Write n Wrong
Here’s a recent radio interview I did with Thunder’s afficianado, Ryan Kidd. It’s always good to be interviewed by someone who really love’s Johnny’s music and has done their research in advance. Ryan had clearly read & reread ‘In Cold Blood’ which was gratifying. I hope you enjoy listening to this as much as I enjoyed talking to Ryan about (mostly) Mr Johnny Thunders.
‘Third – and definitive, by explicit declaration of the author – edition of the biography dedicated to the king of the guitar, Johnny Thunders, originally released in 1987. … In Cold Blood remains a monumental work on a historical/biographical level, above all for the wealth of first-hand sources to which Nina Antonia had access.’ Andrea Valentini
Eric Senich|7/23/2023
Thirteen years ago, author Nina Antonia wrote the cult bible of all things Johnny Thunders with her book Johnny Thunders: In Cold Blood. It’s the definitive portrait of the condemned man of rock and roll, from the baptism of fire and tragedy that was the New York Dolls, through the junkie punk years of the Heartbreakers, to his sudden and mysterious death in 1991. A brand-new edition was released this week, adding a new closing chapter, bringing Thunders’ legacy up to date with new photos and a foreword by Mike Scott of The Waterboys. Nina is about to tell you all about it in this episode!
Purchase a copy of Johnny Thunders: In Cold Blood: The Official Biography: Revised & Updated Edition through Jawbone Press HERE
Listen to a playlist of The New York Dolls, Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers, and Johnny Thunders solo HERE
Find Nina Antonia online at her official website HERE
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In Conversation with Gary Lachman, Nina Antonia and Travis Elborough
The Century Club, Shaftesbury Avenue, London
July 4th 2023
Torrential rain was not the best backdrop to trying to find an anonymous Soho doorway but once inside the fourth floor of London’s Century Club turned out to be an excellent space in which to eavesdrop on a three-way conversion between Nina, Travis and Gary – who you might know better as Gary Valentine, bass player with Blondie up until 1977. Now based in London, these days Gary is a writer specialising in consciousness, the esoteric and the occult. Nina shares many of these interests but the discussion tonight was about music – specifically about the New York scene in the mid-1970s. Gary lived there as a budding musician, whilst Nina chronicled the rise and fall of the New York Dolls and their guitarist Johnny Thunders, the subject of her most recent book, In Cold Blood. Travis did well to keep the conversation flowing and we got some excellent anecdotes – who knew that Kung-Fu Girls on the first Blondie LP was written for Thunders? Nina hung around after the event to sign copies of her book (Gary had been too modest to bring his book New York Rocker) and I learnt that guitarist Neal Whitmore and ex-Thunders drummer Chris Musto will be setting some of Nina’s poems to music. A very rewarding couple of hours.
Prior to lockdown, I was interviewed by the sartorially splendid Darcy Sullivan for the equally dandified spring edition of ‘The Chap.’ Darcy asked some unusually pertinent questions that included a fine quota of Thunder’s related queries and also provided the opportunity to recollect seeing Quentin Crisp in conversation at the Royal Court in Liverpool. Crisp was the first author I’d seen address an audience and he was as you might expect, very witty and engaging. He was also most gracious when the time came for me to get a copy of ‘The Naked Civil Servant’ signed. Pete Burns was also getting his copy signed. Both gone now in the twinkling of gloriously painted eyes that recall the mad decadent verse of Edmund Gosse:
‘Prince-jewellers, whose facet-rhymes combine/ All hues that glow, all rays that shift & shine/ Farewell thy song is sung, thy splendour fled.’……….
This informative and lavishly illustrated book is out now.
Includes the four versions of In Cold Blood, two versions of Too Much Too Soon and the Johnny Thunders Sleeve Notes by Nina Antonia as well as her interview with Brian Young. Thank you, Hiroshi and congrats!
Nina Antonia 