John Higgs's Octannual Manual #51
America: What Time Is Love?
It’s taken twelve years, but The KLF is going to be released in America and Canada. I’m delighted to report that it will be published by Blackstone on 9th July, in paperback, ebook, and as an audiobook, read by me. This is what it will look like:
This is the original text, incidentally, not the 10th anniversary UK edition with the meta-commentary. That would be too bewildering for a book in its first printing. It is the ideal version for forcing on people with no interest in The KLF but who really need to read it nontheless.
It’s available to pre-order now - and any help spreading the word in the US and Canada will be much appreciated!
Not only that, but my first book I Have America Surrounded: The Life of Timothy Leary is also going to be republished in the US, thanks to Open Road. It will be available in print, ebook and audiobook, again read by me, from July 30th. Here’s your first look at the new, none-more Sixties cover:
I don’t have a pre-order link for this one yet, but one should appear soon.
THIS IS MEMORIAL DEVICE
If you find yourself in London between now and May 11th, try and get to see the stage adaptation of David Keenan’s novel This Is Memorial Device at Riverside Studios.
This is a one-man play staring Paul Higgins from The Thick of It. His character is desperate to explain to the audience why he is still obsessed by Memorial Device, an Airdrie band from the mid-eighties that no-one outside his background has heard of. Memorial Device are ficticious, but by the end of the play they will be more real to you than many bands you have seen with your own eyes.
Although there is music in the play (by Stephen Pastel), there is crucially no music from Memorial Device themselves. That sound has gone. If you weren’t there you can never know what it was like. Memorial Device are silent. Just their impact on Paul Higgins’ character remains.
As I’m currently writing a book about Doctor Who, I’m aware that Riverside Studios is sacred ground for lovers of the 1960s episodes. Many of these were filmed within these studios, or just outside, such as the Dalek that emerged from the Thames by Hammersmith Bridge in 1964. Those Daleks are also silent now, but their cries still linger in the fabric of the building. Etched into the Scene Dock doors at the back of the building is the sound wave for ‘Exterminate!’
Both the play and those doors, then, are monuments to sounds we no longer hear. They recognise that it is not, ultimately, sound itself that matters. It is sound finding a receptive mind at an exact time and place that is significant. That is what both celebrate, for that is where magic lies.
This is Memorial Device is a superb adaptation of a vital book. But don’t just take my word for it. The Doctor knows it as well - because like recognises like.
BEATLES PODS
April 18th was a sad day in Beatles fandom, as two of the most loved Beatles podcasts coincidentally announced they were ending. On one level, this is perhaps not surprising. Good quality podcasting is a lot of work for little reward (for non-celebrities, at least), and they are hard to sustain for long. But it still came as a shock, given how integral those shows had been in bringing Beatles fans together during the pandemic, and the positive way they welcomed many into Beatles fandom.
Nothing Is Real was the more factual of the pair, while I Am The Eggpod focused more on the impact those records had on our lives. I still get messages about my appearances on that pod, particularly my championing of the second Fireman album five years ago. Both shows are ending with live episodes with Mark Lewisohn, the King of Beatles historians - Nothing Is Real in Dublin on 14th May, and I Am The Eggpod in Holland Park, London on 16th July, which I’ll be going to. Catch them while you can.
Until next time!
jhx
Oh my word, a Dr Who book!
Damn it John Higgs — if you ever go down the Ray Peat rabbit hole I’m going to jump up and down in ecstatic joy.