D E C E M B E R   2 0 1 0

• • • Don Van Vliet, 1941–2010

Always one of the gods in the Savoy firmament. Don Van Vliet may have died but Captain Beefheart lives on.

S E P T E M B E R   2 0 1 0

• • • Into the Media Web sells out

Would-be purchasers of the massive Michael Moorcock volume Into the Media Web should know that this book has now sold out. We're naturally pleased by this even though it's an undoubted disappointment to Moorcock enthusiasts. Owing to the demand there's talk of a paperback version although nothing has been finalised yet; any developments will be announced here. Meanwhile, Michael Moorcock's Doctor Who novel, The Coming of the Terraphiles, has been picking up good reviews. Savoy aficionados may be interested to hear that among the book's numerous cultural references one may find the dread words "Meng and Ecker."

S E P T E M B E R   2 0 1 0

• • • News for purchasers of Baptised in the Blood of Millions

If you're a recent purchaser of David Britton's Lord Horror novel, Baptised in the Blood of Millions, we'd recommend that you check the back pages of your edition to see whether the tip-in plates (featuring biographical data about the characters in the book) have been included. It's become apparent that a distribution error has led to a number of copies escaping into the system without these pages. The volumes in question will be those ordered via Jayde Design; any copies ordered directly from Savoy Books should be complete.

If you've been affected by this oversight please contact Jayde Design so they can forward the missing plates.

J U L Y   2 0 1 0

• • • Michael Moorcock goes Into the Media Web

Announced in these page as appearing in 2008, our Brobdingnagian edition of Michael Moorcock’s non-fiction—five years in the making—was promptly caught up in the financial recession, leading to fears that the book would be postponed until at least 2012. The Pirates of the Second Aether have been kind, however, and this long-awaited collection, the culmination of the combined endeavours of Savoy and editor John Davey, has now at last been published.

Look up the word 'author' in a dictionary and you'll find a photograph of Michael Moorcock. A reluctant archetype he spans the fertile wilderness of English writing, real and living literature not to be found amidst the well-manicured parklands of the prizewinners and pundits; too tall for the shortlist. This is a web we can plunge into with complete abandon. Michael Moorcock isn't going to steal our souls or eat us, but instead serve up a varied banquet of delights for us to pick at over a few weeks or wolf down in a single sitting. This book is a radiant and comprehensive study of one of the most important figures of our time, in all his marvellous complexity.

Alan Moore in his foreword to Into the Media Web

Alan’s words remind us, really, of why we started out in publishing. Savoy’s first titles were resolutely Moorcockian, and his works and influences have run like a backbone through everything we've done since. Michael Moorcock is one of the greatest writers of our time and this book is an authoritative confirmation of that fact.

Michael Moorcock:
Into The Media Web – Selected Short Non-Fiction, 1956–2006

Foreword by Alan Moore
Edited by John Davey
Design by John Coulthart

Publication: 2nd August 2010
ISBN: ISBN 978-0-86130-120-1
RRP: £48
Format: Hardback
Dimensions: 255 x 185mm
Pages: 720

M A Y   2 0 1 0

• • • Engelbrecht lives to fight another day

"The Exploits of Engelbrecht is English surrealism at its greatest. Witty and fantastical, Maurice Richardson was light years ahead of his time. Unmissable." JG Ballard

The Dwarf Surrealist Boxer returns for a further bout of phenomenological pugilism in a new edition of Maurice Richardson's comic masterpiece. For many years a rare book, praised by Michael Moorcock (who provided the afterword for this edition) and JG Ballard (who provided a blurb), The Exploits of Engelbrecht makes Savoy history by being the first book the company has reprinted after the 2000 edition quickly sold out its run. This tenth anniversary edition has been redesigned by John Coulthart and features new illustrations by Kris Guidio to accompany those by the original illustrators of Richardson's stories, James Boswell, Ronald Searle and Gerard Hoffnung. With an introduction by James Cawthorn, this is a definitive edition.

• Read the first chaper (PDF)

"Far more obscure, but for my money the best book of the year, is The Exploits of Engelbrecht by Maurice Richardson. Richardson, who died in 1978, was one of the old school of hacks; he later became a stalwart infester of the Colony Rooms and the sordid pubs round Soho that teemed with pissed-up talent in the 1940s and 1950s. The Exploits of Engelbrecht, the dwarf surrealist boxer, and his adventures shooting witches, boxing grandfather clocks, playing football on Mars and games of surrealist golf which last for infinity, originally appeared in Lilliput when it was at its post-war zenith. The stories were illustrated by, among others, Searle and Hoffnung. Ah, God, those were the days." Martin Rowson, The Independent on Sunday

F E B R U A R Y   2 0 1 0

• • • Savoy at Ballardian: 2

Back cover of Savoy's 'Love Will Tear Us Apart' 7" showing P J Proby and Peter Hook at Suite 16, Rochdale circa 1984.

The second in the three-part Savoy feature currently running on Ballardian, the leading JG Ballard website, has now been posted. In a long interview Ballardian's Simon Sellars and Savoy's David Britton discuss the creation of Savoy Records, the philosophy behind Savoy’s music, the link between maverick pulp and rock’n’roll (from the Cramps to Michael Moorock!), how the meetings between Savoy and PJ Proby resulted in a series of records that conjured beguiling loon-a-tickery, how New Worlds is the literary equivalent of the Beatles and how twenty-five years after Savoy’s first stab at New Order’s ‘Blue Monday’ the song was cut again, this time by cult film star Fenella Fielding.

Brompton Street, Oldham, circa 1986. Home of Lord Haw-Haw in the 1920s.

Also discussed are Lord Horror's antecedent, Lord Haw-Haw, Britton’s personal thoughts about Ballard and the influence of Ballard on Savoy, the impact Dr Christopher Evans had upon Crash and how this relates to Lord Horror; how racism, cold and hard, is the new rock’n’roll!

David Britton.

• • • M John Harrison Wins Savoy/Ballardian Microfiction Competition!

Ballardian's hotly-contested fiction competition received over 40 entries and the results have now also been announced on the site. Judges Simon Sellars, Michael Butterworth and John Coulthart found M John Harrison to be the clear winner. Harrison receives copies of Lord Horror (the novel), the rare The Truth About Horror and A Tea Dance at Savoy.

In second place China Miéville wins copies of A Serious Life and Sieg Heil Iconographers.

In third place Martin Amis wins copies of the Savoy Wars and The Waste Land CDs, and also the Fuck Off and Die comic book. The judges overlooked Amis's current renown as screenwriter of Saturn 3 and author of Invasion of the Space Invaders, preferring to regard his entry as confirmation of a notable amateur status.

See Ballardian for more details of this fabulous competition, the winning entries and the runners-up!