Description

Black Vinyl by Doug Devaney

“Jimmy Endicott was murdered.”Maxwell Reid was part of something big once. At least for a little while. As bass player for post-punk darlings La Plage, he toured the world with their wondrous hit single (and single hit) Kreuzberg Wiedersehen.Great days. So he keeps getting told.Forty years on – and now a part-time lecturer, part-time Northern Soul DJ – Max investigates the death of his old lead singer, Jimmy Endicott. Set on a journey that brings him face to face with bitter ex-bandmates, post pandemic cults, corrupt council employees, conspiracy theorists and a messianic club owner – all the while helped (or hindered) by Debs Endicott, volatile adult daughter of the deceased – Max discovers that the secret behind Jimmy’s death lies in a past he has mostly managed to forget.Until now.Told over 45 tracks, and divided into Side A and Side B, “Black Vinyl” is part mystery, part alternative history, part fractured memorial to the ghosts of the 80s music scene, all played out as though on a scratched record that keeps skipping back to the same haunting refrain:“Jimmy Endicott was murdered.”