Like Foreword writer Bracko I've been in contact with 'Lederhosen Boogies' author John McVicker since the early 1990s when I started putting on gigs at Tiverton's White Ball Inn and writing for psychobilly fanzine 'Deathrow Database'. John is what people might call a character, though rarely seen at the gigs I went to, he's a 100% dedicated enthusiast and an artist himself.
John's band Popeye's Dik got a huge amount of publicity in the underground psychobilly press for one that nobody I know had ever actually seen live. They did record sporadically though the results of which were fantastically off the wall, even those tracks recorded at Alan Wilson's Western Star studio.
One last thing about John, these days emails are his chosen method of communication but back in the day you'd get letters, sometimes with photos, though less said about the contents of them the better, let's just say they were opened with some degree of trepidation.
As was this book, a book about one of the wildest live bands on a psychobilly scene written by one it's more colourful followers. What sort of literary mayhem would the reader have to wade thought go get King Kurt's story, which was no doubt a messy one but enjoyable one? And so it is. John McVicker has written an excellent, concise and hopefully factual account of the band from start to present day. It rattles along with the speed of one of King Kurt's top 40 scraping singles in an easy to read rendition of facts with meaningless hyperbole omitted. All you wanted to know about King Kurt in a feast of a read easily devoured in one sitting. The book concludes with an illustrated discography which is the cherry on the cake of a small but perfectly form publication. Having written a long list of questions for King Kurt a few years back which would have resulted in a three page feature in a national glossy magazine and receiving no reply I can only only imagine how hard it was to gather the facts contained in this hugely entertaining read, that must have been some feat.
John McVicker I salute you, Lederhosen Boogie is a must read for King Kurt fans everywhere, highly recommended.
Simon Nott
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