Like with many of the albums that I hold dear, it is astounding that "Never Mind The Bollocks" ever made it out into the world, and the same can be said for many of the other foundational UK punk albums. SK: One of the things that struck me was this idea Jon makes very explicit about McLaren, John Lydon and the others: that they suddenly realised they could be involved in the mass media, that they could have a voice within that machinery.

But three hundred years later, England briefly experimented with the idea of publicly disassembling its kings along the neck, and all the royal regalia was sold off and melted down—all except this spoon, which was bought by one Kynnersley, formerly Yeoman of the King’s Wardrobe, for twelve shillings.

For me, it's been about a decade and a half since I was really, really into the Pistols, and I while reading this book I felt compelled to dig out some of the music. And wtf is up with all the real dodginess about fixating on people as Jewish and attributing various character traits to that and so on? This ends with the Sex Pistols signing with EMI, but it is an interesting perspective on a fashion, and music, which seemed to come from nowhere and sparked an enormous reaction at the time. If you don't want to see βeta then select 'Always Hide βeta' and the comments will be hidden for you.

A Sweeping epic not only of punk music but of the British political and social culture from which it arose and the culture it left in its wake. We can’t delude ourselves that the state exists for our benefit; it exists to serve a cabal of weird, leathery perverts, and so do we. It is why there are few people (before 1996)in the UK who can really say they saw the Pistols play with audiences of just 20, 40 or just a couple of hundred, and many of those were regulars and later became band members in groups or personalties in music and the media.I was unemployed, maybe a little bit like you, and I would get up in the morning, pretend that I had a day ahead of me and then go back to bed and read the book while my parents, downstairs, were trying to work out what it was that I was actually doing with my life. Hundreds of men in deeply silly outfits marched slowly, incredibly slowly, down a totally unremarkable country road. On the Restoration, it was decided that to be crowned King of England, a man must first be daubed with oil from this particular spoon.

I think the author has done a great job of explaining the history and background of the UK (and especially London) at the time, the scene, music and circumstance leading to punk, however the book starts off slowly with some very in depth political chapters about obscure beliefs and fringe groups. The effect of Savage’s book in praise of pop and the “now” was that I now listened to more old music than new. England's Dreaming elevates punk from its notoriety into a serious (if hated and controversial) art form and critique of modern culture.It is a REAL question if I will finish this, and it's about one of my favourite periods of musical history! At some point in Jon Savage’s England’s Dreaming: Sex Pistols and Punk Rock, Chrissie Hynde explains why she quit the NME as a music journalist in 1974. Wir versenden aus unserem deutschen Lager heraus in plastikfreien oder wiederverwendeten Polstertaschen. So maybe because Jon wrote it in this sort of cultural void, at a time when punk seemed almost forgotten, that lends the book some historical clout. Not a good book in the conventional sense - it's too chaotic, sprawling and ill-disciplined for that but Not quite 'ever get the feeling you've been cheated?

And larded with plaudits such 'a claim to be the definitive work on the subject' (The Times, no less) and 'flawless' (Esquire), a book could very well sink beneath the weight of its own cleverness and self-regard. About midway through his coronation ceremony, King Charles III was lightly greased with olive oil from Jerusalem, deployed via a special spoon. The narrator, Chris McDonnell takes some getting used to, but once you get accustomed to his style, it is easy to follow and he does a very good job presenting this dense and rich material. There is little talk about how the songs were written and what the recording sessions were like, though the contract negotiations and business-side of things is heavily focused on.I'm giving it 5 stars on the basis that it covers the subject matter so well, plenty of other people seem able to find fault with it, but to my mind they're merely nit picking. She was popular because she’d totally erased any human personality she might have had: never really Elizabeth, but simply the Queen , a face and some corgis, a totally empty space on which the public could project whatever it wanted. For me this is a trip down memory lane and a good book to reminisce over, but I remember at the time that it was anything but exciting. One of our most popular TV shows is a reality programme in which you watch other people watching TV.