UK, Europe etc readers purchase here
American readers purchase here.
It’s now five years (give or take a few days – our memories are hazy) since the somewhat dispiriting morning that the Quietus discovered, just a few weeks after we launched the website, that our funding was being removed, and that we’d have to continue alone. Since then… well, as m’colleague John Doran has forsaken grape, grain and Eccles Cake, his girth has plummeted as mine has risen, and it’s been a pretty mind-and-hand-breaking uphill slog, from the point when we allowed ourself a doubled bagged Yorkshire Tea if we got more than 500 visitors a day to now, when we’re notching up around 350,000 unique users and about 1.5 million page impressions every month.
In the years since September 2008, we’ve printed 13,186 articles on The Quietus in a huge, sprawling archive of what we think is some of the best writing on music and culture that you’ll find on the internet. Unfortunately, The Quietus was never actually finished – what you’re reading now is essentially still a Beta version, much like the HMS Prince Of Wales sailing out to fight the Bismarck with its artillery untested, and civilian technicians still on board. This means that it’s monstrously difficult to navigate your way through the archive to find some of the best work… which is where Mr Charles Ubaghs comes in.
Charles was a friend of the Quietus from our earliest days, when he would arrive at the pub in excellent brogues and speak learnedly in a crazy accent that hovered somewhere in the Atlantic between the midwest and Belgium. He’s a smart man when it comes to tech (his day job is running social media for the Capital Radio Group), and after much working on the rather Luddite minds of John and myself, convinced us that we ought to publish a Quietus eBook.
And lo! Captain, she rises! Point Close All Quotes: A Quietus Anthology.. This is by no means an exhaustive list, or intended to be our view of the cream of the cream – there’ll hopefully be more eBooks in this series. Instead it’s an attempt to curate some articles that we felt represented the unusual and divergent interests of the Quietus in music, writing styles and so on.
So we’re honoured to be able to include two articles by the late Steven Wells, who was and remains an inspiration to how we try to run our ship. Then we’ve an exclusive new feature by Tim Burgess, wherein he ponders trying to write the follow-up to his autobiography, Telling Stories. Also in the eBook are Jude Rogers on Rihanna’s dubious LP marketing, Aidan Moffat’s open letter to Girls Aloud, Taylor Parkes on Chris Needham, Joel McIver interviewing Sir Patrick Moore on space rock, Carol Clerk getting banned from Israel with Hanoi Rocks, metal vicar the Rev Rachel Mann on why Jesus would have been a Pussy Riot fan, and more. You can find the full list of articles below.
There are also two specially written pieces by John Doran and myself. St Helens’ wayward Viking son has a Baker’s Dozen of Baker’s Dozens, including the 12 things I always tell him off for calling people on Twitter. Anyone who was annoyed by the story about John Lennon being cloned via tooth DNA might be an ally in my Black Sky Thinking on the Baby Boomers, and their myth of a musical golden age. And as well as words, we’re chuffed that Krent Able agreed to illustrate some of the articles in the book. If you’ve ever wanted to see an artistic representation of Kraftwerk as country and western musicians, or Kanye West’s little Kanye – well, Krent has made your dream come true.
On a more prosaic note, the Quietus is currently funded entirely through the display ads you can see on the site. As ad revenues decline, we’re looking to find new revenue streams that will mean we can fulfill our stated aim to pay for every work that appears on the site – this new series of eBooks will be part of that.
Finally, some words of appreciation: A huge cheers to Eloise Corke, who designed the book, and to Rory Lewarne, who did an exceedingly diligent job on editing out all the mistakes that we tend to get too excited to spot when we’re putting articles on the site. Most of all I’d like to thank Charles Ubaghs for the incredible amount of work, vision and pan-global calm that he’s put into this project – it’s about the most well-executed thing we’ve ever done. Quietus readers – we hope you enjoy it, and thanks for five years of the devoted attention of your eyeballs, bandwidth and minds. Now, open your digital wallets…
UK, Europe etc readers purchase here
American readers purchase here.
Not a Kindle owner? Never fear. You can buy and read the book via the Kindle app for the iPad, iPhone and all Android devices.
Point Close All Quotes: A Quietus Anthology.
An Introduction
– by John Doran
Black Sky Thinking: Death To Corduroy
– by Steven Wells
Golden Balls: How The Baby Boomers Stole Music
– by Luke Turner
A Sorry State: Pop Marketing And Rihanna’s Unapologetic
– by Jude Rogers
Why Jesus Would Have Been A Pussy Riot Fan
– by Reverend Rachel Mann
One For The Road: Getting Banned From Israel With Hanoi Rocks
– by Carol Clerk
All You Old Bastards Should Learn Something From This – The Cult of Chris Needham
– by Taylor Parkes
Sweetest Perfection: Depeche Mode’s Violator 20 Years On
– by Emily Bick
Sequel Opportunities
– by Tim Burgess
Bad Seed Warren Ellis On Smartening Up
– by Luke Turner
Kindred Spirits: Burial The Urban Explorer
– by Rory Gibb
The Liberty Belle – Dolly Parton Speaks
– by Jude Rogers
It’s A Sin: Frank Ocean And Prejudice Against Male Bisexuality
– by Luke Turner
Everything Louder Than Everything Else: Dynamic Range Mastering in 2011
– by Nick Southall
808 State Of Mind: Proto-Crunk Originator DJ Spanish Fly
– by Phil Hebblethwaite
Tear Gas And Hip Hop: A Different View Of The Stone Roses’ Debut
– by John Tatlock
Meditate On Bass Weight: Why Sunn O))) Are A Dance Act
– by Angus Finlayson
Kanye West, Sensitive Soul
– by John Doran
Nico: Facing the Wind – The Marble Index Trilogy
– by Matthew Lindsay
Thom Yorke: My Autobiography
– by Steven Wells
Why Factory Floor Are My Favourite Band
– by John Doran
Bring The Ruckus: Country & Western Vs Krautrock
– Our Writers Rage – by David Stubbs & Andrew Mueller
Adolescent Awkwardness: U2’s Boy 30 Years On
– by Ben Graham
Spacerock… The Final Frontier
– by Joel McIver
Counting Backwards: Throwing Muses Interviewed
– by John Freeman
We Only Have This Excerpt: Mark E. Smith Of The Fall Interviewed
– by Kevin EG Perry
“I Will Do This Forever”: Vic Chesnutt’s Break-Up Song With Death
– by Wyndham Wallace
Goodbye Girls, Hello Heaven? To Nicola Roberts
– by Aidan Moffat
A Message From The Captain By Way Of A Baker’s Dozen
– by John Doran
