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• • • Michael Moorcock goes Into the Media Web

Announced in these page as appearing in 2008, our Brobdingnagian edition of Michael Moorcock’s non-fiction—five years in the making—was promptly caught up in the financial recession, leading to fears that the book would be postponed until at least 2012. The Pirates of the Second Aether have been kind, however, and this long-awaited collection, the culmination of the combined endeavours of Savoy and editor John Davey, has now at last been published.

Look up the word 'author' in a dictionary and you'll find a photograph of Michael Moorcock. A reluctant archetype he spans the fertile wilderness of English writing, real and living literature not to be found amidst the well-manicured parklands of the prizewinners and pundits; too tall for the shortlist. This is a web we can plunge into with complete abandon. Michael Moorcock isn't going to steal our souls or eat us, but instead serve up a varied banquet of delights for us to pick at over a few weeks or wolf down in a single sitting. This book is a radiant and comprehensive study of one of the most important figures of our time, in all his marvellous complexity.

Alan Moore in his foreword to Into the Media Web

Alan’s words remind us, really, of why we started out in publishing. Savoy’s first titles were resolutely Moorcockian, and his works and influences have run like a backbone through everything we've done since. Michael Moorcock is one of the greatest writers of our time and this book is an authoritative confirmation of that fact.

Michael Moorcock:
Into The Media Web – Selected Short Non-Fiction, 1956–2006

Foreword by Alan Moore
Edited by John Davey
Design by John Coulthart

Publication: 2nd August 2010
ISBN: ISBN 978-0-86130-120-1
RRP: £48
Format: Hardback
Dimensions: 255 x 185mm
Pages: 720

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• • • Engelbrecht lives to fight another day

"The Exploits of Engelbrecht is English surrealism at its greatest. Witty and fantastical, Maurice Richardson was light years ahead of his time. Unmissable." JG Ballard

The Dwarf Surrealist Boxer returns for a further bout of phenomenological pugilism in a new edition of Maurice Richardson's comic masterpiece. For many years a rare book, praised by Michael Moorcock (who provided the afterword for this edition) and JG Ballard (who provided a blurb), The Exploits of Engelbrecht makes Savoy history by being the first book the company has reprinted after the 2000 edition quickly sold out its run. This tenth anniversary edition has been redesigned by John Coulthart and features new illustrations by Kris Guidio to accompany those by the original illustrators of Richardson's stories, James Boswell, Ronald Searle and Gerard Hoffnung. With an introduction by James Cawthorn, this is a definitive edition.

• Read the first chaper (PDF)

"Far more obscure, but for my money the best book of the year, is The Exploits of Engelbrecht by Maurice Richardson. Richardson, who died in 1978, was one of the old school of hacks; he later became a stalwart infester of the Colony Rooms and the sordid pubs round Soho that teemed with pissed-up talent in the 1940s and 1950s. The Exploits of Engelbrecht, the dwarf surrealist boxer, and his adventures shooting witches, boxing grandfather clocks, playing football on Mars and games of surrealist golf which last for infinity, originally appeared in Lilliput when it was at its post-war zenith. The stories were illustrated by, among others, Searle and Hoffnung. Ah, God, those were the days." Martin Rowson, The Independent on Sunday

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• • • Savoy at Ballardian: 2

Back cover of Savoy's 'Love Will Tear Us Apart' 7" showing P J Proby and Peter Hook at Suite 16, Rochdale circa 1984.

The second in the three-part Savoy feature currently running on Ballardian, the leading JG Ballard website, has now been posted. In a long interview Ballardian's Simon Sellars and Savoy's David Britton discuss the creation of Savoy Records, the philosophy behind Savoy’s music, the link between maverick pulp and rock’n’roll (from the Cramps to Michael Moorock!), how the meetings between Savoy and PJ Proby resulted in a series of records that conjured beguiling loon-a-tickery, how New Worlds is the literary equivalent of the Beatles and how twenty-five years after Savoy’s first stab at New Order’s ‘Blue Monday’ the song was cut again, this time by cult film star Fenella Fielding.

Brompton Street, Oldham, circa 1986. Home of Lord Haw-Haw in the 1920s.

Also discussed are Lord Horror's antecedent, Lord Haw-Haw, Britton’s personal thoughts about Ballard and the influence of Ballard on Savoy, the impact Dr Christopher Evans had upon Crash and how this relates to Lord Horror; how racism, cold and hard, is the new rock’n’roll!

David Britton.

• • • M John Harrison Wins Savoy/Ballardian Microfiction Competition!

Ballardian's hotly-contested fiction competition received over 40 entries and the results have now also been announced on the site. Judges Simon Sellars, Michael Butterworth and John Coulthart found M John Harrison to be the clear winner. Harrison receives copies of Lord Horror (the novel), the rare The Truth About Horror and A Tea Dance at Savoy.

In second place China Miéville wins copies of A Serious Life and Sieg Heil Iconographers.

In third place Martin Amis wins copies of the Savoy Wars and The Waste Land CDs, and also the Fuck Off and Die comic book. The judges overlooked Amis's current renown as screenwriter of Saturn 3 and author of Invasion of the Space Invaders, preferring to regard his entry as confirmation of a notable amateur status.

See Ballardian for more details of this fabulous competition, the winning entries and the runners-up!

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• • • Savoy profiled at Ballardian

JG Ballard in Corridor magazine.

Our debt to the influence of JG Ballard goes back almost fifty years to when we first read his work in New Worlds and the Berkley paperbacks. His dedication to a challenging and, at times, unpalatable vision was always an inspiration. Whether mining his psyche for the dystopian psychodrama of Crash, or the childhood memories of Empire of the Sun, he remained true to his imagination. His example showed the importance of following your creative instincts even if those instincts lead you to places where an audience is reluctant to travel; if you wait long enough, eventually the audience will follow.

So we're delighted that Simon Sellars' definitive Ballard site, Ballardian, has commenced a three-part Savoy feature. In the first part posted here, Michael Butterworth discusses Ballard's Savoy connections and influence with Mike Holliday. The second part will deal with Savoy's musical and spoken word releases including Lord Horror, The Waste Land, and Fenella Fielding's reading of Crash. Part three will examine Savoy's visual dimension from comics and illustration to book design.

And for those whose life is a hollow sham without David Britton's first Lord Horror novel, here's your chance to win a very rare copy of the book as well as other Savoy goods. Not a crappy multiple-choice competition, you'll need to exercise your brain for this one.

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• • • Penny Blood News: Important Announcement by Baron von Guidio

Baron Guidio is pictured with attendant Space Fairies.

UK-based outlet Hemlock Books are now stocking issues of Penny Blood magazine whose most recent number included a Savoy feature. (See January 2009 entry below for further details.) Copies can be had for £5.99 here.

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• • • Kim Fowley sleevenotes for the Fenella album

left: Fowley in a recent issue of Mojo magazine; right: a portrait.

The Legendary Kim Fowley joins the Savoy Family!

Fowley requires no introduction for music aficionados, being the eminence grise behind a host of rock'n'roll classics. He recorded the Rivingtons just prior to their infecting the world with that gibberish meisterwerk, Papa Oom Mow Mow, and produced Alley Oop by the Hollywood Argyles; he has connections with Savoy faves Frank Zappa and with that mercurial talent, PJ Proby. Anyone who's looked over Fowley's comprehensive website will recognise an astute man cultivating a potent rock'n'roll persona.

 

"One of the most colourful characters in the annals of rock and roll, Kim Fowley was, over the course of his decades-long career, a true jack-of-all-trades; a singer, songwriter, producer and manager — as well as a disc jockey and published poet — he was the catalyst behind much of the music to emerge from the Los Angeles area during the 1960s and 1970s, guiding his associates and proteges to fame and fortune while remaining himself a shadowy cult figure well outside the margins of the mainstream." Read more at Allmusic.

If his CV wasn't already enough, Fowley is also a deft wielder of the pen, which makes him the perfect choice to deliver a suitably high-octane introduction for the new Fenella Fielding album, Fenella Fielding: The Savoy Sessions, forthcoming from Savoy. A Gridley Wave transmission from the Dying Earth. Here's a taste of his Excellent Prismatic Spray...

 

FENELLA FIELDING IS! A 21st Century Goddess of Audio Art and Noise Illusion!

Hollywood USA... Hey folks, it’s an obvious fact, we’re at the End Of The World. Life, as we KNEW it, is over. All we have are text messages — cell phones — and downloadable teardrops... Black is the New Mainstream... Gay is the New Black... Murder is the New Orgasm... Orgasm is the New Flaw.

So we need a Bit of Yesterday to get us through this Robotic-Time-Warp-Blip, that makes relaxing IMPOSSIBLE! This bit of Yesterday turns out to be... not a Legend of Yesterday, but a Prophet/Priestess of Tomorrow.

Her Succulent/Velvet-Blue-Saloon vocal tones made me believe I was having Naked Lunch in a Berlin bubble-bath, next to Marlene Dietrich... Somewhere in Berlin, circa 1928-1932.

Hence, we have a message in an aural bottle, from a 21st Century Axis Sally/Tokyo Rose: Fenella Fielding.

Bring on the smelling salts! Then give me the Silver-Spoon and Golden Needle, so I can blend into the Wonder-Word Void, where Ms Fielding must surely reside.

Fenella’s delivery of the following titles places me squarely at the foot of her bed, on my knees, in a position of worship!

*   *   *

 

Fenella's incendiary album is another unique Savoy blend of the high and the low, the fine and the furious, the rich and the strange. A gift for lovers of the surreal. Digital copies will be available via iTunes, eMusic and the rest courtesy of our fabulous internet distributor, The Orchard. Hard copies will be available direct from Savoy. Release date to be announced when PR plans are firmly in place. Watch the skies!

For more on Kim Fowley’s history and mystery, get on over to www.kimfowley.com

Pictures of La Squab and Captain Marvel by Mr. Kris Guidio.

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• • • Kris Guidio pays tribute to Lux Interior

Poison Ivy with Kris Guidio, early 1980s (photo by Lux Interior).

Mark Hagan, fellow veteran of numerous Cramps concerts across Europe and eventual evolutionist behind Top Of The Pops, once told me that he could never believe in coincidence. He reiterated the conviction when he called recently to see if I knew that Lux had died in the early hours of a February morning in California. I did. David Britton and Michael Butterworth had phoned an hour before with the news. Then my daughter, Ariel, who lives in Arizona, rang to say it had been mentioned on a local radio station. The world seems to get suddenly smaller when someone of merit leaves it.

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• • • Lux Interior of The Cramps passes away at the Glendale Memorial Hospital

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• • • Penny Blood feature