Revealed: 1977-82

By Francesco Mellina

Book Review by John Owen - 18/12/2014

A post punk odyssey photographed as it happened all those years ago. 176 photojournalistic pictures documenting the rise and rise of the new faces of underground music that were soon to flip over and become mainstream, caught here in felicito flagrante or with their proverbial pants down doing their stuff as spotty teenagers soon to become major megastars.

This highly glossy superb book gives you a taste of the hedonism free spirit the post hippy malaise and the beginning of outright rebellion social and political but first in the form of clothes and music pioneers trailblazers who personified cool alternative and different before people were aware of the need for these things.

Youth only blossoms once unlike Elvis and Bill Hayleys music of rebellion for the kids this was young people running the show setting the pace and very in yer face it was. Raw and emotionally charged everyone who was alive then will feel an instant bond to the pictures like a spoonful of brain with memories on I was chomping at the bit. Although in black and white you can sense the energy passion and exuberance as the forces of nature strutted their stuff across the stage the audience though was as much part of the show.

Francesco as rendered a great service to the local music scene and captured forever what being young was all about being different looked like and having fun in the seething underbelly of the city away from the beer and skittles of the older generation, darts snooker cards and dominoes didn't quite cut it for a night out for these people. Better off dead than alive.

A young handsome Pete Burns Pete Wyllie and Julian cope before they stepped off the lime street platform to national and international fame and fortune and finally big brother reality TV stardom. First time tragi-comic second time as a farce.

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