My review of Rockabilly/Psychobilly by Jamie Kendall

I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley and Schiffer Publishing in exchange for an honest review.

Music is a form of art and it’s great to see art related to some of your favorite music.I’m a huge rockabilly/psychobilly fan so I love this book! It contains art by some of the most talented artists out there. This book gives you a visual tour of the genre. A lot of the bands flyers are featured in this book as well as just art related to the genre. If you’re a fan like me this book is a must have. It’s an art anthology so there’s no stories about the bands but I’ll give you some background info about some of them.

The Meteors are an English psychobilly band formed in the early eighties and are often described as the only truly pure psychobilly band in the genre. They have toured extensively over the years and their first tv appearance was on the tv show White Light on Thames tv in late 1980. They have a very large cult following known as the wrecking Crew or The Crazies. Today the only original member is P. Paul Fenech who’s also produced several succesful solo albums and writes music for horror films and TV shows.

The Reverend Horton Heat is considered to be the godfather of modern rockabilly and psychobilly. The band was formed in 1985 and Jim Heath is the only remaining original member. The band’s name is an ode to Johnny Horton who was one of the first rockabilly artists.

Demented Are Go is a Welsh psychobilly band that has been around since 1982. If you’re a fan of the genre you’ll most definitely know about Sparky’s (Mark Philips) antics, I’m pretty sure he’s still not allowed to enter the US. Their album The Day the Earth Spat Blood is somewhat of an underground classic and my first introduction to the genre. I have seen them live a couple of years ago in Amsterdam when they performed with Mad Sin and it was quite special. This one of their newer songs

Another band featured is a Dutch band formed in 1983 called Batmobile the leadsinger Jeroen Haamers provides the foreword for this art anthology. The band is still performing these days so be sure to check out one of their shows!