Description
Vinyl on Demand sent us ten copies of the book originally included in the massive 10 LP John Balance box set (which we did not get, unfortunately). These books are the extras/overstock from the box sets.
This 282 page book is the opportunity to give an overview to his early life and work, his thinking, goals and work-in-progress. It includes 30 pages of essays and memories by Nick Soulsby, Nicolas Ballet, Phil Barrington, Cultural Amnesia, Euan Craik, Alex Fergusson, Tom Craig, Adi Newton and Vittore Baroni, all dealing with all kinds of aspects of John Balance, from friendship to mail-art to music-collaborations. It also includes the complete re-publishing of his magazine Stabmental, Issues 1-7, totaling 106 pages, which he published with Tom and Euan between 1979 and 1981, an overview of rare tapes, with John’s audio and design contribution and participation, 12 pages of artwork-examples, 44 pages of extracts from early magazine-publications with interviews etc and 51 pages of letters written by John between 1979 and 1986 and that give a wonderful insight into his way of thinking. An additional 28 page booklet of letters written by John to Adi Newton between 1979-1981 is included. This is neither a coffee-table book with all kinds of photos/scans, nor another comprehensive compilation of his art, nor a diary-book as recently released. It’s a typical VOD-Book published with the goal of revealing and exposing the way he worked in those days, and how he eventually became the person that thousands of Coil fans love and idolize today, in hope that people can have some nice “aha” moment, as new information is revealed for the first time.
