On the Snap by Brian Case

“Three decades of snapshots from the world of jazz, film and crime fiction”

Illustrations by Joseph Ciardiello

Caught by the River, out now.

The Anglo-Irish son of a Deptford cop, Brian Case got hooked by Charlie Parker at the age of 12 and never looked back. For five decades, writing for NME, Melody Maker, Time Out and latterly Uncut and The Times, his distinctive hard-bitten voice rapped out pieces on a thrilling after-midnight world of jazz, film and hard-boiled fiction.

A true original to stand alongside such peers as Nick Kent, Julie Burchill and Tony Parsons, Case wrote about a parallel, hipper universe in a sharp, speedy idiom all of his own. The ultimate turner-onner, his passion was for the noir of James Ellroy and the frenzied hard-bop of Johnny Griffin, but he was also the first journalist to go on tour with The Sex Pistols and was perfectly happy to shoot the breeze with Al Pacino with his pockets laden down with live ammo.

On the Snap is a collection of conversations with Case where he discusses some of his most memorable encounters – from Chet Baker and The Sex Pistols to Jack Nicholson to Michael Caine. All delivered in the unique vernacular of one of the great contemporary journalists, it’s a snapshot of an intoxicating and disappearing world.

As Richard Williams – his editor at Melody Maker and a long-standing admirer of his work - eulogises in his introduction:

“His writing was surprising, funny, elusive, erudite, emotionally engaged and all his subjects in this book, from Ian Dury to Norman Mailer, from Don McCullin to Tom Waits, the whole gang of motormouths and shutterbugs, junkies and pussy hounds, the witnesses to bebop and Belsen, get a fair hearing and words shaped by acute sensibility.”

On the Snap arrives this June via the publishing arm of Caught by the River – the nature/culture website that punches above its weight.

Pre-order a signed copy here http://bit.ly/1KLo144

www.caughtbytheriver.net

On the Snap by Brian Case

Robert Macfarlane & Chris Watson - The Sea-Road

Dylan Thomas reading A Child's Christmas In Wales

Up On Accra Hill by The Dubwood Allstars featuring The Prince of Wailers

The Boundway

Jack walked the old Roman road north as thousands had before him: Diddakoi, tinkers, prophets, fools; the footsore army of men who once tramped England's byways looking for work. He navigated by a kind of telluric instinct, an obscure knowledge he had learned to call on even when the land he walked through was unfamiliar: the wind on his face; the pull of the water table deep beneath the ground; the change from chalk to greensand to lias under his feet.

The Boundway

Art Blakey

Duke Ellington

James Ellroy

Jimmy Smith

Norman Mailer

Sam Fuller

Tom Waits

On the Snap by Brian Case

“Three decades of snapshots from the world of jazz, film and crime fiction”

Caught by the River, out June 18

The Anglo-Irish son of a Deptford cop, Brian Case got hooked by Charlie Parker at the age of 12 and never looked back. For five decades, writing for NME, Melody Maker, Time Out and latterly Uncut and The Times, his distinctive hard-bitten voice rapped out pieces on a thrilling after-midnight world of jazz, film and hard-boiled fiction.

A true original to stand alongside such peers as Nick Kent, Julie Burchill and Tony Parsons, Case wrote about a parallel, hipper universe in a sharp, speedy idiom all of his own. The ultimate turner-onner, his passion was for the noir of James Ellroy and the frenzied hard-bop of Johnny Griffin, but he was also the first journalist to go on tour with The Sex Pistols and was perfectly happy to shoot the breeze with Al Pacino with his pockets laden down with live ammo.

On the Snap is a collection of conversations with Case where he discusses some of his most memorable encounters – from Chet Baker and The Sex Pistols to Jack Nicholson to Michael Caine. All delivered in the unique vernacular of one of the great contemporary journalists, it’s a snapshot of an intoxicating and disappearing world.

As Richard Williams – his editor at Melody Maker and a long-standing admirer of his work - eulogises in his introduction:

“His writing was surprising, funny, elusive, erudite, emotionally engaged and all his subjects in this book, from Ian Dury to Norman Mailer, from Don McCullin to Tom Waits, the whole gang of motormouths and shutterbugs, junkies and pussy hounds, the witnesses to bebop and Belsen, get a fair hearing and words shaped by acute sensibility.”

On the Snap arrives this June via the publishing arm of Caught by the River – the nature/culture website that punches above its weight.

www.caughtbytheriver.net


Al Pacino

This is Alice Oswald reading a selection of poems at the nature themed Faber Social which took place in London on 2 July, 2012. it was a really special evening, definitely a highlight of the year for me. We co-curated the programme that night and also on the bill were Caught by the River contributors Robert Macfarlane and Chris Yates plus Faber authors Will Atkins and Kirsty Gunn. Faber Social happens on the first Monday of every month at The Social, 5 Little Portland Street, London W1W 7JD. we'll be teaming up with them again on 4 February, 2013 when the evening will be taking the theme of rivers. guests tbc. 
caughtbytheriver.net// faber.co.uk/accounts/newsletter/subscribe

Alice Oswald - Live at the Caught by the River / Faber Social, London, 2 July, 2012

The sonic tributary of Caught by the River.

CaughtByTheRiver

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