Not many music bills include classic rock alongside grime and avant-garde improvisation, but these are among the subjects of the eight books shortlisted for this year’s Penderyn music book prize. Chosen by a similarly diverse judging panel, which includes Sonic Youth guitarist Thurston Moore, singer Charlotte Church and comedian Stewart Lee, the titles will now contend for the £1,000 overall prize.
Moore said of the list: “This seems to be a vanguard time for serious music journalism as printed word. It’s as if the most engaging music is being made by writers.”
Three very different musicians head the shortlist. The Rise, the Fall and the Rise by Brix Smith Start tells of the Los Angeles-born author’s sometimes terrifying time as a guitarist in the contrarian art rock band of Mark E Smith, whom she also married. Into the Maelstrom is the first volume in a projected series by David Toop looking into the roots and impact of free improvised music, who is both a veteran music writer and luminary of this low-profile genre. Robbie Robertson’s Testimony, meanwhile, is the memoir of the Band’s songwriter and recounts a tale of grand success and self-destruction.
Daniel Rachel’s Walls Come Tumbling Down, meanwhile, is a history of the leftwing UK music movements of the late 70s and early 80s, Red Wedge, 2-Tone and Rock Against Racism. A different kind of militancy is the focus of Young Soul Rebels: A Personal History of Northern Soul by Stuart Cosgrove, who was shortlisted last year for Detroit ’67.
Rebellion is also in the spotlight in This Is Grime by journalist Hattie Collins, with photographer Olivia Rose, which traces the the explosive history of the genre from its emergence in east London to commanding national attention for often marginalised voices.
Rounding out the list, David Hepworth’s 1971 – Never a Dull Moment makes an impassioned case for that year being the high-water mark of rock music while Sylvia Patterson’s I’m Not With the Band documents her similarly besotted “writer’s life lost in music”.
Bruce Springsteen’s memoirs may have received much praise and exposure, but they have failed to impress judges enough to make the shortlist.
Alongside Church, Moore and Lee, the judging panel is completed by singers Tracey Thorn and Eliza Carthy, Roundhouse director of music Jane Beese and joint MD of Rough Trade records Geoff Travis. Its deliberations are chaired by prize founder Richard Thomas.
The 2016 winner was Jon Savage for 1966. This year’s winner, who will also receive a £300 bottle of single-cask Welsh whisky from prize sponsors Penderyn, will be announced at the Laugharne Weekend festival on 9 April.
• This article was amended on 21 March 2017 to correct the spelling of Sylvia Patterson’s name, from Patersen. An earlier version also misnamed her book I’m Not With the Band, as I’m With the Band.
