Page 99 - Classic Rock (February 2020)

book, but fans wanting the guts passable Spanish. The same
and grist will be better served can’t be said, however, for
by Mark Blake’s rather less a guesting Bob Dylan, who
official Is This The Real Life?. flubs the first line of Like
QQQQQQQQQQ A Rolling Stone and gets worse
Henry Yates from there on.
But as the titular bridge
Outside View: extends for a Chuck Berry
The Secret Life tribute in the round, Argentina
Of A Teenage is crying (and screaming) for
Punk Rocker them, and the home straight

Andy Blade DAYS LIKE TOMORROW of big ones absolutely isn’t
Eye-witness account of punk’s fumbled – that is unless you
early days from Eater frontman. count Keef hijacking Chuck
“It most definitely Leavell’s keyboards on Honky
wasn’t supposed Tonk Women.
to be like this,” QQQQQQQQQQ
laments Andy Henry Yates
Blade, recalling
the day Eater Where’s My
walked out of their own Guitar?:
(nightmarish) record deal in An Inside Story
1978, and this sense of punk Of British Rock
losing its way is mirrored by his And Roll
own band’s premature demise. Bernie Marsden
Having formed Eater at 15, FOURTH ESTATE PUBLISHING
Blade was there from the very Scandal-free tale from one
start, hanging out at punk of rock’s survivors (good
mecca The Roxy as a wide- with guitars, not so good
eyed convert while his peers with money).
were either scheming An amiable soul who’s stayed
a pathway to the top (The married to the same woman
Clash) or lying about their since 1980; a man who
ages (The Stranglers). willingly admits that “Rory
While bad management and Gallagher was always going to
teenage naivete put paid to his be a sartorial role model” and
rock star ambitions, Blade’s acid who mostly avoided the siren
wit makes him a captivating calls of drugs and drink,
narrator, the grimy, back-biting Bernie Marsden is a rock
nature of the early punk scene survivor. His scandal-free tale
summed up in the hilarious – if is undermined by misspelling
heart-breaking – tale of him Marianne Faithfull and Hollies
waking up one morning to find singer Allan Clarke, but it
his idol, Johnny Rotten, spraying centres on Whitesnake – to
him with urine. whom Marsden brought blues
QQQQQQQQQQ authenticity as well as Here
Paul Moody I Go Again.
Yet, for all that relations
The Rolling remain cordial, even after his
Stones financial naivety led to
Bridges To Buenos Aires a successful court case, he’s
EAGLE VISION never quite recovered from
Uneven set list in Argentina, leaving them in 1982 and he’s
redeemed by megawatt insufficiently ruthless to lead
energy. his own band. Along the way,
River Plate there are cameos from the likes
Stadium ’98 is of John Hurt, Pat Cash, Shirley
perhaps not the Bassey, BB King and David
most mouth- Cameron, who claims to be
watering entry a Thin Lizzy fan.
in Eagle Vision’s Here I Go Again means
historic Stones concert series. Marsden will never be on his
The band were touring the uppers, and to his credit he’s
so-so Bridges To Babylon album far from bitter, although Phil
(released in 1997), and the Mogg, Great White and Ginger
setlist has its frustrations: Baker are roundly trounced.
room for Flip The Switch, Out Of Curiously, had he joined Cliff
Control, Thief In The Night and Richards’ band (which almost
Saint Of Me, but not Street happened back in 1989) his
Fighting Man? Yet the lineup career would have taken a most
power on through, with Keith unexpected twist. But the man
Richards on tight-but-loose who’s allergic to lobster
form in a floor-length coat deserves his contentment.
evoking a mangy tiger, and QQQQQQQQQQ
Jagger a blur of bark, twirl and John Aizlewood