HOLLYWOOD DREAM: The Thunderclap Newman Story
by Mark Ian Wilkerson
“I will turn to Wilkerson’s book again and again to be reminded of my three dear friends who comprised the band Thunderclap Newman. It’s carefully and devotedly researched with lots of input from all kinds of other friends of mine who shared their journey.”
—Pete Townshend
“We were the best worst band. We died but we died in style.”
—Speedy Keen, Thunderclap Newman
Thunderclap Newman stunned the music world in the summer of 1969 with the success of their wonderfully odd debut single “Something In The Air”, which ousted none other than the Beatles from the top of the charts. They followed up with an LP described by Nik Cohn as “one of the finest, most truly bizarre albums of the era” before disintegrating just a few months after its release. This is the story of one of the most unlikely combos in popular music history, and of the four disparate characters who formed its core: Pete Townshend, principal songwriter and guitarist for The Who; his best friend and driver, the singer/songwriter/drummer John ‘Speedy’ Keen; a fifteen-year-old wunderkind guitarist named Jimmy McCulloch; and finally, an enigmatic telephone engineer who also happened to be a brilliant improvisational jazz pianist: Andy ‘Thunderclap’ Newman.
