fVCk off

fVCk off: The Parable of a Post-Punk Percussionist is Vin Cassidy's candid, funny and uncompromising account of a life spent at the heart of British post-punk.As drummer and founding member of Section 25, Cassidy was there as a group of musicians from Blackpool found themselves drawn into the extraordinary world of Factory Records. Along the way came encounters and friendships with Joy Division and New Order, recording with Martin Hannett, working with Bernard Sumner, touring Britain, Europe and America, and creating records such as Always Now, From The Hip and the enduring club favourite Looking From A Hilltop.But this is far more than a conventional music memoir.Beginning with Cassidy's childhood in Blackpool and his fascination with the mechanical rhythms of the family factory, the story follows Section 25 from makeshift rehearsal rooms and chaotic early gigs through Factory Records, post-punk, electronics and dance music, while revealing what life inside a cult band actually looked like when the mythology was stripped away.Cassidy writes with characteristic humour and remarkable openness about family, marriage, money, addiction, heroin, recovery and the difficult decision to walk away from the band at the height of its momentum. He later charts Section 25's reunion, the loss of his brother and musical partner Larry Cassidy, and the decision to carry on rather than simply live in the past.Nearly five decades after first picking up the sticks, Cassidy finds himself somewhere he never expected to be: at the front of the stage, behind the microphone, still making new music.Funny, chaotic, moving and frequently outrageous, fVCk off: The Parable of a Post-Punk Percussionist is both an insider's account of one of the most fascinating periods in British independent music and a deeply personal story about family, survival, grief, second chances and refusing to stand still.