{"id":6442,"date":"2012-07-01T00:00:23","date_gmt":"2012-07-01T00:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=6442"},"modified":"2013-07-10T11:30:35","modified_gmt":"2013-07-10T11:30:35","slug":"book-review-hammered-kirk-blows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/book-review-hammered-kirk-blows\/","title":{"rendered":"Hammered: Heavy Tales From The Hard-Rock Highway – Kirk Blows (2012) | Book Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hammered: Heavy Tales From The Hard-Rock Highway<\/strong><\/span>
\nKirk Blows<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nPlexus Publishing (2012)<\/span>
Rating: 7.5\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Hammered: Heavy Tales From The Hard-Rock Highway<\/em> collects previously unpublished stories taken from the rock \u2019n\u2019 roll escapades of music journalist and erstwhile Metal Hammer<\/em> and Metal CD<\/em> editor Kirk Blows, stories divided into eight separate chapters: \u2018Heading Out To The Highway\u2019, \u2018Feuds And Fall-Outs\u2019, \u2018Boys On The Booze\u2019, \u2018Chemical Capers\u2019, \u2018Sex On The Brain\u2019, \u2018Candid Conversations\u2019, \u2018Comedy Occasions\u2019, and \u2018The Soho Scene\u2019. Kirk has also written articles for RAW<\/em>, Music Week<\/em>, Rock CD<\/em>, International Musician<\/em>, What\u2019s On In London<\/em>, Penthouse<\/em> and The London Paper<\/em>, among others.<\/p>\n

Journalistic memoirs rely upon the name value of those encountered in the course of the job and this is no different, featuring the likes of Judas Priest, Metallica, Ozzy Osbourne, Alice Cooper, Queen, Deep Purple, Def Leppard, UFO, Meat Loaf, Guns N\u2019 Roses, and many others. Booze, sex, and drugs figure heavily, of course. Some tales simply last a page or two while others span across several pages, and it\u2019s arguably the latter which supplies the meatier content.<\/p>\n

\u2018Mot\u00f6rhead: Lemmy\u2019s Iron Fist\u2019 (taken from \u2018Feuds And Fall-Outs\u2019) sheds much light on the 1995 departure of guitarist W\u00fcrzel (Michael Burston) from the outfit\u2019s ranks, the author trading verbal comebacks with vocalist \/ bassist Lemmy following a revealing conversation with the axeman.<\/p>\n

Other highlights include a July 1992 conversation with Queen guitarist Brian May, a summer 1994 talk with Iron Maiden vocalist Bruce Dickinson, and a November 1992 discussion with German shredder Michael Schenker (Michael Schenker Group \/ UFO). The July 1992 conversation with May follows eight months following the death of Queen frontman Freddie Mercury, May sharing his heartfelt emotions properly for the first time. Dickinson, meanwhile, airs his perspective on his 1993 Maiden departure, making some fair points. Schenker rambles quite a bit in discussing positivity, but Kirk\u2019s subsequent call to UFO bassist Pete Way regarding Schenker\u2019s proposal for a UFO reformation provides a chuckle.<\/p>\n

Certain readers might be the under the impression that musicians are integral to each and every story, but this isn\u2019t the case. In some cases the musicians in question aren\u2019t integral, as is the case with the Gamma Ray tale as well as all of those in the chapter \u2018Comedy Occasions\u2019. Where that chapter is concerned, Kirk relates comedic brushes with artists during the course of his journalistic work. Sadly however, while one could appreciate the stories were funny to experience, laughter doesn\u2019t translate onto the page. Those more interested in the artists themselves as opposed to the journalist chronicling the tale \u2013 readers like myself \u2013 will find this somewhat disappointing, even if the stories are well-written and presented.<\/p>\n

Overall, Hammered<\/em> is an entertaining collection of stories which provide interesting \u2013 albeit small \u2013 nuggets of information on several of the artists involved. Though slightly disappointing by comparison, the stories where the musicians are more incidental aren\u2019t without merit, supplying glimpses into the life of a rock journalist (like the swansong chapter \u2018The Soho Scene\u2019, for instance) for those who find the topic an appealing one. Due to its very nature \u2013 being a collection of stories regarding several subjects as opposed to concentrating on one smaller, definitive subject \u2013 Hammered<\/em> isn\u2019t an essential purchase, but it\u2019s nonetheless a pleasant addition to the bookshelf.<\/p>\n

Anthony Morgan<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hammered: Heavy Tales From The Hard-Rock Highway Kirk Blows Plexus Publishing (2012)Rating: 7.5\/10 Hammered: Heavy Tales From The Hard-Rock Highway collects previously unpublished stories taken from the rock \u2019n\u2019 roll escapades of music journalist and erstwhile Metal Hammer and Metal CD editor Kirk Blows, stories divided into eight separate chapters: \u2018Heading Out To The Highway\u2019, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[324,325],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-reviews","category-kirk-blows"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6442"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6442\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12861,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6442\/revisions\/12861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}