ALWAYS ONE

You know that saying, 'There's always one'? Well, at Rough Trade East, I think I could be that one, as I regularly and vehemently disagree with everyone about, well, everything. 'Amelie'? Worst film ever made as far as I'm concerned. Bukowski - just don't get me started. People think I do it as a wind up - well, maybe that one time - but usually, I actually believe every word I say.

I suspect that Luke Haines takes it as a point of pride at being the one there always is, too. Almost alone, it seemed at the time, in railing against the horrors of Britpop whilst simultaneously laying claim to being its inventor, releasing funk albums about 70s terrorism and songs with titles like 'Light Aircraft On Fire'. So it was with great joy that I found that Haines had recently published his autobiography ('Bad Vibes:Britpop And My Part In Its Downfall') and I made it my late christmas present to myself - and I think I can already say it's likely to be my book of the year. Finding out exactly what lead Haines to the point where he decided to sabotage his own career by throwing himself off a wall in Spain and breaking both of his ankles, then onto the making of the aforementioned 'Baader Meinhof' album promised to be quite a read, and I wasn't disappointed. Acerbic, hilarious, pretty much always on the money and haunted by the ghost of a remorselessly pleasant Noel Gallagher, 'Bad Vibes' acts as a perfect companion to last years 'Kill Your Friends' by John Niven as an antidote to those horrific 'I Heart The Nineties' nostalgiafests that clog up the schedules, when there are surely repeats of 'Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads?' that could more usefully fill their space. I'm sorry, I seem to have drifted off the point, but anyway, 'Bad Vibes' is on the shelves at Rough Trade now, so start your year with a proper bit of culture and read it!!