MICK MERCER is the global authority on Goth music. One of the first British punks, he published Panache, later edited Zig Zag, and contributed extensively to Record Mirror, the NME, and Melody Maker. www.mickmercer.com

"Oh, you're Mercer," said the new teacher to the bored pupil.

Raised close enough to the end of a Heathrow Airport runway to be eternally intrigued by Adventure, Mick Mercer was born in the 1950's and swiftly grew to hate the 1960's. A solitary child, Mick spent as much time as possible outdoors with a very select band of friends (all long since forgotten).

He has maintained this detachment.

Finding himself strung between writing and photography but barely able to summon the enthusiasm to interview bands because the chances were they'd start talking, Mick started the now-legendary fanzine Panache.

He interviewed Ultravox, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Adam Ant, Penetration, Chelsea, Gloria Mundi, Eddie Tenpole, Carpettes, The Adverts, Toyah, Photos, Dancing Did, UK Decay, Sex Gang, and others.

He also liked to wear white socks with black shoes.

Mick's confidence blossomed in the 1970's. From school to a fanzine empire and freelance writing, he was now ready to be exploited by crooks and tossers.

Throughout the 1980's and 1990's it can be said he did nothing much other than watch the world whirl around. Mired in music paper lore and dismissing the opinions of all around him, it was in those decades that he learned the nature of Creative Obsession. (It eats relationships.)

Averaging one night a week indoors over a decade, he learned many things and also downed much beer.

There was no mid-life crisis.

Mick's move to sleepy Nowhereville-By-Sea in the late 1990's gave him pause for thought.

Somewhere along this journey, he designed CD covers, DJed, promoted gigs, helped bands get publishing and record deals, burrowed deep into the belly of the beast by doing A&R work for major labels, edited several music magazines, worked for a plethora of titles, and wrote four books about Goth, unintentionally becoming the global underground scene's ultimate historian in the process.

Mick has been followed, shot at, run over, loved, liked, loathed and ignored, and hasn't much cared about any of it.

He has watched publishers fold without paying him and retained no faith in life until recently, when he discovered that he was alive, alert, in love again, and releasing twenty CD books in the space of eighteen months.

Now, how did that happen?

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(for more info, click authors/books links below)

· MICK'S BOOK WILL BE AVAILABLE SOON
- Rebel Without Applause