Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran: Rock 'N' Roll Revolutionaries (Hardcover)

~ John Collis (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

The UK tour by Eddie Cochran and Gene Vincent early in 1960 marked a defining moment in British popular culture. It signalled the end of the monochrome 1950s and heralded the 'Swinging Sixties'. It put rock'n'roll on the map, paving the way for the Beatles, Merseybeat and the 'British invasion' of America. Cochran and Vincent were unlikely friends. Eddie was a West Coast pin-up, prodigiously talented as a guitarist, singer, songwriter and producer. Gene, on the other hand, was a crippled, gun-toting alcoholic, a devil with the voice of an angel and the most potent image in rock'n'roll, that of the dangerous, black leather rebel. Their influence has been felt ever since, from the Sex Pistols to the Jam and the Clash, in songs such as 'Summertime Blues' and 'Be Bop a Lula'. Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran: Rock'n'Roll Revolutionaries is the fascinating story of these two men, who defined not just the rock'n'roll way of life but its way of death too: Eddie died prematurely in a crash, with Gene eventually losing a long fight against drugs, drink and despair. Among rock'n'roll fans Eddie and Gene are revered like no one else, even Elvis and Buddy Holly. And yet their story has never been properly told - until now.

About the Author

John Collis is a freelance journalist, author and editor. His journalism has included work on Time Out, the Guardian, Radio Times, the Sunday Times, The Times, the Independent and the Observer. He is the co-author of the musical Race With the Devil: The Legend of Eddie Cochran and Gene Vincent, which provided the starting point for this book, as well as books on Van Morrison, the Blues, the music of Frank Sinatra, John Denver and Chuck Berry.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 230 pages
• Publisher: Virgin Publishing; illustrated edition edition (July 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1852271930
• ISBN-13: 978-1852271930
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,112,462 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The genesis for the 1960s British beat invasion, January 7, 2006

By	Siriam (London United Kingdom) - See all my reviews

This book has an interesting history in that it is a direct result of research done for an original musical stage show of the 1960 UK tour by Gene and Eddie which sadly never made it to the London West End for a long run after a regional UK tour. The author has then added the prior history of Eddie up to the UK tour and the story of Gene before and after the tour and post the tragic death of Eddie at the tour end in a car crash on the way to London to catch a plane home to the USA.

The best and most interesting aspect is the story of the UK tour itself and the memories of many people who saw the tour and the impact it had on them including the musicians on the tour plus the recording of various national and local press comments (the often quoted story of George Harrison going to several shows in Liverpool and being converted to rock music as a result is missing but not a lot else).

The UK '60s pop scene and its ensuing global presence probably owes a lot more than the author credits to this event given this was probably the first true rock'n'roll concert tour the UK had ever had with highly regarded US rockers featured as the stars supported by other British rock acts of that time. All the prior ones especially Buddy Holly and Bill Haley had been lumped into family style variety shows by their promoters much like the early Elvis tours in the USA arranged by Tom Parker.

Also the exposure of many UK musicians to an accomplished US session player such as Eddie, who like Gene proved to also be a great live performer (plus they also made several appearances on the only weekly UK radio and TV rock shows the UK then had which added to their national impact), gave the UK its first taste of what might be, even if both performer's recording careers were then in decline in their homeland. One of the British guitarists backing Eddie on the tour (Jim Sullivan) went on to teach many 60s musicians including a young Jimmy Page and the recent Jeff Beck tribute CD to Gene Vincent reflected in part his seeing him live on tour as a teenager, Gene virtually moving to Europe to perform in the early 1960s.

The separate histories of each performer are in large part well known territory to their fans but there is enough in anecdotes and new facts to avoid any feeling of it just being regurgitated material. The tragedy of Gene Vincent's decline post Eddie's death is the best I have read and that includes the biographies on Gene alone that exist.

John Collis has nailed down very well a key event in UK rock history and one is left at the end feeling more than ever that the death of Eddie Cochran at the hands of an inexperienced car driver (like Buddy Holly before him in a plane crash, which apparently haunted Eddie if the book is true)was a great loss given the direction his musical skills were then moving in.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Save your money, there are better bios out there., March 28, 2006

By	Jazz Hermit (Tucson, AZ United States) - See all my reviews

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This is about the most poorly written, boring rock bio I've ever read.

The first part of the book deals with the 1960 joint tour of the UK by Eddie Cochran and Gene Vincent. If you are interested in the arcane details of a tour 45 years ago you might enjoy this but the account is long on words and short on real information. This is obviously the material that was to be used as a stage show. It's too detailed and slowly paced to read well. There are numerous accounts, one for each performance but it gets repetitive.

If you survive the first section you will be rewarded with the only section of the book that reads like a biography; the prologues for both Cochran and Vincent. These were actually worth the time to read.

Once you've read the prologues you get to read the epilogues which are not as bad as the first section of the book but they don't read nearly as well as the prologues.

Eddie Cochran's epilogue is fairly short (not much happens after you die) and mostly deals with posthumous releases of his recordings.

Gene Vincent's epilogue reads like a slow-motion, millisecond by millisecond account of a train wreck. Mr. Vincent's life didn't seem to be very happy, and his last years seemed particularly unpleasant.

The author manages to work in an attack on Margaret Thatcher along the way and an account of the de-colonization of the African continent too. Interesting but what does it have to do with this bio?

At the end of it all I felt that I learned nearly nothing about their music. There was more talk about boozing, drugs and womanizing than about the musical ground that they broke. Frankly my opinion is this; someone put a lot of research into a play that never made it and they decided to write a book with the information. The problem is that it isn't a very good book.