Review of The Last Mad Surge of Youth on Room Thirteen website
There are plenty of books dealing with boys forming bands and the inevitable trouble and strife that follow: most of them are in fact biographies. Mark Hodkinson offers a slightly different account with a narrative that pulls you in and makes you just intrigued enough to want to find out what happens to the alcoholic child prodigy gone solo, and his journalist friend who left the band for the real world.
The first few pages may read like the standard account of a group of lads
forming an anarchic band in grimy northern surroundings, but the characters
are believable and even likeable enough to spin a story that’s both interesting,
and painfully real and recognisable in the everyday world. As the author,
Mark Hodkinson, has played in several bands himself, it’s likely that
his own experiences colour his characters, making them all the more real and
endearing. ‘The Last Mad Surge of Youth’ is an engaging reminder
of the politicised nature of the music scene during the ‘80s: a time
when music was a genuine reaction to social and economic problems. For this
reason the book may not resonate so much with the youth of today, but it’s
definitely an enjoyable read for anyone who lived through those times, or
has an interest in bands of the ‘80s.
Room thirteen Editorial.