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Susan Compo

Susan Compo

A surfing teen in Orange County, California, Susan Compo was betrayed by her writer’s nature when friends selected the Beach Boys’ 'In My Room' as her song. Glam and then punk rock further complicated matters, and she published a fanzine, Blank Generation, straight outta quintessentially suburban Tustin. A fleeting turn in the documentary DOA found Susan bubbling like a homecoming queen about the merits of the Sex Pistols’ Tulsa appearance.

During the 1980s and 1990s, Susan moved back and forth between LA and London, writing about music for Spin, Mojo and other magazines, as well as exploring its echoes in her fiction. She also furthered her passion for soccer - Duncan Campbell decried she "almost counts as an honorary Englishwoman as she is probably the only woman novelist in LA fully conversant with English soccer." She wrote for Match of the Day and later FourFourTwo magazine. Other pieces about various oddball subjects have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, the Independent (UK) and assorted travel and lifestyle publications.

Praise for Compo's fiction has come from Timothy Leary, Hubert Selby, Jr., Alex Cox, Henry Rollins and Pamela Des Barres but her personal favourite occurred when she read with Charles Bukowski in Long Beach, California. "I like you," he offered. "You’re a pretty girl with a dirty mind." Her books touch on the marginal line between fact and fiction. The first collection, Life After Death and Other Stories, featured a tale about a Cure fan that eventually prompted Robert Smith to fret over his fictional fate while reading the story in bed. She has taught writing - both fiction and non - at the University of Southern California and California Institute of the Arts, and is the author of WARREN OATES: A WILD LIFE (University of Kentucky). When asked if she wrote gonzo, she replied, "Never intentionally."


Books:

Life After Death and Other Stories (1990)
Malingering (1993)
Pretty Things (2001)
Warren Oates: A Wild Life (2009)

Read about 'Pretty Things'

List of articles in the library by artist

Blondie In Retrospect

Retrospective by Susan Compo, MOJO, October 1994

AS NORMAN MAILER ONCE SAID, "All blondes are natural blondes." Look it up in any book of pop quotes and you'll probably find a picture ...

Cramps, The: The Cramps: World of the Interiors

Interview by Susan Compo, MOJO, 1995

Parakeets, serial killer art and "flame-jobs" at the local boneyard. Yep, it’s the return of The Cramps. ...

Cure, The: Show and Tell: An Interview with Robert Smith

Interview by Susan Compo, Spin, November 1993

After nearly 15 years as the pope of mope, the Cure's Robert Smith longs to let his hair down, watch some soccer, and read a ...

Happy Mondays: Mondays, Bloody Mondays

Interview by Susan Compo, Siren, 1991

As the Happy Mondays prepare to release a live album to counteract/complement the Baby Big Head bootleg, what’s a girl with a book of post-punk ...

Debbie Harry, Blondie: Blondie: Plastic Letters, Autoamerican, The Hunter Deborah Harry: Koo Koo, Rockbird, Def Dumb And Blonde

Review by Susan Compo, MOJO, October 1994

AS NORMAN MAILER ONCE SAID, "ALL blondes are natural blondes." Look it up in any book of pop quotes and you'll probably find a picture ...

Rowland S. Howard, Lydia Lunch: To Thrill A Mockingbird: Lydia Lunch and Rowland Howard

Interview by Susan Compo, Siren, 1992

Lydia Lunch, currently doing the rounds with a collaborative Rowland S. Howard, is really in action Stateside, standing in opposition to the Ku Klux Klan. ...

Pale Saints: The Choir Invisible: Bringing Pale Saints into Focus

Interview by Susan Compo, Option, Fall 1992

THE PALEST SAINT, not unlike the prettiest star, has to be Saint Gerard Majella, an 18th Century Italian anchorite who, before his death at age ...

Sex Pistols, The: Sex Pistols: Few Waves Made During Tour Of U.S.

Report by Susan Compo, Santa Ana Register, January 1978

IT'S NOT SURPRISING that Britain's punk rockers, the Sex Pistols, found San Francisco "boring". The city that was to be the last stop on the ...

Sex Pistols, The: The Sex Pistols Shoot To The Top

Report by Susan Compo, Santa Ana Register, June 1978

WHEN 'GOD SAVE THE QUEEN', a song by British punk-rockers the Sex Pistols, hit the top of the English charts several months ago, it was ...

Siouxsie & The Banshees: The Rapture

Review by Susan Compo, MOJO, February 1995

A FEW SPEED BUMPS DOWN THE TIMELINE OF rock, past the new wave of new wave and the return of baggy, and it seems the ...

Undertones, The: The Undertones reissues

Review by Susan Compo, MOJO, July 1994

The Undertones/Hypnotised/Positive Touch/The Sin Of Pride /The Peel Sessions Album ...

Utah Saints: Circa Now! Latter Day Techno Kids, Utah Saints

Report and Interview by Susan Compo, Option, Fall 1993

FOR A COUPLE of English guys, choosing the state of Utah as the basis for their band’s name probably had as much exotic cachet as ...

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