Donna recommends:
The Singer by Cathi Unsworth
First Lines: ‘You can tell its love by the expression on their faces. Four, maybe five hundred of them, packed together so tightly they’ve formed a kind of human sea, rolling and lapping in waves around the rim of the stage.’
It’s 1977 and – like many young people at the time – Stevie Mullin has discovered punk. He and some mates form a band and, when they meet their edgy but charismatic singer Vincent Smith, it seems as though everything falls into place. They shoot to fame on the punk scene and make powerful and inspiring music, despite the tensions under the surface – mostly caused by Vince, who is quite a destructive character. Then in 1981 Vince disappears. Twenty years later, journalist Eddie Bracknell is intrigued by the story and delves into the secrets and lies that surrounded Vince’s mysterious disappearance.
Cathi Unsworth was a music journalist during the punk era and the atmosphere is totally authentic. I found myself trying to work out whether some of the characters were based on real people. The story and the characters reflect the passion, energy, aggression and rawness of punk, as well as the deprivation, social unrest and alienation of the times.
