Book Review - Hell Bent For Leather

[SJ_Skyline]

<u>Hell Bent For Leather - Confessions of a Heavy Metal Addict</u>

This is Seb Hunter's journey through his teenage years. It had me howling with laughter at times and nodding in agreement with a whole "I've been there, I've done that and I've still got the T-shirt"

After cutting his teeth on AC/DC at his parents home in Winchester Seb discovers Hanoi, packs his bags and moves to London to be a rock star. 48 hours later and homeless must be a world record!

Seb's story is broken up with his guide to the bands, the styles and components that made metal. The different facets of thrash metal to the spandex and trainers of NWOBHM.

Seb offers his opinion (several times) on where it all ended - "When Kurt killed us all" - is mentioned more than once just to show where he believes the blame lies.


I loved it, a great read [img]graemlins/thumbs_up.gif[/img]

[chrisdamien]

Thanks! I've been curious about this one. Might go pick up a copy now

[suicidestars]

I have to admit, it does sound interesting...

[Hud McG]

I got on first release a couple of years ago. great read, his band were around at the same time as Kiss the Bride. Though i don't agree about Kurt it was all over long before that.
H

[Tim73]

I LOVE this book... It can be picked up really cheap in the sales so I have even bought it for friends. It is painfully funny & sails too close to the truth at times (going to the bank to get a loan for a Gibson Les Paul to be rejected because you only have a childrens account - classic!).

I'm sure many of us here would relate to it - most of us probably know at least one person who is mentioned. I kinda agree with Hud about Kurt Cobain - I think the scene killed itself as most scene's do. I think it is easy to overplay the affects of Nirvana, probably had as much to do with Beavis & Butthead!

[Darryl Wilks]

I remember being on a train one Saturday a couple of years back with a copy of the Guardian and was flicking through the Weekend supplement only to find a very familiar picture of Cat Ballou (taken from Kerrang's Shrapnel pages) staring back at me. Gave me the shock of my life. They were running an extract from Seb's book, and tho I never knew him I was hanging round the same clubs/pubs etc during that period so it was a necessary purchase. The section in the book detailing a typical night at the Hellfire Club is hilarious (and wholly accurate). I was also amused by the reference to the 'Fagin-like' Carri, with his band that consisted of which 4 long-hairs he's most recently met - am proud(ish) to have been one such (former) long-hair!

[JayStarr]

Yes, he gave too much power to Nirvana. Any sort of scene had already killed itself years before that travesty was hyped all out of proportion to objective reality.

As far as I'm concerned, the only good "metal" years in the 1980s were dead by 1986. The early K! years/tailend of SOUNDS' influence were the best times.

Regarding B&B, people forget that that show was created by someone who hated the subject matter, that is why he picked the most repulsively vile stereotypes for his characters. Of course, things were already dead before Judge ever put pen to ink.

The late 1980s SS scene was seen as a lame parody of "real bands" such as Metallica, whereas the earlier years were more or less the "pop" music such as WASP that all the left over punks used to whine about.

"Teased hair...satin suits...high heels...ooohhh...that's glam...yuk...it's not "street cred"..." [img]wink.gif[/img]