Bomp!: Saving the World One Record at a Time

I can't wait to read this book. Without having seen it, I can safely give it a 5-Star rating, because Bomp! Magazine and Bomp! Records were 5-Star entities.This is the Bomp! records who, through label signings and distribution deals, opened the doors for such great Punk and Power Pop artists as The Plimsouls, The B52s, Devo, The Romantics, Josie Cotton, Brian Jonestown Massacre, Shoes, 20/20, The Weirdos, Stiv Bators, Flamin' Groovies, The Pandoras, and the list goes on and on.Bomp! Magazine stood in stark contrast to the mainstream '70s music press, by ignoring the biggest acts of the times in favor of articles on The Easybeats, The Flamin' Groovies, Downliners Sect, The Rattles, Dave Edmonds' Rockpile, The Standells, The Sonics, The British Invasion Sound, The Boston Sound, The Akron Sound. All the while, Greg repeated his battle cry, "It's ALL Coming back!". He was so right.Before long Greg released The Flamin' Groovies' "You Tore Me Down", and Bomp! Records was launched. A reader asks Greg if he'll promote his band's homemade 45RPM. Overnight, there's a tidal wave of homemade 45s from all over hitting the Bomp! offices, and Bomp! sets up distribution for them. There is probably no Punk or Power Pop band of the late'70s to early '80s that doesn't owe its big break in whole or part to Greg Shaw.Then there was the Bomp! record store, home of obscure underground 45s and cool '60s rock & roll. The Ramones came by, Blondie came by, Talking Heads, The Germs, The Dickies, The Dead Boys, Devo, and Cheap Trick came by.Nikki & The Corvettes rehearsed in the back room at night. England's Eddie & The Hot Rods performed with Spencer Davis, on the back of a truck in the Bomp! parking lot. Yeah, Greg, "It ALL came back!Like I said, I can't wait to read the book. However, I did get to live it. I worked for Greg and Suzy at Bomp!. It was the very center of the Punk/Power Pop universe.~Dave C. (Bomp! Class of '77-'79)

What a wonder. Greg Shaw is one of the most fascinating characters of pop/rock music history, and this book does such a great job of letting the reader get to know him. As a music journalist, fanzine publisher, and label owner, Shaw was a leading light in the genres of Psychedelic San Francisco, 60s garage, Power Pop (he is credited with naming that genre), Punk and New Wave. When some bands (DMZ, Barracudas, Vipers, Fleshtones, et al) in the 80s turned away from synths and looked back to the 60s for inspiration and went back to rocking out and freaking out, Greg Shaw was a force behind that movement. Shaw was also an irresponsible businessman who couldn't be bothered with the "little details," and this is where Suzy Shaw, his lifetime partner and co-editor of the book, stepped in to keep the more eartly aspects of their life (the running of the businesses) together while Greg chased his dreams and entertained his genius. We all know that Lester Bangs was every bit as rock and roll as the bands he wrote about, and Greg Shaw is right there with him. The Mojo Navigator and Bomp! were two of the best music magazines ever to see print, and this book contains page after page of reproductions of the original band profiles, record reviews, passionate editorials, cool photos, etc from the mags. You feel that you are living inside the world of Greg and Suzy Shaw, of the Bomp! record label and magazine, when you are reading the book; and, if you're like me, you feel like you are walking away from friends and comrades in The Cause when you finish it. If you care anything about real garage rock, Power Pop, New Wave, etc., or about music fanzines, or about the reality of running an independent record label, you will find this book as enthralling as I did.

If you love Rock 'n Roll, you probably already know about Bomp! magazine. In my opinion, one of the greatest Rock magazines of all time. Unlike Rolling Stone, or other such offerings, Bomp! never lost its "grass roots" feel.This huge 304 page book is a fitting tribute to Greg and Suzy Shaw, and a wonderful journey into a world of Rock journalism that existed primarily "just below the radar". If you can't get your hands on any of the actual magazines, or have never even heard of Bomp!, this book is a great starting place. It's also a MUST HAVE for collectors, and in fact just about anyone who loves Rock music in general.The other reviewers have already done a fine job of covering the details; I just wanted to add my two cents and give this excellent book five stars :)JM

It's yearbook size and I want my copy signed by everyone. It's hardcover and yellow and looks like the 70's...BOMP was a GREAT music magazine, on par with CREEM in it's day and it's good to see that it has been canonized.I do have some minor complaints though:1- Not a single issue is reprinted, but snippets of several, not all, issues.2- The color section is not big enough.3- No letter sections were included, and to be honest, it was one of my favorite things about the magazine.But these complaints don't even knock a star off my review. What is published within is golden the only people that want this book have the original issues anyway. It's got AMAZING pictures and you can listen the Weirdos while reading it.

Around the 'Punk Era' in the UK, we had someone shoving a copy of their fanzine up our nose, either at ever gig we attended, or sometimes, during the Saturday High Street shopping rush in town. Usually written on an enthusiasm driven by the band's they had been to see at local venues, then printed, as cheaply as possible, and tacked together with a staple; they were sold for ten or twenty pence each to (with luck) enable another one to be created.And created they were, yet by accident moreso than design, one fanzine-ist had a key missing from the typewriter, so this became his trademark; as his work had the letter 'K' (for example) missing. Other's creating fanzines thought this was 'cool,' so they ripped a key out of theirs as well. Today, British fanzines like 'Sniffin Glue' are famous and have been reprinted in book form.So, too, 'Bomp!' except Greg Shaw was doing his thing in the 60's, and he was interviewing the likes of Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison when their bands were still playing support on the circuit, and a far cry from the legends they became; and he didn't have a missing typewriter key, either, that was a 'British peculiarity.'So this book presents those long-ago-and-precious-interviews with these and many more stars besides, and on occasion, even the original 'paste-up' pages of those now legendary fanzines are reproduced here. It's one of those books, well, if you're like me, anyway, who appreciates things like this, which takes your breath away. It's a knockout book, and an amazing tribute to Greg whom, little did he know at the time, was carving his name out in Rock History.

This is essentially a compedium of choice extracts from Mojo Navigator and Bomp magazine articles from the mid-60s to the late 70s interspersed with passages on the development of the magazine etc by Suzy Shaw and Mick Farren. It is lovingly put together. The articles are most revealing; the insularity of 60s San Francisco bands and their ambivalent attitude to black people, the clear lineage of 'punk' from 60s garage bands thru UK pub bands and the despair at the atrophy of the early 70s. What works well is that these articles date from the time and therefore are a reaction to what was happening around them them instead of a history of rock written from today's perspective. And anyway any magazine which can cover glam rock and write about Bay City Rollers records as pure pop without prejudice deserves attention!