(Chicago Review Press) www.chicagoreviewpress.com

The past few years have seen an explosion of books chronicling the UK punk explosion, a number of them—Simon Reynolds’ Rip It Up and Start Again; George Gimarc’s revised Punk Diary; Clinton Heylin’s Babylon’s Burning—entertaining, illuminating reads. It’s safe to say that the British rock milieu of the late ‘70s and early ‘80s has been exhaustively covered. But that never seems to stop yet another author from getting into the ring, and this time it’s Phil Strongman. As he was braces-deep in the London punk scene and later an extra in The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle, he’s got cred. But does he have the chops?

Mmm… sort of. Strongman vividly recreates some of punk’s watershed moments, such as the Sex Pistols’ infamous TV appearance on Bill Grundy’s Today show on December 1, 1976, and the 100 Club Punk Festival in September of ’76, which he attended. Yet with the bulk of these 290 pages devoted to the Pistols, and to a lesser extent the Clash, and with other key players (Slits, Joy Division, Wire, etc.) essentially relegated to walk-ons, you come away with the feeling that in Strongman’s view, punk died with Sid. Indeed, this somewhat misleadingly-titled book more or less ends with the release of the Swindle film in 1980, Strongman dutifully touching upon a handful of subsequent events (the Clash’s 1981 Bonds residency in ’81; the Pistols’ 1996 Filthy Lucre Tour) and ruminating somewhat haphazardly upon the 30^th anniversary of punk and what it all means, maaan.

So yeah, the story’s already been told — many times. If you’re ready to hear it again, Pretty Vacant will fit the bill. FRED MILLS