(CUTS TRACKS & BRUISES // 59-77-03)

1959

Born: Wiltshire, amid the shadows of strange neolithic statuary.

1960-69
Scotland, Middle East, Africa, Beirut, Cyprus.

1970-78
Norfolk
(‘Anti-climax? Wherever did you get that, herr Professor...’)

EARLY PIVOTs
Roy Orbison
The Crazy World of Arthur Brown
Jimi Hendrix esp ‘Voodoo Chile’
Roxy Music
Little Feat
Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Bootsy et al
Augustus Pablo, Big Youth, Culture, et al

circa mid-1970s
First published: RAF base ‘free paper’. A ‘Summer 45s’ round-up, inc. Millie Jackson, Swamp Dogg, The Jimmy Castor Bunch & vrs. impossibly obscure Deep Soul import 7"s. No copies extant. Not recommissioned.

circa 1976-77
Threatened with expulsion from Grammar School for thoughtless graffito. Literally thoughtless: the oxymoronic ‘ANARCHY RULES’. Also, for endangering prospects of two bigger ‘brighter’ boys: marooning them overnight on Liverpool St station the night before life-determining exams. Well, it was a LITTLE FEAT concert. How cool is that for your first gig and a lifetime memory which most Mojo writers would kill for?

IP breezes "A" in Art a-level ‘Representation of a Doo-wop trio, after Juan Gris’ and is due to attend Art School; deeply suspicious of Conceptual Art then prevalent, takes ‘year out’, working part time (and wholly Pro Plus) in a precinct jewellry store while hitch-hiking round country to Northern Soul nites and Punk gigs. Passed over in NME’s infamous ‘Hip Young Gunslinger’ round-up after submitting breathlessly laudatory review of Van Morrison’s wondrous (but achingly un-Hip) Veedon Fleece. Persistence is all: submits Live reviews of, inter alia, Blondie/Television, Heatwave, Tapper Zukie and Wire. Taken on as NME’s Norfolk stringer - like, right, Norfolk: WHERE THE HOT PUNK ACTION IS.

Autumn 1977
First NME review published: Only Ones/Stranglers, Cambridge Corn Exchange. (In hindsight: how odd that IP’s baptismal words should hymn the fey, drug-blitzed, overly literate & Romantic-dysfunctional Peter Perrett.)

August 1978
Transplants to London permanently on 19th birthday.
Same night:... Annette Peacock at the Lyceum, promoting X-Dreams. Sigh.

1978-82; 1983-1985: NME
Gets a kiss from Grace Jones.
Gets drunk with Paul Schrader.
Gets a kiss from Pat Phoenix.
Gets VERY VERY drunk with Nicolas Roeg.

Spring 1985
"The Roeg text was a demented cut-up of quotation, a dialectically unbalanced construction that refused to deliver comfortable Poalroids of its subject. It was, in itself, an artwork. A portrait in the form of a resignation note. The editors agreed, published half the piece and sent Penman his P45." Sinclair

Undated apocrypha
At pre-publication editorial meeting for the nascent Q, in which house style is set, the work of Penman-Morley is held up as everything Q is definitively NOT to be. A visibly choked Penman later tells Martin Bashir this is the proudest moment of his life.

1982-[present?]
"He was rumoured to be working on a magnum opus (he started the rumour), a book of essays on Billie Holiday and the blues." Sinclair

1983
Infamous CUTS TRACKS & BRUISES outline is rejected by Routledge Kegan Paul. Since when this (far-ranging, visionary, deeply flawed, etc) text has circulated in samizdat form across a series of computers owned by its author.

1985-86
Any takers? All/any info please contact IP at address below.

1986
Freelance work for:
The Face, Arena, Tatler, Times, Sunday Times, Independent, Sunday Correspondent, New Statesman. REpublished: Japan, America, Germany.

mid-late 80s
3rd best interview of all time: Charlotte Rampling, Arena.
7th best night out of all time: in Paris, w/ Nick Kent, to see Happy Mondays.

late 80s
Powerful 80s uber-agent nearly succeeds in bringing together IP and BRYAN FERRY for "official biography" made in some twisted Touch of Evil type hell. 1980s come and go with no sign of any such book. Phew.

early 90s
Resumes music writing for The Wire under inspired/deluded editorship of Mark Sinker.

early 90s
IP/Chris Petit submit proposal to BBC for (far ranging, visionary, deeply flawed, etc) music documentary series, working title REMIX CULTURE. 90s come and go with no sign of any such non-performance non-biography based music documentary. Phew... say Q, Mojo, Jools Holland et al.

Returns in earnest to music writing at The Wire [vrs harassed editors, passim].
Freelance work: Guardian, Harpers & Queen, Sight & Sound, Esquire, GQ, Dazed & Confused, Modern Review, Ikon.

1996
2nd proudest moment of life: Out-cools a visibly shaken Lou Reed, one-upping him with knowledge & possession of rare Icepick Slim spoken word CD.

1998
Publication of IP compilation: Vital Signs (Serpent's Tail). Reviews 98% positive -

"... whenever he sounds like any other rock critic, you must remind yourself that this stylist’s been tapping away since the early '80s. So it’s all his fault; but what separates him from his mimics at Time Out, or the publicists who call him the ‘coolest cultural critic on the planet’, is that he doesn’t just sound hard, he thinks hard."
Tom Payne, Observer

" Full of contradictions and witty one-liners, Penman uses language as an art form, playing with puns, synonyms, repetition, and punctuation for added effect. [...] Two decades of politics, music and pop culture with a whip-smart wit and wisdom that draws you in and doesn’t let go."
Julia Kenna, Rolling Stone

"Penman explores this post-publicity, post-exploitation ghost world better than anybody ... an exercise in time travel, a posthumous confession."
Iain Sinclair, London Review of Books

... etc; except for lukewarm reviews in The Daily Telegraph and ... The Wire.

1998
Nicest interviewee of all time aw gee shucks you don’t have to sign and give me that Bob really you don’t aw ...: Robert Frank.

2000
Wire article on ‘microphonics’ leads to invitation to lecture at Cinesonic conference, Melbourne. Original (far ranging, visionary, deeply flawed, etc) conceptual presentation abandoned when stereo speakers imprinted with the faces of Martin Heidegger and Marcus Garvey prove unavailable.

2000-2002
Lead reviewer, UNCUT; until contretemps involving insufficiently ass-kissy (but far ranging, visionary, etc) Elvis Costello review.

2003
Uncut wins Best Consumer Magazine award. Go figure.

hEXcerpts

‘The Shattered Glass’ in
Zoot Suits & Second Hand Dresses ed. Angela McRobbie [MacMillan 1989]

"Garvey’s Ghost > K L A N G! < Heidegger’s Geist" in:
Cinesonic 3 ed. Philip Brophy [AFTRS 2000]

‘ON THE MIC: How Amplification Changed The Voice for Good’ in: Undercurrents: The Hidden Wiring of Modern Music [WIRE/Continuum 2002]

paperCUTS
Vital Signs [Serpents Tail 1998]