Description: Part memoir, part social history, Revolutionary Spirit is the poignant, often hilarious story of a cult Liverpool musician's scenic route to fame amid the 1980s indie scene.
Brief description:
Paul Simpson is a musician and artist. Across four decades in music, he has released critically acclaimed singles and albums with The Teardrop Explodes, Care, and The Wild Swans. In 2000, he completed a Visiting Fellowship at Liverpool School of Art and Design at John Moores University, where he worked on the spoken-word project The Dream Diaries. Today, Paul paints and creates collages from his home in Glasgow. He is currently working on a novel.
Review Quotes:
'There was stiff competition, but Paul Simpson had the best voice on the early 80s Liverpool scene. Now he's written the best memoir since Head On, bringing all the
city's characters, clubs, and hedonism vividly to life. I was in stitches ... that is, when I didn't have my hands over my eyes. Wonderful stuff.' - Bob Stanley
'Reads like a book that is already a Penguin Modern Classic. And not in a Morrissey way, but a proper way.' - Bill Drummond
'I've been lucky enough to have been reading Paul's fantastic and hilarious writing in private for many years. Now it's your turn.' - Will Sergeant
'A refreshing antidote to the rock memoir trope--a savant's charter, if you will. Beautifully written and extremely entertaining, Revolutionary Spirit often works to its own, inner logic; there are passages that bring to mind Fournier's Le Grand Meaulnes, or Carey's The Horse's Mouth.' - Richard James Foster
'The craziest book I've read about what being in a band really means. This actually details exactly what happens to your life then, now, and forever.' - Bobby Bluebell
'A fascinating and at points laugh-out-loud tale full of all the drama befitting the times, the music, characters, and the human condition.' - Rory Sullivan-Burke
'Post-war damage and spiritual intelligence seep forward through a man's music, books, and self-styled garb to find earthly form in this lucid memorandum of understanding of the new wave. Wild Swan Simpson is its truant king.' - John Fleming