Groupie [Paperback]

Johnny Byrne (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 11, 2005

When Groupie was first published in 1969 it caused a sensation. The Swingin' Sixties capacity to outrage may have been starting to decline, but this novel managed to shock all over again. A thinly fictionalised chronicle of Jenny Fabian's adventures with underground rock heroes of her day, Groupie caused a furore for all kinds of reasons...it had the scent of danger that accompanies an authentic original, it ruffled feathers with its matter of fact descriptions of drug taking and sexual high jinks, it prompted guessing games about teh true identities of its principal characters, most of all, it was highly explicity about a phenomenon that had never before been documented. Almost three decades later, this book is still extraordinarily fresh and playing the celebrity guessing game is still fun. Groupie is also the genuine article - no reconstruction of Sixties underground rock culture has ever captured the Zeitgist as as well as this novel.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Omnibus Press; 3rd edition (July 11, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1844499561
• ISBN-13: 978-1844499564
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,308,253 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Novel based on the true experiences of a '60s groupie, November 30, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Groupie (Paperback)

This is hardly the best book written by a groupie (those honors, in my opinion, go to Pamela Des Barres' classic "I'm With The Band") but it's not a terrible read either.

"Groupie" may have raised eyebrows in 1969 when it was first published, but there's nothing too shocking in here by today's standards.

The book is based on Jenny Fabian's real experiences as part of London's music scene, and the bands are given aliases to "protect" their identities. (But you can figure out some of the identities based on Jenny's descriptions.)

I was expecting to read about more famous bands in this book, but the only "big names" are Pink Floyd (aka Satin Odyssey), the Jimi Hendrix Experience (aka Jacklin H. Event), and the Animals (aka the Savage). The rest of the bands mentioned in the book had moderate success in England and never really crossed over in a big way in the U.S. or much of the rest of the world.

The '60s counterculture lingo in the book is somewhat hilarious ("groovy" and "scene" are two favorite words), but much of Jenny's story goes downhill after she describes "pulling" (having sex with) a musician she calls "Ben," who's obviously Syd Barrett from Pink Floyd.

After telling that story, the reader has to wade through too many chapters describing Jenny's slide into an emotionally abusive relationship with the manager of a local band. Jenny also dates other men from the local music scene, but the relationships ultimately end up nowhere.

The book ends on a disappointing note, leaving the reader wondering if the '60s really were as much fun as Jenny would like us to believe.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Historical footnote, December 20, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Groupie (Paperback)

As commented by other reviews this book is rather dated in its wildness athough at the time of its initial release was a a mild shocker. The Boyfriend was in fact Spike Hawkins. "Who had a wife and three children in Edgware". His middle son ended up in the Rock Group 'Big Audio Dynamite' with Mick Jones from The Clash.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a fast-paced groovy rock text for any serious groupie chick, October 10, 1997

By 

[e-mail] (Melbourne, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Groupie (Paperback)

"Having a scene", getting high on "tincture" and "plating", it's all there in the story of Katie, a groovy 19 year old, living in swinging London in 1969. It's based on true facts and you can play a guessing game with who Katie's conquests really are from all the happening English bands of these times. It's fun, risque for having been written in the late 1960's, but always serious, as Katie searches for the ultimate scene... Read it! As they say "the only place for chicks in rock and roll is in the back of the van"!!