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A deep dive into the subcultures of Los Angeles and London in the 1980s as glam turned to punk and goth.
Susan Compo captures the lives of aspiring musicians, scenesters, and obsessive fans—lives in which reality is a constant threat to cherished illusions, and death, while never far away, is sometimes not the end of the story.
Cathi Unsworth calls Life After Death “a dazzling time capsule that, once re-opened, brings back in vivid and lurid detail a counter-cultural moment that spanned cities and continents, uniting lost souls under layers of black hair dye, bleach, mascara, torn fishnets and smeared lipstick at the altar of doomed punk icons and screen goddesses . . . This cast of outsider poets, prophets, and punkers do not seem like figments of Susan Compo’s vivid imagination but very real manifestations of the rebel spirits who burned Punk’s trail from London to LA in the years between Glam and Goth.”
“Susan Compo peels back the gloss to expose the seamy, nutty rock ’n’ roll underbelly. I’ve met people like this backstage at the Whisky A Go Go.” -- Pamela Des Barres
“A weird and wonderful trip into the post-punk sub-culture, written in precise, witty, unflinching prose.” -- Publishers Weekly
“A good, fast-paced read . . . Good insight into men. Susan’s done her time.” -- Henry Rollins