Cultured Llama

We are now taking orders for the long-anticipated Do It Yourself: a History of Music in Medway by Stephen H. Morris. The March issue of WOW magazine has the book listed in their ‘Six really Good Things to do this Month’. Editor Emma Dewhurst says:

Having heard Morris read from a draft of the book last year, I can attest to to its entertaining, well-researched and zip-a-long account of Medway’s music scene from the mid-70s onwards. Reviewed in next month’s WOW.

Do It Yourself: a History of Music in Medway, by Stephen H. Morris, is the definitive and indispensable guide to Medway music. Mixing oral history with profiles of the best singles, EPs and albums to come out of the Medway Towns since the mid-1970s, Morris tells the story of how performers such as Billy Childish, The Dentists and Lupen Crook have produced music whose influence extends far beyond the reach of five small towns in the north of Kent.

The Medway Towns have long played host to frenzied musical activity. The explosion of punk in Britain showed aspiring bands and artists in Medway that there were far more interesting things to do with music than covering Bee Gees songs in a dingy club. Ever since, musicians from Medway have applied punk’s Do-It-Yourself ethic to their own garage, folk and alternative rock bands. They have managed their own affairs, formed communities to support each other and peppered their songs with references to their home towns.

Do It Yourself: a History of Music in Medway is available for pre-order, with an expected publication date of the end of March.

The book will be launched at The Barge, Gillingham, Kent on 23 April at 8.00 pm. Expect performances from some of the artists featured in the book, readings and a quiz in aid of the Oliver Fisher Neonatal Trust, called Are You a Medway Buff?

The book will also be on sale at Rochester Sweeps Festival over the early May bank holiday, 2-4 May 2015. Cultured Llama’s stall will be amongst the record and musical instruments stalls in the Boley Hill car park in Rochester Castle moat.

Details on Events.

Order the book for £15 plus p&p here: Do It Yourself: a History of Music in Medway

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