By the time the 90’s arrived and I hit 30, I pretty much gave up the whole ‘tribe’ thing. Whereas when I was 18, if you had long hair and dressed like a hippy, you were in my tribe. But in my 20s I realised this was obviously rubbish and a poor way to judge people.
Also, after a flirtation with hair-metal, I had reverted to my scruffy, unfashionable, careless default and grown my hair out. All those things that used to bother me so much just now seemed pointless and I’ve been like that ever since. I felt myself drifting away from pretty much anything contemporary and delving deeper into my early loves of west coast acid rock and 70’s jazz-rock. Safe to say there was no modern music as brilliant as Soft Machine’s Bundles or if there was, I didn’t hear it.
It was at this time that I really emerged from the hot house of learning about the history of rock. I realised I’d spent the best part of 20 years cramming my head full of knowledge, simply for the love of learning and now it was time to really use this info in any way I could.
Trouble is, what do you do with knowing the entire Ten Years After discography, apart from pub quizzes?
For years I didn’t really know what to do with this encyclopaedic knowledge. My pals were of a similar bent and channelled their energies into selling at record fairs and some fell by the wayside. I’d spent years absorbing this info, it had to be of use somehow. It’s remarkable how ir’s all stayed with me and hasn’t faded with time, not even after a stroke.
Then in 2011 I began writing a crime novel series. And I’m now writing the 21st. They’ve got and still get quite a following. When I started to create the first, I created a character with a secondhand record shop because it was an environment I knew well who had an encyclopaedic knowledge of rock and his best mate who he’d grown up with and has a huge collection who is equally knowledgeable. And this was the point at which all my learning at last became useful as I peppered the novels with casual references to obscure bands. I realised I had this great well of info to draw on and novels were the perfect home for it, not in a way which would alienate people who don’t share my inclinations but just as a cultural seasoning.
Later this year we will pass DJTees on to a record shop guy, perhaps appropriately. Retiring (3 years to go before our pension) from the day-to-day to be able to focus more on writing and Dawn on art. When I was reading my NME Book of Rock at 14 years of age, I never paid a thought to the fact that 50 years later I’d be still drawing on it and plan to keep drawing on it for the years ahead. Kids used to laugh at me for knowing who Ten Wheel Drive and Earth Opera were but how many novels have they written!
If you’re interested you can get my books from the usual places or direct from me here; www.johnnicholson.co.uk They’re all stand alone stories but the core three people evolve so it’s best to read them in order.
