Fifty years ago, the Ramones revolutionized the music industry when they gave the world punk rock, and even though they disbanded in 1996, their influence will live forever.
In 1999, Nick Cooper, a Belgian musician met Marky Ramone, the long-standing drummer of the Bruddahs from Queens. Together, they decided to start a band named Marky Ramone & The SpeedKings, and for three years, they toured Europe, Japan, and the US and recorded and released a live record and two albums.
'I “Heartbreak" The Ramones' is Nick Cooper's unfiltered tale of those intense and electrifying years on the road. It explores the highs and lows, the ego clashes, the constant battle between passion for music and business in the entertainment industry, and the disintegrating friendship between a true believer and his idol.
Nick's story is blunt, humorous, and always grounded in reality. His book pulls back the curtain on life with a Ramone but never seeks to settle scores, and makes the reader feel like they’re part of the road crew on a warts and all tour documentary movie.
Never false nor vindictive, rock 'n' roll fans will be captivated by the candid behind-the-scenes disclosures that fill the pages of 'I “Heartbreak” The Ramones' and the book also includes hundreds of previously unpublished photographs, that pay tribute to the nightmare journey a couple of nobody musicians undertook with a renowned punk rock legend.
Twenty years after the fact, Nick realized he had to share the story of his lifelong dream of becoming a rock'n'roll star that had driven him since childhood, that joining The SpeedKings allowed him to taste, as he indulged and reveled in the live fast, everything turned up to eleven world of sex, drugs, and punk rock that he’d always fantasized about.
While it doesn’t cater to the sugar-coated soft shoe whimsy that the mainstream pop industry force feeds the masses, 'I “Heartbreak” The Ramones' will resonate with musicians who never left the rehearsal room, speak volumes to those who harboured aspirations of making it big but always fell short and serves as an all too real reminder that it’s a long way to the top if you wanna rock’n’roll. Join Nick on the road to ruin, as he travels down the highway to Hell and eventually realises that some dreams should never come true.
Listen to your heart and order 'I “Heartbreak” The Ramones' now.
478 pages. Paperback.
Release date June 1, 2024
Cooperation between Hunt And Peck Publishing (BE) and Earth Island Books (UK).