Rock of Pages: London’s Burning

Dave Thompson‘s London’s Burning: True Adventures on the Front Lines of Punk is simultaneously a fascinating read, as well as a frustrating one. While Thompson declares in the intro to the book that he’s here to write his story of the early days of punk (the 100 days of the Roxy, reggae’s place in the whole punk uprising, etc.), there is still a surprising amount of redundant information.

I’d like to think that anyone buying a book such as London’s Burning would be at least somewhat familar with the basic back story of the London punk scene in its formative days. Rehashing the story of the Sex Pistols’ trip down the Thames on the day of the Queen’s Silver Jubilee isn’t really necessary.

The factual information is handy to anyone who’s coming to this subject matter cold, as it does provide a sense of where everything lies, but the real strength of Thompson’s writing is when he talks about the subjects that haven’t been covered. When he talks about bands like Roogalator, the Heavy Metal Kids, and the Pink Fairies, as well as slightly-better known acts like the Adverts, Thompson has much more to say, and with greater emphasis than when telling the story of the tossed beer mug that got the Pistols banned from the clubs.

This is to say nothing of the incredibly tight focus on Patti Smith’s performances in the early chapters, and how that was what really provided the impetus of the punk movement. The fact that Thompson chooses to stop his book in mid-’77, rather than follow the movement as it fully encounters the mainstream gives the book greater focus, but it would have been far more satisfying to have a less abrupt ending.

Ending as it does on the “day the two sevens clash” (7/7/77) provides a nice link to the reggae performers that lurk about in the books periphery (Aswad, for example). Aside from bringing the book back to the beginning, wherein there is horrific violence, and ending with the same, it simply seems as if Thompson chose to end London’s Burning where he did because it was convenient.

All in all, if one comes to this book with a less than complete knowledge of the early days of UK punk rock, Thompson provides a nice counterpoint, giving voice to the lesser-knowns. Still, it is a little scattershot in terms of tone and focus, and one wishes that the author’d chosen to focus more intensely on his personal experiences, and gone into greater depth on those we’ve not read about ad nauseum.