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Pow!: When UK Punk Went Pop, 1980-84
Paperback
Publisher Price: $22.95
Publisher: Trouser Press Books
Published: Aug 18 2026
Pages: 316
Weight: 0.93
Height: 0.66 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
POW! is the fascinating memoir of a precocious English teen in the early 1980s who published a music magazine, interviewed many of the era's top artists, befriended rock stars, ran a record label, appeared on television, played in a band and found first love -- all at the same time!
In this sequel to his Boy About Town (2013), Tony Fletcher's incredible adventures in the world of British post-punk make for a compelling adventure of highs (an exclusive interview with Paul McCartney, friendship with Paul Weller of the hugely successful Jam, playing to huge audiences, discovering love and sex) and lows (heartbreak, learning the financial challenges of running a label the hard way, the collapse of his band). Despite the passage of time, he summons up all the enthusiasm he felt for the music and women he loved and marvels at the incredible experiences he had as a hard-working young striver.
The generation raised on MTV, the New Musical Express and bands like Madness, Wham!, the Smiths, Echo and the Bunnymen, Dexy's Midnight Runners and Killing Joke will love reading this inside view of a knowledgeable fan who got to know them all.
Tony Fletcher, one of the great post-punk inspirational writers and thinkers: his fanzine Jamming! inspired me to start Creation. This early '80s memoir POW! is his story of that period. Take a bow Tony, you always were a cool chap. Alan McGee, author of Creation Records: Riots, Raves and Running a Label
Tony writes with the energy of the music he loves and knows. Forward motion: it's the life he's lived. Johnny Marr, author of Set the Boy Free: The Autobiography
What makes POW! special is that it captures the early-'80s UK music storm not from the top of the industry but from knee height, through the eyes of a 16-year-old who had somehow blundered into the middle of it. Mark Jay, author of The Nudniks of 1977
Anyone who ever fell in love with pop music will be enthralled by Tony Fletcher's Access All Areas adventure. Packed with anecdotes and insight, this is an absolute gem of a book. Russ Litten, author of Scream If You Want to Go Faster
Tony's compulsively readable memoir takes me right along with him on his youthful adventures in grimy early-'80s London and beyond. Dan Epstein, author of Now You're One of Us: The Incredible Story of Redd Kross
POW! is quite an extraordinary achievement, at the very least for showing that Tony's memories are as detailed and full as if these things has happened just last week. Memories that stimulate and force my own to come rushing, partially, back: both good and bad. It was an extraordinary time to be that age, to be steeped in such action and excitement, as we were. Most autobiographies skim over the bad bits with a wry eye, a 'whoops' with a grin. but Tony has no such tone. Or shame, even! His gods are as slammed as they are revered, showing both their humanity and their human-ness, their own faults and problems. Hugo Burnham, Gang of Four
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