***** – loved it. (432 pages. Amazon link).
In 1975, Viv Albertine was obsessed with music but it never occurred to her she could be in a band as she couldn’t play an instrument and she’d never seen a girl play electric guitar.
A year later, she was the guitarist in the hugely influential all-girl band the Slits, who fearlessly took on the male-dominated music scene and became part of a movement that changed music.
A raw, thrilling story of life on the frontiers and a candid account of Viv’s life post-punk – taking in a career in film, the pain of IVF, illness and divorce and the triumph of making music again – Clothes Music Boys is a remarkable memoir.
I was bought this book as a present by my boyfriend; he saw it on an Amazon deal and thought that I might like it because Viv Albertine is known to be a feminist and seemed to have had an interesting life. Before reading the book I must admit that I had not heard of her, or her band the Slits. But, within 40 pages or so of reading on my commute to work, I was hooked. The book has perhaps one of my favourite opening lines I have read recently, “Anyone who writes an autobiography is either a twat or broke. I’m a bit of both.” An excellent introduction to an excellent memoir that speaks in a consistently honest and raw voice throughout. After finishing the book I looked for a video of Viv speaking to see if the voice I had of her from reading was accurate to real-life – it was spot on. (Video here). I think that is a testament to her writing style; she discusses her life openly and does not gloss over anecdotes that show her in a less than flattering light.
The book is split into two halves – the first half covers her adolescence and twenties when she is hanging out with the as yet not famous members of the Sex Pistols and the Clash. Her descriptions of Sid Vicious, Johnny Rotten, and Mick Jones in particular are affectionate and show them to be real people who traipsed around the streets of London together rather than their larger than life stage personas that I was more familiar with. As expected, there are anecdotes about sex and drug-taking in squats, but these do not seem to have been included for shock value, but just because that was part of her life at the time. Photos being included throughout the book help these stories come to life and gave me a sense of being there as I read. I liked the fact that the first half gave a consistent message that Viv was not content with being just someone’s girlfriend, but instead formed her own band and taught herself to play guitar despite no musical training.
The second half of the book covers Viv’s later life: her marriage, IVF treatment, cancer treatment, and divorce. The brutality of some of these experiences was eye-opening and I think very brave of her to share so openly. To my mind, the second half of the book shows a strength of character in her that is admirable and perhaps even more ‘punk’ than the first half of the book. Also the second half discusses her return to music and the challenges that she faced along the way. I liked that the book never sounded arrogant, but instead let the reader in on some very personal moments as if they were a fly-on-the-wall.
I would thoroughly recommend this book, even if like me you have not heard of Viv Albertine or The Slits before. At it’s core it is the story of a remarkable woman making her way in the world and being honest about her mistakes along the way.
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