1. So then, tell us how it all started.

I had been in a punk band for three years and that was coming to its natural end. Three bands from my hometown of Stourbridge – Ned’s, PWEI and the Wonder Stuff. I knew there was a sizeable fan base and, having done a degree in Historical Research, was trained to write biography. So I just put my professional background together with my love of music and wrote ‘The Eight Legged Atomic Dustbin Will Eat Itself’.

2. How did you first make contact with bands and record labels?

I drove round to the house of Ned’s lead singer, Jonn Penney, who was gracious enough to listen to the complete stranger on his doorstep and later do a fantastic interview. He then put me in touch with all the other key players in the scene – Clint Mansell of PWEI even wrote an Introduction for me.

I was blissfully naive to the mechanics of selling books into shops, but managed to sell 5000 copies in independent record shops all across the UK, finally adopting some vestiges of publishing normality with a scale out to Virgin Megastores (arranged from a public pay phone kiosk in Nottingham town centre).

3. Was there a time when you thought it just wasn’t going to happen for you?

Yes, I was trying to get Jesus Jones bio but didn’t, I had no money and was living off my credit cards, working on a building site from 6am to 4pm then writing from 4pm til I fell asleep. By then I had started my own publishing house,  Independent Music Press and it was a tough time at first.

4. So, what’s all this about muggings in New York?

I naively thought that if I could sell so many books out of carrier bags outside gigs in the UK, I could do the same and conquer America! Within 48 hours of arriving, I was mugged for the small amount of cash I had (from book sold). Then, to add insult to injury, I printed and sent 1500 copies to a US distributor who never paid me a penny. 

5. You’re releasing a biography of Dave Grohl on 29^th of September. Is Dave Grohl really the nicest guy in rock! ?

Apparently so. When you write or publish an unofficial bio you do get people wanting to be spiteful or dish the dirt. No one has a bad word to say about Grohl. Plus, no one seems to work harder, but then look at what he has achieved by his early 30s.

6. Are you anticipating a huge response to this bio?

In twelve years of publishing music biography, no single title has solicited so much pre-publication interest, and that include my two official Prodigy books.

7. Why re-release classics such as Ian Hunter’s Diary of A Rock n Roll Star?

I was told so many times to read this classic book – supposedly the first ever rock star autobiography. I couldn’t find it anywhere and when I eventually did it was £20 second hand. I thought that suggested a demand and therefore tracked Hunter down via a publishing friend to Conneticut and offered him a deal. Ian and his wife Trudi were a delight to work with from day one, still is.

8. Stephen Jones from Babybird has written for IMP. What’s it like having musicians writing novels for you?

You need to be very careful who you ask. A clever musician is not a guaranteed novelist. Both he and Stuart David (ex Belle and Sebastian, now Looper) had fantastic prose in their work, so it was a natural extension. But we told both of them we would reject anything if it was not high quality literature – which in both cases it certainly was first rate.

9. Do they approach you or the other way around?

We approached both. Stuart from a line in a Times article about rock stars writing novels. We tracked Stuart down on the web and found his debut novel, Nalda Said, which is simply breathtaking. Stephen – we were both huge Babybird fans and phoned his PR lady and then him and just asked him. Turned out he was dying to have a go and what results!

10. What’s the best title you’ve ever produced?

Difficult to say. As a writer I am very proud of my history of Dr Martens boots, which encompasses 40 years of youth culture. Publishing terms – the Dave Grohl book.  I researched 40,000 pictures, 1 million words of text and made 2000 phonecalls to get that researched. It is an amazing and unique brand. I even travelle to germany to see the home of the man who invented the air cushioned sole and the Griggs family, who own the brand here in the UK, are some of the nicest people you could meet.

11. How much writing do you actually do now?

I write 5 or 6 books a year for other publishers.

12. What was it like publishing the Dr. Martin’s book?

See 10!

13. How involved are you with record labels?

I do speak with them a lot. If a book is unofficial they often help my off the record as they know band product sells bak catalogue, provided of course I say nothing derogatory.

14. Do you get invited to loads of gigs?

Tons. I used to got to stacks too, sometimes as many as ten a week! Less so now, but you do need to go still.  A live band will always give you good indicators as to whether their fan base will buy a book or not.

15. How easy would it be to write for IMP?