Pages: 190 and 193
Publisher: Amazon Great Britain
Country: England
ISBN: 9798280537002 and 9798293227235
Well, well, well... Guess who's back after more than 20 years of absence?!
Paul Burnley of No Remorse with his two-volume autobiography named
"Skinhead Diaries".
The first volume of book starts with a fair encounter of his
childhood and teenage years. It wasn't easy for him at all with a far-left
liberal mother and a hard-alcoholic father. On the top of that the “joys"
of living in a multicultural society were quite stressful even back then and
the author was often in trouble just for his skinhead outlook.
The second part of the book is mainly focused on Paul's
career with No Remorse and their tours around Europe, USA and Canada. The
American tours are described well, including the murder of Joe Rowan after the
ISD memorial in Racine Wisconsin in 1994.
The gigs in ex East Bloc countries Poland and Czech Republic
are there as well, but not with full details as some really funny and even
embarrassing situations occurred during those trips. I hope this part of the
history will be included in my future written projects which are on
"standby" position at the moment.
The second volume of the book could have been much more
detailed in my opinion as every now and then the chronology of the events
described by dates "jumps" with several months and even a year.
In order to make my review fair and honest I must include
some critics and negatives which worth to be mentioned. From my personal
researches I know that some important facts and details have been deliberately
missed or neglect. Such as his personal role and responsibility for the bad organization
at the meeting point before the infamous Waterloo concert in London in 1992.
This led to violent clashes with police and antifa, causing injuries and arrests
for the skinheads from all across Europe. He was widely and openly criticized
for that by other leading figures in the English RAC scene.
In addition, in January 1994 the first planned ISD memorial
gig failed to happen mainly because of him, which is slightly mentioned in the
book. Some other interesting facts such as the pop icon David Bowie was a
family friend of the Burnley's and Paul personally knew him are not mentioned
at all. After all, "Under the Gods" cover the song which original is
a David's Bowie Tin Machine hit is definitely NOT a coincidence.
Despite all the negatives and critics described above we
have to admit that Paul B. and No Remorse are a significant part in the RAC
history. Their singalong lyrics and catchy music are favorite to tons of
listeners around to this day. No matter if you like or not on personal level, Paul
Burnley will remain one of the most important and controversial figures in the
English RAC scene.
To sum it up, both volumes of the book definitely worth
purchasing them, which you can do directly from Amazon. I will highly recommend
buying the hardback versions, due to the good quality and better (in my
opinion) designs of the front/back covers compared to the softback versions.
Inside you can find a lot of rare photos from the Paul’s childhood years and
from various gigs with his band.
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