“A brilliantly contextualized study of a decade of cultural and political upheaval, seismic shifts in fashion and youth trends, and the ever-changing musical landscape. The results are worthy of shelf space next to Jon Savage’s England’s Dreaming or Greil Marcus’s Lipstick Traces.” (Terry Staunton, Record Collector)
Published on June 20th 2005, Not Abba is an antidote to those ‘I Love the Seventies’ versions of the 1970s; this isn’t about Abba and the Bee Gees and platform shoes, it’s about trade union strikes, racial strife, the Clash, Ziggy Stardust, reggae, Linda Lovelace in Deep Throat, Led Zeppelin, feminism, the Specials, gay liberation, IRA bombs, collapsing economies, and football hooliganism. It’s about everything ‘I Love the Seventies’ doesn’t understand or doesn’t want to acknowledge.
With a special focus on those in the Seventies generation who grew up in various cities in England, and written with a love of intriguing connections and illuminating details, and a passion to rewrite the rewriting of history, Not Abba draws together the music of the decade, the memories and undercurrents, the politics and films. The 1970s mapped as never before…
In recent years, the nostalgia industry has sold us a distorted image of the 1970s. The story is always the same: this was the decade of good times and lunatic fashions, a mindless boogie wonderland where everyone listened to Abba and the Bee Gees and danced in platform shoes. We see this version of history in the pop TV shows, the Seventies-themed nightclubs and the revival tours. And we are starting to believe it.
Not Abba: The Real Story of the 1970s is an antidote to those versions of the Seventies; this isn’t about Abba and the Bee Gees and platform shoes, it’s about trade union strikes, racial strife, the Clash, Ziggy Stardust, reggae, Linda Lovelace in Deep Throat, Led Zeppelin, feminism, the Specials, gay liberation, IRA bombs, collapsing economies, and football hooliganism. It’s about everything I Love the Seventies doesn’t understand or doesn’t want to acknowledge.
Not Abba draws together the music of the decade, the memories and undercurrents, the politics and films. Each chapter takes its title from a song from that year and develops themes and stories, with a love of intriguing connections, random and illuminating details and heavy argument, and a passion to rewrite the rewriting of history. Weaving through the big themes and brilliant songs are some individual biographies from the decade, characters who grew up in various cities in England, interviewed by the author, the detail of their worlds mapped-out, their lives representing the real story of the decade. Those who shaved their heads, formed bands, took to drink, or joined the Anti Nazi League.
“Breathless and compelling. Haslam plays more than few aces, cutting his subject into free-flowing chapters that move at speed between politics, music, and personally rendered social history.” (John Harris, The New Statesman)
“An amazing portrait of the decade” (Phill Jupitus, Radio 6)
“Haslam is determined to set the record straight and offers an exhaustive survey of a Seventies the revival merchants want to avoid.” (The Guardian)
“Coming so soon after Simon Reynolds equally essential history of post-punk Not Abba is a gloriously messy lurch through a time long passed….The eyewitness accounts illiminate the book with touching candour.” (The Glasgow Herald)
“It’s a fast moving, accessible book, using extensive research and first hand accounts from musicians, writers and artists and everyday people to give a well rounded account of the times. If it was Haslam’s intention to remind us the decade was far more interesting (darker, more exciting, dangerous and creative) than the popular I Love the Seventies, he more than succeeds.” (Clash Magazine)
“A blistering attack on the nostalgic sanitisation of a troubled decade.” (Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times)
“The ‘Abbafication’ of the 1970s, fuelled by nostalgia television and bland compilation LPs has created a sort of cultural amnesia, and Haslam sets out to restore what careless editors have gradually stripped away. It’s an appealing idea and Haslam tells the story with an enthusiastic and discriminating eye.” (Robert Douglas-Fairhurst, The Telegraph)
