod promotion evenings.
First show was Ian Hunter and Mick Ronson at Birmingham Town Hall in April of 1975. First actual band, I guess, was their support - Jet - a kind of glam super-group featuring ex-members of John's Children, Roxy Music and Sparks. The sound at the town hall was dreadful - so that was a shock compared to the records - akin to my first football match where I was suddenly struck by the lack of a commentary. Things are different live - less controlled, more exciting. Learning the ropes of how to evade being grabbed and thrown out by the bouncers when rushing the stage.
I-94 Bar: I've always thought that a musical or literary journey as a teenager is a hugely revelatory path to walk as we come to define ourselves. What do you think were the biggest revelations to you as a teenager?
Dave Twist: I suppose that would have to be the dawning of the idea that one could dare to take the stage oneself. A cliché now when talking about the arrival of punk, but true none the less. Seeing Patti Smith in '76 with a band that the Melody Maker had decreed “couldn't play”. Nonsense of course - but you kind of took all of that negativity in and whirled it around with the actual personal experience of that show - wild, visceral, unpredictable - and you knew that you had a chance.
I-94 Bar: You've talked about the 16 Spec magazine and its “Freak Rock!” cover - could you run through some of what that cover implied for you back then?
Dave Twist: I guess that there was some kind of movement happening - that alongside Alice one now had Roxy Music, Lou Reed and Iggy Pop to find out about, track down. That "freak rock" was very probably going to be my thing.
I-94 Bar: 16 Spec is an astonishing demonstration of colliding rock 'n' roll shards and musical underworlds; are there any other items in the collection which do something similar?
Dave Twist: Any copy of Rock Scene. Rock Scene, imported out of New York, never seemed to have any lousy or boring bands in it. You were taken backstage though pages of candid pix with all of the coolest looking people. And that magazine plugged into the CBGB and Max's scenes very early and carried you along from glitter rock and into early punk. Miraculously, the news agent across the road from my parent's Baptist Church carried this imported magazine. I could break out of a Boys Brigade service and scamper over to find out what the Dolls were doing.
I-94 Bar: I notice quite a few duplicate records. What drove you to buy these things over and over and to keep them all, especially for so many years?
Dave Twist: In the case of ''LAMF' - of which I have more copies than anything else - it was a quest for a supposed clearer, better mastering. The day that album dropped we knew that it hadn't done any kind of justice to the firepower we'd seen that band capable of live. Other than that - yes, I have to be on some kind of spectrum. I'm fascinated by any differences in design from various territories, Even that theorange cast on Iggy can change hue from a Spanish to a UK to a US first pressing of “Raw Power”.
I-94 Bar: What would the 16 year-old Dave Twist say if he could see your book?
Dave Twist: I told you it wasn't a phase!
I-94 Bar: Apart from a slightly guilty sense of recognition of a like-mind, one thing I realise from looking at 'Glitter and Glue' is that my own collection is far from complete. Will your collection ever be complete?
Dave Twist: It may be too early to say - but setting it all into a book seems to be providing me with an excuse to at least slow down.
I-94 Bar: Do you collect anything else apart from musical memorabilia?
Dave Twist: Are vintage drums a different thing? They're not strictly memorabilia are they?
I-94 Bar: They say you should never meet your heroes: I'm sure you've met many - but which meetings were the most significant, or exciting..?
Dave Twist: Iggy was fun - very sparky and wired. The Clash were cool - quite considerate -they looked after you. Sid was friendly, nothing like his public image. Sylvain Sylvain the funniest, most generous. Alan Vega was very kind and protective too. Nico was completely out of it, Maureen Tucker gave motherly advice. The Slits were wild, The Only Ones were friendly - Peter Perrett still is, remembers everything. Patti was probably the most exciting - getting into the PSG's dressing room in '76. I played one show on drums with the Stones' Mick Taylor at a memorial show for Nikki. That's beyond meeting I suppose. He was lovely.
I-94 Bar: Did you ever meet any heroes that you realised that you hated?
Dave Twist: Hated is too strong a word I think , but I've been disappointed.
I-94 Bar: Just to make us all bloody envious out here in the colonies, could you name perhaps seven gigs (in that 1972-1979 period) which absolutely blew you away.
Dave Twist:
- Patti Smith Group, Aerosmith on their “Rocks” tour, and Doctor Feelgood all at Birmingham Odeon, 1976
- The Heartbreakers at Birmingham University in '77
- The Clash at Wolverhampton Civic Hall, White Riot Tour
- The Only Ones/Snatch at Birmingham Rebecca's
- Blondie supporting Television, Birmingham Odeon 1977
- Iggy Pop, “The Idiot” tour, Birmingham Hippodrome 1977
- Suicide, The Pose, Birmingham Barbarellas, 1978
- The Ramones, with Tommy, winter of 1977, Birmingham Top Rank.
I-94 Bar: How about seven more from 1980 onwards?
Dave Twist:
- The Cramps at Birmingham Odeon – “Smell of Female” era,
- Pussy Galore above some shop in central Birmingham
- Sonic Youth/Mudhoney - was that the "Daydream Nation" tour? I think so
- Primal Scream, with Mani and Kevin Shields around the time of “XTRMNTR”
- The Rolling Stones in Coventry on Charlie's last tour
- The Stooges - reformed and performing "Fun House", Hammersmith Odeon
- Finally seeing The Alice Cooper Group, back together for an extended encore at some arena in Birmingham and blagging my way right to the front.
Dave Twist now.
I-94 Bar: Here we go: as a performer - what were your favourite gigs?
Dave Twist: Most of the early and significant ones were just chaotic. No monitors, no understanding of how one made things work. Maybe the show at Eric's in Liverpool with The Prefects and The Fall. That was terrific.
Some shows with Black Bombers when I'd just sat there behind the kit feeling amazingly lucky to still be up there doing something like that beyond the age of 50 ... then 60.
Supporting Brian James on the anniversary of The Damned's first 100 Club show, at the 100 Club. That one was special.
And playing with the Rachel Mayfield Group, now. I'm beginning to feel like I might be getting the hang of it.
I-94 Bar: Dare I ask: lastly, of the performers/ musicians in “Glitter and Glue”, which remain critical for you?
Dave Twist: The Velvet Underground, the early Rolling Stones, The New York Dolls. I'm quite predictable.
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