Original Rockers

Shortlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize 2015
A Times, Uncut and Rough Trade Book of the Year

Published 2015

‘Remarkable… a work of rapture and reverie.’ Observer

‘Delightful… I loved every page of it.’  Independent

‘The first time I truly couldn’t take the needle off a book. The smell of vinyl virtually emanated from the page.’ Gilles Peterson 

‘This is not so much a eulogy for record shops as an examination of the romantic, slightly tragic disposition of the people to whom they meant so much.’ Times 

Original Rockers is a clear-eyed yet romantic account of the several years that Richard King spent working behind the counter at Bristol's Revolver Records – a business run from the heart rather than the head. King brings that lost environment back to life – the sounds, the smells and the people – along with a vivid sense of how it feels to discover taste-shaping records and the artists who created them for the first time. Original Rockers evokes a golden moment in British cultural history, and celebrates the magical abandon that music offers us.

‘A remarkable memory fugue… a work of rapture and reverie… King writes like a dream… a bittersweet and often moving tribute to a hallowed place.’ Observer

‘An eloquent panegyric… [with an] intoxicating sense of place.’ Guardian

‘Part time capsule, part history lesson, part musical treasure map… King unashamedly romanticises those pre-internet days when musical knowledge was hard won rather than a mouse-click away.’ Mojo

‘Celebrates the independent record shop as not only a cultural hub but also a dream state, a tiny republic within a city. It’s an inspiring reverie, a beautiful book about an almost extinct world.’ Bob Stanley

‘A highly personal memoir that vividly articulates the sheer thrill of musical discovery, the new or previously unheard record that attaches itself to a moment in your life, from which it becomes inseparable.’ Uncut

‘There are a dozen different books packed into Original Rockers – a comic portrait of Revolver, a Bristol scene history and an analysis of British experimental music, for starters, but such abundance allows the book to imitate a flick through the record racks.’ Q Magazine

‘In this celebratory, elegiac book, King remembers Bristol’s Revolver, an indie record shop that was idiosyncratic, eclectic and more than a tad intimidating to the casual browser.’ Express

‘Some of the finest music writing I have read in many a year. Original Rockers is a beautifully written and evocative re-making of one highly personal corner of the record shop decades – and one we’ll all recognise.’ Test Pressing