With puff quotes from Marilyn Manson, Alan Moore and Shepard Fairey, this is more candid and colourful than the average rock memoir.
As a founder member of Bauhaus and then Love And Rockets (“You had one fluke hit and you think you’re really something!” yells Peter Murphy during one of several tiffs), Northampton’s David J has met everyone from William Burroughs to David Bowie to Rick Rubin. Even if he hadn’t, his obsession with the occult (he saves his drummer-brother’s bloodied Band-Aids) offers fascination or unintended laughs, depending on your level of scepticism.
The Bauhaus glory years (and hot-and-cold reunions) are vividly recalled. You realise how their stark lines and lean strokes were the polar opposite of “gothic”, and it’s conveyed how deeply they meant it, man. There are plenty of frenzied touring anecdotes, but a clichéd tone is avoided by Haskins’ odd blend of spookiness and affable humour./o:p
