The One and Only: Peter Perrett, Homme Fatale

Rating:
Summary: One hit wonder (but what a hit!)
Review: Back in the late-70s, the punk explosion spawned a ton of great singles, but perhaps the best one belonged to Peter Perrett's Only Ones with "Another Girl, Another Planet." A sweeping guitar intro snaked around Perrett's Lou Reed-in-outer-space vocals, and a true classic was born. Even The Replacements found a place for this tune in their sets towards the end of their career.

Since those heady days, however, Perrett has been one of rock's least-celebrated casualties. Virtually unknown in the U.S. and pretty much forgotten in his home country, Perrett has spent the past twenty-odd years in a drug-induced haze, although there does seem to be times when he's gotten it together enough to write and play, most notably from 1994-'96 with The One. Since then, it's been pretty quiet on his end, with one of his sons periodically updating the family web site with news of his dad's latest ventures (as well as pretty depressing info on the state of the Perrett family finances...).

As with her past bios of the Dolls and Johnny Thunders, Nina Antonia has once again done a bang-up job of relating the horrors of a rock 'n' roll life reduced to drugged-out drudgery. Perrett comes across as a severly depressed, yet childlike, individual, a man who's been so pampered throughout his life, that he whines if his toast isn't buttered in a certain way. Indeed, Perrett has lived a rock 'n' roll life without ever actually became a full-fledged rock star.

Like her Thunders bio, Antonia makes a convincing case for Perrett's place in rock history, as well as making one aware that this guy was one messed-up and truly wasted talent. Here's hoping that some enterprising movie-maker can find a place for "Another Girl..." in a summer blockbuster or even a car commercial - it's a true classic that deserves to be heard by all. And if that puts a few pounds in the pocket of its' creator, then more's the better.

Rating:
Summary: The Immortal Story
Review: Back in the late-70s, the punk explosion spawned a ton of great singles, but perhaps the best one belonged to Peter Perrett's Only Ones with "Another Girl, Another Planet." A sweeping guitar intro snaked around Perrett's Lou Reed-in-outer-space vocals, and a true classic was born. Even The Replacements found a place for this tune in their sets towards the end of their career.

Since those heady days, however, Perrett has been one of rock's least-celebrated casualties. Virtually unknown in the U.S. and pretty much forgotten in his home country, Perrett has spent the past twenty-odd years in a drug-induced haze, although there does seem to be times when he's gotten it together enough to write and play, most notably from 1994-'96 with The One. Since then, it's been pretty quiet on his end, with one of his sons periodically updating the family web site with news of his dad's latest ventures (as well as pretty depressing info on the state of the Perrett family finances...).

As with her past bios of the Dolls and Johnny Thunders, Nina Antonia has once again done a bang-up job of relating the horrors of a rock 'n' roll life reduced to drugged-out drudgery. Perrett comes across as a severly depressed, yet childlike, individual, a man who's been so pampered throughout his life, that he whines if his toast isn't buttered in a certain way. Indeed, Perrett has lived a rock 'n' roll life without ever actually became a full-fledged rock star.

Like her Thunders bio, Antonia makes a convincing case for Perrett's place in rock history, as well as making one aware that this guy was one messed-up and truly wasted talent. Here's hoping that some enterprising movie-maker can find a place for "Another Girl..." in a summer blockbuster or even a car commercial - it's a true classic that deserves to be heard by all. And if that puts a few pounds in the pocket of its' creator, then more's the better.

Rating:
Summary: The Immortal Story
Review: If you've taken the time to seek this book out, I don't need to waste my breath telling you how great The Only Ones were. If you blinked in the late 70's, you missed them. I heard them for the first time on tour in the mid-90's and knew nothing about them. Aside from the lyrics and a few liner notes, all I knew about Peter Perrett was that he dropped out of sight. I didn't have to read to deeply between the lines to figure out the guy had a major heroin habit. Around the time of my initial interest, WOKE UP STICKY came out and it sounded like the past 18 years never happened. He seemed to pick up right where he left off, totally unphazed by a decade and a half of ever changing musical fads and trends. Though loathe to read books of this nature, my curiousity got the best of me.

I have to say the squalid details are here for you to peruse. The facts are none too far from the world Perrett's depicted in his lyrics. But what Nina Antonia does, is give you a candid portrait behind all the lurid rumors. The whole story for better or worse. From the decadant hopeful to the years of doped out anonymity. Like any good photographer, she hits all possible angles: The whining brat, the soulful artist, the scrutinizing drug dealer, the doting father. What she doesn't do is judge her subject, or offer any 2-bit psychoanalysis. Nor does she morbidly romanticize the more sordid aspects of her "homme fatale".

Needless to say, I didn't walk away with another sad luck story about wasted talent. It's there on his albums for all to hear. Though the facts behind it all seem less enigmatic, the man behind it all remains ever more so. In short, this biography takes no prisoners and makes no apologies.

Rating:
Summary: In My Basement Room With A Needle And A Spoon...
Review: Mix in equal parts Syd Barrett, Julian Cope, and Johnny Thunders and what you're left with is ex-Only One Peter Perrett, another one of the "fatally famous" (read "misguided, yet talented, lacking-in-common-sense doofus who threw it all away to chase the dragon") Nina Antonia seems to be building a career on, whose "Special View" album remains one of this scribe's all-timers (gotta upgrade it to CD, though!).

The Only Ones are, of course, best remembered for their only "hit," 1978's "Another Girl, Another Planet," on the back of which the band strove to rise above the London punk ragtag rabble in which they plied their craft. By 1981, it was all over, with Perrett coming out of a nod long enough to briefly consider going it alone. Truncated as their brief moment in the spotlight was, it's no real surprise that morbid curiosity is the real attraction of "The One And Only: Peter Perrett - Homme Fatale," like rubbernecking a freeway smash-up, looking for body parts. Call it fate, but Perrett forged a friendship with Thunders, inevitably based as much on drugs as it was on music, when the Heartbreakers first travelled to England to join Malcolm McLaren's ill-fated Anarchy tour. Ex-Dolls Thunders and Jerry Nolan have historically taken the heat for introducing London punters to heroin (easy targets, eh?) but as far as I know, they never had to put a gun to anyone's head. To Perrett's credit, he admits to dabbling in the drug long before meeting Thunders.

Aside from a few inspired moments early on, Perrett seemed content with drifting through life minus any personal or professional agenda other than selling and ingesting dope with long-suffering wife Zena, getting busted several times along the way but through plain, dumb luck avoiding any incarceration. Keith Richards was keen on producing the band but the only real highlight of his time in the studio with them was a coke-hoovering duel between he and Perrett with the outcome lost in the ether somewhere. The nadir of Perrett's season in Hell was spending most of the 80's in a bedroom he rarely left, heroin his only companion, physically deteriorating into a scuzzy, unkempt mess, sinking so low that Thunders himself felt obligated to give him a pep talk (imagine!). Finally, on the cusp of the 90's, due to some rather vaguely explained combination of drugs, detox, love, and poverty, Perrett started to snap out of it, deciding maybe music still meant something to him. Since then, his attempts to gig and record again, with a new group christened The One, have been patchy at best. Strangely, Antonia's epilogue doesn't go far in convincing anyone that this fragile soul is still straight. Stranger yet, perhaps unconfident of her talent as a writer, Antonia is training to be a drug counselor. Go figure...

Rating:
Summary: In My Basement Room With A Needle And A Spoon...
Review: Mix in equal parts Syd Barrett, Julian Cope, and Johnny Thunders and what you're left with is ex-Only One Peter Perrett, another one of the "fatally famous" (read "misguided, yet talented, lacking-in-common-sense doofus who threw it all away to chase the dragon") Nina Antonia seems to be building a career on, whose "Special View" album remains one of this scribe's all-timers (gotta upgrade it to CD, though!).

The Only Ones are, of course, best remembered for their only "hit," 1978's "Another Girl, Another Planet," on the back of which the band strove to rise above the London punk ragtag rabble in which they plied their craft. By 1981, it was all over, with Perrett coming out of a nod long enough to briefly consider going it alone. Truncated as their brief moment in the spotlight was, it's no real surprise that morbid curiosity is the real attraction of "The One And Only: Peter Perrett - Homme Fatale," like rubbernecking a freeway smash-up, looking for body parts. Call it fate, but Perrett forged a friendship with Thunders, inevitably based as much on drugs as it was on music, when the Heartbreakers first travelled to England to join Malcolm McLaren's ill-fated Anarchy tour. Ex-Dolls Thunders and Jerry Nolan have historically taken the heat for introducing London punters to heroin (easy targets, eh?) but as far as I know, they never had to put a gun to anyone's head. To Perrett's credit, he admits to dabbling in the drug long before meeting Thunders.

Aside from a few inspired moments early on, Perrett seemed content with drifting through life minus any personal or professional agenda other than selling and ingesting dope with long-suffering wife Zena, getting busted several times along the way but through plain, dumb luck avoiding any incarceration. Keith Richards was keen on producing the band but the only real highlight of his time in the studio with them was a coke-hoovering duel between he and Perrett with the outcome lost in the ether somewhere. The nadir of Perrett's season in Hell was spending most of the 80's in a bedroom he rarely left, heroin his only companion, physically deteriorating into a scuzzy, unkempt mess, sinking so low that Thunders himself felt obligated to give him a pep talk (imagine!). Finally, on the cusp of the 90's, due to some rather vaguely explained combination of drugs, detox, love, and poverty, Perrett started to snap out of it, deciding maybe music still meant something to him. Since then, his attempts to gig and record again, with a new group christened The One, have been patchy at best. Strangely, Antonia's epilogue doesn't go far in convincing anyone that this fragile soul is still straight. Stranger yet, perhaps unconfident of her talent as a writer, Antonia is training to be a drug counselor. Go figure...