When We Were Thin by CP Lee

[Dominic]

A passing mention of Alberto Y Lost Trios Paranoias on this very forum led me, via google, to When We Were Thin, CP Lee's self-published history of his deranged band.

Subtitled Music, Madness & Manchester, it relates how CP Lee started performing (to impress a girl, naturally) in folk clubs. One thing led to another (though not with the girl), he discovered Bob Dylan and the rest is history. Well, maybe not history in the conventional sense, rather an anecdotal account of one man and his band's mission to deflate the pomposity of rock, taking as many drugs and causing as much mayhem as possible along the way. Luckily the drug-taking is not glamorised, and Lee's dry sense of humour avoids what could have become a low-rent Fear & Loathing. Rather than following a strictly chronological approach, the book is loosely divided into thematic chapters - life on the road, the various forays into the recording studio etc. The descriptions of pre-punk Manchester are as interesting as the heady days when "The Berts" story co-incides with Stiff Records. (I didn't know until now that it was CP Lee who gave Stiff their most famous slogan.)

Available for £12 including UK p&p from http://itsahotun.com/hotunpress.htm. CP will sign it for you (mine is inscribed "Still gobbin' on life!") and will probably enclose a badge and a post card or two.