Sick On You cover art

Sick On You

The Disastrous Story of Britain’s Great Lost Punk Band

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Sick On You

By: Andrew Matheson
Narrated by: Andrew Matheson
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About this listen

**MOJO MAGAZINE'S BOOK OF THE YEAR**

The Hollywood Brats are the greatest band you’ve never heard of.

Recording one near-perfect punk album in 1974, they were tragically ahead of their time.

With only a guitar, a tatty copy of the Melody Maker and his template for the perfect band, Andrew Matheson set out, in 1971, to make musical history. His band, The Hollywood Brats, were pre-punk prophets – uncompromising, ultra-thin, wild, untameable and outrageous. But thrown into the crazy world of the 1970s London music scene, the Brats ultimately fell foul of the crooks and heavies that ran it and an industry that just wasn’t ready for them.

Directly inspiring the London SS, the Clash, Malcolm McLaren and the Sex Pistols, The Hollywood Brats imploded too soon to share the glory. Punk’s answer to Withnail and I, Sick On You is a startling, funny and brilliantly entertaining period memoir about never quite achieving success, despite flying so close to greatness.

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Critic Reviews

True, proper rock 'n' roll. A funny, sad, superbly written saga. This book is great. (Bob Geldof)
The greatest rock 'n' roll story you've never heard: the Hollywood Brats hit the early 70s like a spaceship landing in Victorian London. Matheson's book is as lurid and compelling as the band themselves. (John Niven, author of Kill Your Friends)
The Hollywood Brats are a folk legend; they were doing what they were doing before anybody. This is one of the great rock 'n' roll hard luck stories, by turns shocking and hilarious, and Andrew Matheson has a terrific eye for comic detail. (Bob Stanley author of Yeah Yeah Yeah: the Story of Modern Pop)
Flagrant, addled, highly competitive, the Hollywood Brats predicted Punk in the moribund early seventies. Andrew Matheson’s concise, hilarious memoir tells the pleasure and pain of being an unheralded pioneer. (Jon Savage, author of England’s Dreaming)
The best rock 'n' roll memoir you will read all year. (Dylan Jones)
Riotously hilarious story… Might just be the most entertaining music memoir ever written
History is told by the victors, but Andrew Matheson's tale of rock 'n' roll failure is much more compelling than any tired celebrity narrative. Lurid, stupid, crazed and quixotic, the primal adolescent silliness and arrogance of great pop music runs through every page. (Stuart Maconie)
The funniest music book I’ve ever read – by some measure.
Rock ’n’ roll at its disastrous best…brilliant. Someone needs to make a film of this immediately.
The Hollywood Brats are the greatest band I’ve ever seen (Keith Moon)
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