Bobby Gillespie is the Oliver Twist of rock and roll. A punk rock fairy tale, with sharpness about class struggle, music, style, and a unique worldview that led to the creation of one of the world's greatest bands. Born in a working-class neighborhood of Glasgow in the summer of 1961, TENEMENT KID begins from the Springburn area, soon to be evacuated due to Edward Heath's harsh clearances. Leaving school at 16, he starts as an apprentice in a printing shop, and his rock revelation comes suddenly when he attends his first concert at the Glasgow Apollo.

Full of "the holy spirit of rock n roll," his fate is sealed with the emergence of the Sex Pistols and punk rock, which for Bobby represents a visual vision of class revolution and will eventually lead him to become an artist, initially with the Jesus and Mary Chain and then with Primal Scream. The book culminates with the Boys Own parties and the fateful encounter with Andrew Weatherall, as the '80s turn into the '90s and a new form of electronic soul music begins to pulse within the country's consciousness.

TENEMENT KID closes with the release of Screamadelica, the album often credited with "starting the '90s." A book full of joy and wonder from an apostle of rock n roll who would revolutionize the future sounds of British pop at the century's end, Bobby Gillespie's autobiography proceeds on a fair path through a decade lost in Thatcherism and saved by acid house.

Pages: 432, Year of Publication: 0927, Dimensions: 12.8x12.8cm