ALEX HALL is disgusted by the misuse of ‘emotional narratives’ to justify uninformed geo-political prejudice
Green Day digest strictly for diehard devotees
SUE TURNER welcomes a thoughtful, engaging book that lays bare the economic realities of global waste management
JOHN GREEN welcomes an insider account of the achievements and failures of the transition to democracy in Portugal
SIMON PARSONS applauds an imaginative and absorbing updating of Strindberg’s classic
PETER MASON is enthralled by an assembly of objects, ancient and modern, that have lain in the mud of London’s river
MICK McSHANE rubs shoulders with Mod legend Steve Craddock and joins in with the joyous Glasgow choir
DENNIS BROE sifts out the ideological bias of the newest TV series offerings, and picks out what to see, and what to avoid
Green Day FAQ: All That’s Left to Know About the World’s Most Popular Punk Band
Hank Bordowitz
(Backbeat Books, £15.99)
IT’S somewhat audacious to claim that Green Day inspired “nearly as many bands to pick up instruments as Elvis, The Beatles and the Ramones.” Yet that unsubstantiated assertion is one of many hyperbolic flights in Hank Bordowitz’s book.
The journalist, who’s written for the likes of Playboy and Huffington Post, is an unashamed fan-boy of the punk-pop band. Lauding their working-class roots and their lyrical transition “from pot and poop to politics,” he covers everything you wanted to know about the trio and more besides.
The snag to his fandom is its tendency to lack perspective or critical capacity. Although well researched — there's a 16-page bibliography — there’s no attempt at analysis and, with no fresh interviews with the band or their associates, the book is reduced to something of a cut-and-paste enterprise.
More from this author
SUSAN DARLINGTON enjoys, with minor reservations, the Northern Ballet’s revival of its 1992 classic
SUSAN DARLINGTON revels in an exhilarating adaptation of the gruesome fairytale that invokes the real-life horror of women lost to male violence
SUSAN DARLINGTON is disappointed by a show that aims to highlight misogyny within the police but fails to arrest the audience's attention
SUSAN DARLINGTON revels in a band that know their own continuing relevance
Similar stories
Ben Cowles speaks with IAN ‘TREE’ ROBINSON and ANDY DAVIES, two of the string pullers behind the Manchester Punk Festival, ahead of its 10th year show later this month
Two new releases from Burkina Faso and Niger, one from French-based Afro Latin The Bongo Hop, and rare Mexican bootlegs
Brazilian groove, Black Africa and Malian mixtures
FRANCOISE VERGES introduces a powerful new book that explores the damage done by colonial theft