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Sick On You

The Disastrous Story of Britain’s Great Lost Punk Band

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Sick On You

By: Andrew Matheson
Narrated by: Andrew Matheson
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About this listen

**MOJO MAGAZINE'S BOOK OF THE YEAR**

The Hollywood Brats are the greatest band you’ve never heard of.

Recording one near-perfect punk album in 1974, they were tragically ahead of their time.

With only a guitar, a tatty copy of the Melody Maker and his template for the perfect band, Andrew Matheson set out, in 1971, to make musical history. His band, The Hollywood Brats, were pre-punk prophets – uncompromising, ultra-thin, wild, untameable and outrageous. But thrown into the crazy world of the 1970s London music scene, the Brats ultimately fell foul of the crooks and heavies that ran it and an industry that just wasn’t ready for them.

Directly inspiring the London SS, the Clash, Malcolm McLaren and the Sex Pistols, The Hollywood Brats imploded too soon to share the glory. Punk’s answer to Withnail and I, Sick On You is a startling, funny and brilliantly entertaining period memoir about never quite achieving success, despite flying so close to greatness.

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Critic reviews

True, proper rock 'n' roll. A funny, sad, superbly written saga. This book is great. (Bob Geldof)
The greatest rock 'n' roll story you've never heard: the Hollywood Brats hit the early 70s like a spaceship landing in Victorian London. Matheson's book is as lurid and compelling as the band themselves. (John Niven, author of Kill Your Friends)
The Hollywood Brats are a folk legend; they were doing what they were doing before anybody. This is one of the great rock 'n' roll hard luck stories, by turns shocking and hilarious, and Andrew Matheson has a terrific eye for comic detail. (Bob Stanley author of Yeah Yeah Yeah: the Story of Modern Pop)
Flagrant, addled, highly competitive, the Hollywood Brats predicted Punk in the moribund early seventies. Andrew Matheson’s concise, hilarious memoir tells the pleasure and pain of being an unheralded pioneer. (Jon Savage, author of England’s Dreaming)
The best rock 'n' roll memoir you will read all year. (Dylan Jones)
Riotously hilarious story… Might just be the most entertaining music memoir ever written
History is told by the victors, but Andrew Matheson's tale of rock 'n' roll failure is much more compelling than any tired celebrity narrative. Lurid, stupid, crazed and quixotic, the primal adolescent silliness and arrogance of great pop music runs through every page. (Stuart Maconie)
The funniest music book I’ve ever read – by some measure.
Rock ’n’ roll at its disastrous best…brilliant. Someone needs to make a film of this immediately.
The Hollywood Brats are the greatest band I’ve ever seen (Keith Moon)
All stars
Most relevant
Actually , this is quite brilliant.

Nearly lost interest towards the beginning when we had some detail about musical instruments etc - I am not really excited by different types of guitar .

However, this is fabulously written - very poetic in places but rarely overdone. And the delivery,by the front man of the band itself, is exactly what you'd expect of someone who was clearly born to perform.

All in all, an uproarious adventure that I will long remember.

Sick of It !

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I’d never heard of the Hollywood Brats before but received a very credible recommendation to bag this excellent book, read brilliantly by the author. Hilarious, evocative and mildly tragic. The world just wasn’t ready for the Brats but I’m so pleased to have met them and spread the word. Andrew, you are the punk Withnail and there can be little higher praise.

Eels!

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this book is a funny sharp and essential reading for all rock'n'rollers so go read it now!

my favourite books!

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. . . and the audiobook is even better.

A priceless antidote to the grey orthodoxy of most 'rock' and 'alternative' music and the, often, po-faced retelling of the hackneyed rock'n'roll stories. It's also a brutal, yet effortless, rejoinder to the endlessly tedious debates about who, what, where with regards to the 'origins of punk' - because it really doesn't matter.

I was a little too young to be a fan of the Brats at the time but I was old enough to be a (teenage, provincial punk) fan of The Boys from the first time I heard them in 1977 or 78. I finally got to see Andrew Matheson perform, with The Boys, some time around 2013 and he certainly retained a presence and a sense of humour. Hearing of his death inspired me to get the Audible version of the book and it is magnificent . . . belly laugh, "say WHAT!", brilliant.

RIP Andrew Matheson.

The best music biog I have ever read . . .

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The young Andrew Matheson and his merry band of diddies have a high opinion of themselves and their talent (an unmerited and unjustifiable high opinion of themselves) he might still have that opinion now he’s not so young but his story is bloody funny.
The Clash’s Sandanista is a hilarious comedy album don’t you know - we do now.

Funny mate, really funny

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