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This debut novel from music journalist, Joe Ambrose chronicles the adventures of Subliminal Kids, a band of post-punk 'ne'er do wells', through the eyes of their manager, Kim. Ambrose is probably the first novelist to identify the peculiar migrational flow which took place in the mid 1980's whereby the real "Rock and Roll kids", the former punks of Ireland moved in their droves to London in search of fame and fortune. Simultaneously, in the wake of the success of U2, British record company executives were flying to Dublin and offering recording contracts to the mainly talentless rockers who stayed behind.
Jesse, the charismatic lead singer with Subliminal Kids, leads the charge to London in 1986 and establishes a squat in Brixton. Kim and the other band members follow him over and launch head-on into whatever debauchery is on offer. Kim and Jesse are the kingpins, quickly establishing a string of squats in the grim Tulse Hill Estate complete with fraudulent free telephone lines. Other band members and their associates sub-let some of these squats, subject to Jesse and Kim receiving a percentage of the numerous swindles being perpetrated. Kim and his cohorts specialise in picking up female groupies, sodomising them, stealing their money and belongings and sending them away, usually in dire need of an STD clinic. These poor unfortunate females are routinely chosen for their inability to speak English so that they are unable to complain about their inhuman treatment at the hands of our heroes. Kim has an ambivalent attitude towards gender preference, not seeming to care who he has sex with so long as it involves anal penetration.
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In Chapter One we are told that names have been changed to protect the guilty while the innocent are all dead and beyond protection and appear under their own names. As the various Irish members of Subliminal Kids fade away, leaving just Jesse and Kim, the author introduces some real-life Rock and Roll casualties. These include Nigel Preston, one-time drummer with English Goth-Rockers, The Cult, who joins the band. Through Nigel they meet and collaborate with Jeffrey Lee Pierce, the weird and withering lead singer of the influential LA band, The Gun Club. Thus, Ambrose cleverly gives his story some authenticity. Anyone with a reasonable knowledge of eighties Rock history should be amused by the re-naming of some of the "guilty", notably 'Paul Swick', the 'tall asshole' leader of Dublin band 'The Golden Shower'. Eventually, Lambeth Council launch an offensive against Jesse and Kim's squatting cabal. Simultaneously, Nigel, whose background with The Cult has been enormously helpful in helping to raise the band's profile, dies of a drug overdose, signalling the end of the road for Subliminal Kids.
According to his biography, Joe Ambrose has co-written a biography of William Burroughs. Burroughs is name-checked repeatedly throughout this novel and his writing style is faithfully reproduced here, particularly in the early chapters. Another author mentioned in the text who appears to have influenced Ambrose is Bret Easton Ellis. There are no likeable characters in "Serious Time". Any who are not downright loathsome and obnoxious are at best forgettable. However, as someone with a strong interest in rock music, I found it very compelling. The descriptions of Brixton and the seedier side of life in 1980's London are accurate and vivid and the absence of chronology, while baffling, works very well. I look forward to reading more from Joe Ambrose.
Ross Crowley |
