HOLLYWOOD DREAM: The Thunderclap Newman Story

music
Written By Evan Hickman
 

“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. Rife with both triumph and tragedy, the story intersects with seismic cultural events such as the Apollo 11 moon landing and the massive Woodstock Music and Arts festival, and with legendary artists such as Jimi Hendrix, Johnny Thunders, Motorhead, Paul McCartney and The Who. Drawing from exhaustive research and more than fifty interviews with those who were there, Hollywood Dream: The Thunderclap Newman Story provides a detailed, exacting look at the fascinating story of a band who everyone has forgotten but everyone knows.


Author:

Mark Wilkerson

Mark Wilkerson was born in Birmingham, England, in the same year that Thunderclap Newman entered the world. He has written acclaimed biographies Who Are You: The life of Pete Townshend (Omnibus Press, 2008) and Tomas Young's War (Haymarket Books 2016) and coauthored the official Pearl Jam retrospective and New York Times bestseller Pearl Jam 20 (Simon & Schuster, 2011). He lives with his wife, Melissa, in Louisville, Kentucky.

 
Evan Hickman
Next

Outside the Joy