Post by David Barraclough

Our latest project to be sent out into the world is 𝐖𝐞 𝐓𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐏𝐨𝐞𝐭-𝐏𝐮𝐧𝐤𝐬: 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐃𝐨𝐰𝐧𝐭𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐃𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐏𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐢 𝐒𝐦𝐢𝐭𝐡, 𝐓𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐤 𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 by 𝐂𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨𝐧 𝐇𝐞𝐲𝐥𝐢𝐧, author of the seminal 𝘍𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘝𝘦𝘭𝘷𝘦𝘵𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘝𝘰𝘪𝘥𝘰𝘪𝘥𝘴 (still in print 33 years on). Clinton tells the riveting story of Patti Smith, Tom Verlaine and Richard Hell, who were at different times in the seventies sounding boards, friends, lovers and frenemies. The book is, of course, timed to coincide with the 50th anniversary of both 𝘔𝘢𝘳𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘦 𝘔𝘰𝘰𝘯 and 𝘉𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘬 𝘎𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 in 2027. Drawing on its protagonists' own archives, 𝘞𝘦 𝘛𝘩𝘳𝘦𝘦 𝘗𝘰𝘦𝘵-𝘗𝘶𝘯𝘬𝘴 covers the period when maybe the world was not there for the taking, but the one below Manhattan's 14th Street was. The core span is from 1971 to 1977. To be precise, from February 10th 1971, when Patti Smith gave her first poetry reading at the St Mark's Project, to her CBGB Theatre gig on December 31st 1977, when she literally brought the house down. Initially all three came to New York not to be musicians, but to be poets. The switch, when it came, was one borne of frustration at their failure to make an impact. By early 1974, the lives and loves of Patti Smith, Tom Verlaine and Richard Hell had become inextricably entwined, as each championed the other, and as the two bands they founded, the Patti Smith Group and Television, attracted the great and the good to their gigs. If Television were the band attracting the interest of David Bowie, Brian Eno (both of whom wanted to produce them) and others, inside a year it was Patti who had signed to Arista. That Television failed to follow suit - at least for almost two years - would be down to an acrimonious split which saw Richard Hell go his way and Verlaine mould Television into a reflection of his vision alone. The result was two rival bands - Television and the Voidoids - working along the exact same line. And in 1977 both delivered their own personal manifesto of punk, before it was all taken away from all three and they found refuge in marriage (in Patti's case), heroin (in Richard's case) and solo projects (in Tom's case). It's a story never previously told in all its dimensions, but now, thanks to previously unafforded access to the archives of Richard Hell (housed at NYU) and Tom Verlaine (not yet accessible to the public), that’s about to change.