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BEATS OF LOVE

61. When Does the Mind-Bending Start?: The Life and Times of World of Twist by Gordon King

THE BEST thing about Gordon King's brilliant book is that you feel he has been coerced into writing it. 

There is usually a large amount of vanity to forgive when musicians pick up a pen and write. Failure and death are recurring themes that also foreshadow the tragedy of their own demise, yet it is in the main a hilarious read. Must confess that I never noticed the lack of guitar during their legendary Ritz show either. 

What becomes quickly apparent is the principal members were probably better suited to ideas, humour, and songwriting, than fronting Manchester's most happening band. 

Normally when paragraphs contain glib punchlines, there is something contrived at work, but this book naturally writes itself with warmth and candour. Subtly elevating kitsch to the realm of serious art, with a knowing wink, was always their stock in trade, and this mighty book shares a similar spirit by actually making trivial asides seem rather important. Reclaiming the footnote as truly essential reading in the process. 

My only beef with the self-depreciating tone is that it downplays the potentiality of a band who took the best post-punk Sheffield had to offer and married it to a decidedly 70s aesthetic. Whilst also both looking and sounding fabulously futuristic. 

Anyone involved in their story is a wizard, but someone who wrote the bulk of Sons of the Stage stands with the very best of the best.