It’s been an unbelievable 55 years since THUNDERCLAP NEWMAN burst into international scene with the “Something In The Air” single, which is still the British trio’s best-known work – written by drummer Speedy Keen and produced, like the whole of their only album “Hollywood Dream” that was issued the whopping 16 months later, by his friend Pete Townshend who, basically, created the band by bringing in ivories and reeds master Andy Newman and guitarist Jimmy McCulloch. The longplay might have performed just as well but, perhaps, the loss of momentum and the delay with the record’s overseas release cost the platter a chart action the music within deserved, and even opening for DEEP PURPLE didn’t help. As a result, 1971 saw the little ensemble disintegrate, with Newman dropping out of the scene, Keen trying to start a solo career with "Y'Know Wot I Mean" before turning into producer for Johnny Thunders’ HEARTBREAKERS and MOTÖRHEAD, and McCulloch finding fame with STONE THE CROWS and, alongside Paul McCartney, in WINGS. All three dead now, their endeavors are long overdue for fans’ discovery.
Hollywood Dream:
The Thunderclap Newman Story
Now, the time has come to delve into the ensemble’s existence, and could there be anyone better poised to tell this tale than Mark Ian Wilkerson, an acclaimed England-born and States-based author mostly known for his tome on THE WHO mastermind who, in turn, provided not only valuable input for the volume but also a foreword? Bearing the lengthy title of “Hollywood Dream, The Thunderclap Newman Story: Pete Townshend, a Band of Outsiders, and the Birth of British Indie Music” and numbering 424 pages, the tome’s original paperback edition will be published on October 1st. How it came to exist?
“I interviewed Andy Newman back in 2009 for a planned update to my 2008 Pete Townshend biography [‘Who Are You: The Life Of Pete Townshend’] – an update which never happened,” explains Mark. “So, after writing a couple of other books, 2011’s PEARL JAM retrospective ‘PJ20’ and ‘Tomas Young’s War’ in 2016, I reached out to Pete to see if he’d be interested in providing input for a book about THUNDERCLAP NEWMAN. He was – and so this project began. It’s been a joy to research and write about this wonderfully odd group of characters and the music they created.”
