A founding member of the British post-punk band Echo & The Bunnymen charts his troubled youth in 1960s and 70s suburban Liverpool and his dawning interest in music that ultimately leads him to form the influential group.
What The Reviewers Say
James Cook,
The Times Literary Supplement (UK)
Sergeant vividly evokes a troubled childhood on a council estate in Melling, a satellite village of Liverpool.
Fiona McQuarrie,
PopMatters
Fans of Sergeant’s transcendent guitar work with Echo and the Bunnymen might be frustrated that Sergeant doesn’t even get around to his first band until about two-thirds of the way through. But the life that led up to that event is essential in understanding Sergeant and his music.
Ian Rankin,
The New Statesman (UK)
The first two-thirds of Sergeant’s book resembles the kitchen-sink mundanity of Douglas Stuart’s novel Shuggie Bain rather than Mötley Crüe’s scurrilous biopic The Dirt, as Sergeant grows up in squalor in the village of Melling, eight miles from the heart of Liverpool.
Rebekah Buchanan,
Library Journal
He immerses readers in the punk and post-punk scenes, describing venues like the nightclub Eric's from the point of view of an acne-faced teen trying to belong.