This Band Has No Past - How Cheap Trick Became Cheap Trick - Brian J Kramp

Instead of a career spanning book, Brian J Kramp’s This Band Has No Past - How Cheap Trick Became Cheap Trick is a fascinating, extremely in-depth look at Cheap Trick from the mid to late Sixties, as the members made their way through many other pre-CT bands, to late 1978 and the explosion of Cheap Trick At Budokan.  Kamp had over eighty interviews with members of early bands and other bands, producers, managers, club owners, friends and original drummer Bun E Carlos (the only band member to participate), and along with quotes from newspapers and magazines, you get stories of their earlier bands like Grim Reapers, Bol Weevils, Paegans, Sick Man Of Europe and Fuse.  There are also detailed accounts of their gigs at all types of venues, big and small, their insane determination to make it, and the buzz that built and built around these lives shows all across the country, way before they even had a contract.  Kramp also gives an extensive glimpse behind the checkerboard, the logo, their clothes and their personas.  He also does a great job of interspersing cultural touchstones to give a better understanding of what else was going on at the time.  The book does delve into the first three albums, released in rapid succession from February 1977 to April 1978, and their frustrating lack of success, before closing just as the band releases Cheap Trick At Budokan, which was initially intended to be Japanese only until it was released in the States due to overwhelming demand.  Also included are a lot of photos of the band and memorabilia from those early days.  While it would have been nice to have the input of the other members of the band and the minutiae of details has the potential to become boring, Kamp does an outstanding job of not letting that happen here.  This Band Has No Past is a very entertaining and insightful read and well worth checking out.  

(Jawbone Press)