Dream Baby Dream: Suicide - A New York Story - Needs, Kris

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Résumé :
We were living through the realities of war and bringing the war onto the stage... Everybody hated us, man. says Alan Vega who, along with electronic jazz maverick Martin Rev, formed Suicide, the most terrifyingly iconoclastic band in history, and also one of the most influential. By the time the punk scene they're usually associated with came out of CBGBs in the mid-seventies, Suicide had already been causing havoc in New York's clubs for several years. They were actually borne out of the city's vibrant artistic underground as a counter-cultural performance art statement, opposing the war by mirroring its turmoil. This book tells Suicide's whole amazing story like never before, with New York a shimmering, seething backdrop as Rev studies with jazz greats, such as blind bebop pianist Lennie Tristano and his hero Miles Davis' drummer Tony Williams, while Vega makes a noise on the new art gallery scene springing up on the then-deserted streets of SoHo. Working closely with author Kris Needs, Rev and Vega explain the influences and events which led to the birth of Suicide and their early struggles. They invoke another world and era, peppered with smoky jazz clubs, Iggy Pop in his new-born Stooge persona and even suffer an attack from beat guru Allen Ginsberg. Along with interviewing major figures in the Suicide story, Kris Needs reaches back into 40 years chronicling and interviewing major players in New York's musical history, including Blondie, Jayne County, James Chance and the New York Dolls. While the city changes around them, it all adds up to the definitive account of the lives and times of this unique duo....

Biographie:
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Sommaire:
After running the Mott The Hoople fan club in the early 70s, Kris started contributing to Zigzag, horrifying the old guard with his coverage of the nascent punk scene. Founder-editor Pete Frame ran his interviews with groups like the Sex Pistols, Clash, Johnny Thunders' Heartbreakers and Flamin' Groovies before, acknowledging the new movement, he asked Kris to take over as Editor in June 1977. For the next five years, Kris reported from the front line with The Clash, Ramones, Slits, Siouxsie and the Banshees, John Lydon, Motorhead and Blondie, also up close encounters with Keith Richards, Bob Marley, U2 and Kate Bush. He interviewed a new band called U2 in return for what turned out to be the last UK interview with Bob Marley. Throughout this period, Kris also contributed to Sounds and NME while acting as New York Rocker's UK correspondent. After Zigzag became victim of shady publishers, Kris helped run the Bat Cave goth club and became UK correspondent for Creem, moving to New York in '86 to become their Manhattan correspondent. Arriving back in the UK in 1990, Kris dived into the club scene for the rest of the decade, writing for NME, Mixmag, Echoes, DJ and Muzik, making records as Secret Knowledge and Delta Lady, producing over 100 remixes and DJing around the world with Primal Scream and Prodigy. After forming a disco group with Irvine Welsh, running Creation's dance arm Eruption and becoming resident DJ at Ibiza's notorious Manumission club, Kris chose writing over an early grave and wrote his autobiography Needs Must before books on Primal Scream, Keith Richards, The Clash, New York Dolls, Blondie, George Clinton and Suicide. He contributes to MOJO, Record Collector, Classic Rock, Prog, Electronic Sound, Vive le Rock and Shindig!. After finishing his 1969 teenage memoir, Just A Shot Away:'69 Revisited, Kris is currently working on the official biography of Alex Paterson, aka The Orb....