Cultured Llama

This week, Cultured Llama took delivery of the first print run of Do It Yourself: A History of Music in Medway by Stephen H Morris. It’s our longest book to date, at 504 pages, and why wouldn’t it be, after two and a half years of research and writing?

Phil Dillon contributed several fantastic band photos to the book, and you can see some of them here.

Here’s what Stephen H Morris had to say on receiving the first copies of his book:

It began on 16 October 2012 when I walked into The Man of Kent, Rochester, ordered a pint of Biddenden’s and waited for a man called Bob Collins to arrive.

At that point I had only a fraction of the knowledge I needed to produce a 504 page book on the subject of Medway music. Bob, who’d once been in a popular Medway band called The Dentists, proved an excellent person to start with, not least because he was writing a book about Medway music too […]

904 days later, I receive a knock on the door from another Bob. This one’s Bob Carling, from Cultured Llama, the publishers of Do It Yourself: a History of Music in Medway. He has come armed with copies of my book to sign – and the usual small stash for me to keep and do with as I will.

In the days between those two encounters with two Bobs a lot has happened. I’ve interviewed Billy Childish while he busied himself with an enormous painting, I’ve enjoyed a cup of tea with Lupen Crook and I’ve drunk countless pints of cider in pubs in the name of research.

 

Read more here.

The book will be launched on 23 April at 8.00 pm at The Barge, Layfield Road, Gillingham, Kent. There will be music from:

Nick Hughes (Gash, Cenet Rox and The Wax Collectors)
David Read (The Claim and Coax)
Stuart Turner (of The Flat Earth Society)
Peter Cook (of, among many other claims to fame, Mrs Cook’s spin dryer – more about which in the book) who will be both performing and compering the evening.

Full details on the Events page.

Books will be on sale at the launch and during The Sweeps Festival in Rochester, 2-4 May, at the Cultured Llama stall in the Boley Hill Car Park in the moat of Rochester Castle.

Buy the book direct from Cultured Llama for £15 plus p&p: Do It Yourself: A History of Music in Medway.

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