Punk rock ruined my life

And other stories

John Robb

• Publisher: Manchester University Press
• Year: 2026
• Print ISBN:
  9781526191786
• eBook ISBN:
  9781526191779
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Music Biographies

The irresistible story of a one-man cultural phenomenon.

Minister for the Counterculture, Mancunian mainstay and alternative national treasure John Robb has lived a life in music. In this book he charts his adventures on the cultural frontline, chronicling the making of a DIY icon.

Robb's quest began in his hometown of Blackpool – where punk was a battle against the odds – and went international when he toured the world with his band. The first person to interview Nirvana, he also discovered The Stone Roses for weekly newspaper Sounds and did early interviews with The Jesus and Mary Chain and The Manics, before moving on to legends such as Mark E. Smith, Nick Cave and Patti Smith. Along the way, he became an on-screen commentator and author of bestselling books.

Robb's memoir tells of deep friendships with figures from Poly Styrene to Chris Packham. Packed with riotous stories, it provides an alternative account of British musical and cultural history and a triumphant blueprint for a punk rock life.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Contents
• Preface: the universe explodes into a billion photons of pure white light
• 1: Life, death, and the scary bits in between
• 2: Ghosts of ancient relatives on the high seas
• 3: Alien kid: my swinging sixties
• 4: Tower power! Blackpool by the sea
• 5: Spaceships! The moon landing
• 6: Wounded bull in Victorian England: school daze/cruel ways
• 7: Wigwam bam thank U glam (confessions of a teenage pop nerd)
• 8: Riot squad for Toxic City FC: tower power and nutters that come from the sea
• 9: Wake up! Wake up! You're already dead: inky fingers and the music press
• 10: In 1977 we finally get to heaven
• 11: Fighting in the dancehalls: punk adventures in a seaside town
• 12: Revolting into style! Cut-and-paste culture
• 13: Songs of love and fury: the Membranes
• 14: Entertaining friends: our first gigs
• 15: Xerox machine: fanzines and a missive from couch potato command
• 16: Get a head: the Membranes get going
• 17: If you enter the arena, you've got to be prepared to deal with the lions
• 18: Hey! When the sun goes down! Manchester calling
• 19: Twenty-four-hour drinking at northern prices! Moving to the fort by the breast-shaped hill
• 20: Death to Trad Rock
• 21: The world acclaims … the eternal protein men! How to survive being a bunch of cults
• 22: Beyond God and Elvis: 1987 and searching for the new thing
• 23: Everyone's going triple bad acid yeah! Nirvana, Dinosaur Jr. in my garden
• 24: The day my universe changed: there is acid in the house
• 25: When I get to heaven: adventures on the music front line
• 26: Blind faith: blissing in action in the early nineties
• 27: Post-detergent vacuum cleaner man: adventures into sound
• 28: Home turf: Goldblade bring the punk rock soul power
• 29: Goldblade drop the bomb
• 30: Do you believe in the power of rock ’n’ roll?
• 31: R U ready for the twenty-first century?
• 32: End of the century!
• 33: All we got are punk rock rebel songs: Goldblade bring the noise
• 34: Dream the vicious dream: oh what a tangled web we weave…
• 35: Borders blurred: the visa campaign
• 36: Justice!
• 37: All roads lead to the palace of wisdom
• 38: Fangs for the memory: the Fall guy, or, how I was bitten by the elastic man
• 39: Dark Matter/Dark Energy: the Membranes take a trip into outer space
• 40: New blood for young skulls: a new generation is still louder than war!
• 41: Someone stole my brain: words are my weapons and music is the glue
• 42: Breathe in/breathe out: enter the green dragons, green populism and the sixth great extinction
• 43: What nature gives … nature takes away, or, where do you go after you have been across the universe?
• 44: Feel my disease: the great plague
• 45: Fastest man alive: the roaring twenties
• 46: In the city of future ghosts
• Index