The Rhythm Method by Nicky Forbes
Suffolk & Watt, £15
SEX and drugs and rock’n’roll go together like, well, whatever tripling you fancy but drummer Nicky Forbes’ racy autobiography separates the reality from the glamour in the world of punk and pop. His is a warts and all story of an Essex childhood, doing the circuit with wannabe bands and then joining the Revillos, who rose out of the ashes of the Edinburgh punk rock group the Rezillos – remember Top of the Pops, Destination Venus and Motorbike Beat? It’s a tale which, while it amuses and annoys in equal measure, is a salutary warning to all budding rock stars. Maybe it’s even a moral tale born out of some of the stunts and the girls he pulled.
Ah! How the follies of youth catch up with us. But it’s a fun tale, too, as he takes us on a tour of the sometimes seedy and often corrupt industry which all of us support by buying CDs and downloading and, maybe, many have aspired to.
I’ve known Nicky for a few years but it’s hard to believe that the mild mannered, quietly spoken, Belgian beer drinking graphic designer at the Chartered Society of Physiotherapists is the same character who, as Rocky Rhythm, drummed his way across Britain, Europe, America and the rest of the rock’n’roll world. Can this gentle, well dressed, home loving man be the same punk rocker who, attired in plastic and leather, and annoyed that he wasn’t being allowed to get to sleep, relieved himself out of a hotel bedroom over the busking hippy who was the cause of his enforced insomnia? Naughty! But I’ll bet the hippy thought twice about his future pitches.
The blunt answer is yes, of course he was. The pace of the book is fast and at times you get so drawn into the world he’s describing you want to slap the guys who rip him off in some seedy pub venue. The writing is less diary and more a collection of anecdotes woven cleverly together into a rise and fall story. He exposes the world of bands and promoters and agents and record labels and how they all feed, sometimes parasitically, off each other. He gives us a sense that it’s the innocence and dreams of youth which are exploited by a mendacious industry keen to corrupt them and those who would follow their dreams by buying the records. It is capitalism at its worst.
Intermingled with his life story are occasional glimpses into the rest of the world through which Nicky drummed and strutted. Landmarks like John Lennon’s death and shrewd observations about racism in America bring to the book a certain something that is missing from most books on glam rock and punk rock.
There are many references to casual sex, massive drinking sessions and bad language as well as a curious load of references to bodily excretion plus a health warning in that Nicky now has tinnitus. But there’s a charm and wit to the writing and classical references which make this a book that endears the character and explains his world.
A cautionary tale in that, like many, Nicky’s pop career was, perhaps, a failure. But what fun along the way. Nice one Nicky.
Andrew Dodgshon
