Revolutionary Spirit: A Post-Punk Exorcism: The Teardrop Explodes, Care, The Wild Swans, And Beyond

Revolutionary Spirit is a memoir, social history, and elegy to the ways artistic integrity rewards a cult Liverpool musician. It chronicles the career of Simpson, who co-founded The Teardrop Explodes and The Wild Swans, and was considered a musical god in the Philippines.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 296 pages
Publication date: 05 December 2023
Publisher: Outline Press Ltd

Revolutionary Spirit is a captivating blend of memoir, social history, and musical narrative that delves into the remarkable journey of a cult Liverpool musician towards fame and artistic validation. If Morrissey was the Oscar Wilde of the 1980s indie scene, Simpson was its William Blake, a self-destructive genius so lost in mystical visions of a new arcadia that he couldn't meet the rent. Simpson's career takes off alongside fellow Liverpool luminaries Julian Cope, Ian McCulloch, Bill Drummond, Ian Broudie, Will Sergeant, Pete Wylie, Pete Burns, and Pete de Freitas at the infamous Eric's Club, where, in 1976, he witnesses the birth of the city's second great musical explosion. Along the way, he co-founds and christens the neo-psychedelic pop group The Teardrop Explodes, shares a flat with a teenage Courtney Love, and forms The Wild Swans, the indie band of choice for literary-minded teens in the early 1980s, who burn bright and brief, recording one of the all-time great cult hit singles, "Revolutionary Spirit."

Marriage, fatherhood, and tropical illness intersperse with artistic collaborations with Bill Drummond and members of The Brian Jonestown Massacre, among others. Following an onstage reunion with Cope at the Royal Festival Hall, Simpson discovers that seven thousand miles away, in the Philippines, he is considered a musical god. Presidential suites, armed guards, police escorts . . . you couldn't make it up, and, incredibly, he doesn't need to.

Revolutionary Spirit marks the arrival of an original literary voice. It is the story of a musician driven by an unerring belief that artistic integrity will bring its own rewards, and an elliptical elegy to the ways it does.

Weight: 520g
Dimension: 151 x 215 x 23 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781911036838