Matt Johnson’s life story has been mapped out as one long Q&A conversation from meetings with old friend, fan and BFI director Jason Wood. ‘Cognitive Dissident’ traces his trajectory from the East End to Soho to the beloved albums he made with a series of super-groups and his 2021 comeback. He looks back here at …
… his earliest musical memories – Donovan, the Move, the Crazy World of Arthur Brown
… the old East End and the Two Puddings pub run by his parents, “full of ghosts”, Bobby Moore, Francis Bacon and the Krays
… his Uncle Kenny promoting the Who, the Kinks and Jerry Lee Lewis
… “Get yourself on a sunbed!” and other advice from George Michael
... what he learnt at De Wolfe Music, aged 15, in the red-light Soho of the late ‘70s
… legendary manager Stevo signing the band’s CBS contract at midnight in Trafalgar Square
… “cigarettes, coffee, warm analogue equipment”: the Proustian scent of old studios
… his NME ad recruiting The The members via the Residents, the Velvet Underground, Syd Barrett and Throbbing Gristle
… being part of “the Long Mack Brigade” with Cabaret Voltaire, This Heat, Wire and the Gang of Four
… Leonard Cohen’s premonition of the internet
… the Albert Hall: “like a tennis player playing Wimbledon”
… the genius of Hank Williams
… and his 2018 comeback, “like reunion of old army buddies”
Order ‘Cognitive Dissident’ here: https://omnibuspress.com/products/cognitive-dissident?_pos=1&_psq=cognitive+dissi&_ss=e&_v=1.0
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