Some Weird Sin – On Tour with Iggy Pop

Some Weird Sin – On Tour with Iggy Pop

Alvin Gibbs

Extradition Publishing

This book has made me want to explore the iconic albums The Idiot, Lust for Life, Kill City, Blah-Blah-Blah, New Values, Instinct and Post Pop Depression and the back catalogue of the author’s band.

In this way, the book must be deemed a success.  I knew nothing about James Newell Osterberg Jr and the author Alvin Gibbs entertains and informs the reader of what it’s really like to be part of a successful touring band with the magical moment of earning next to nothing one moment to $1500 a week plus $30 daily expenses the next.  The author is the ex-UK Subs bass player and the book details his eight-month long tenure of Iggy’s World Tour 1988. I approached the book with caution.  I’d bought Real Wild Child and liked the Passenger immensely and that’s as far as my knowledge went. I’m far better informed now.  I was sceptical of an involved musician writing the story and I was sceptical after research revealed the author had written two previous books on Iggy Pop.  My fears disappeared when the author spectacularly sets out in his introduction the reasons for his update which I will leave to the reader to discover on their own.  Some Weird Sin could refer to the more salacious episodes on tour but in fact relates to the first song Mr Gibbs had to practice for his new position.  He writes well and is often humorous and I recommend it as a fine read for any music lover or even as a general reader as towns and cities, band politics and the psyche and personality of both Iggy Pop and Mr Gibbs are described as well as the gigs.  Despite the poor quality of the photographs that look as if they have been lifted from a fanzine, they do add a reality rather than the gloss that a perfectly shot image may suggest and they were in keeping with the time of punk.

I read the book in three longish sessions and it was an engaging read and I particularly relished the opportunity to hear about the relationship between Mr Pop and Mr Bowie.  It’s a concise two hundred-and-eight-page turner about life on tour that I want to pass around, such is the quality of the style and the abundant content that the author shares about one of the industry’s greats.