I Am Still The Greatest Says Johnny Angelo

Despite persistent rumours of his death fifteen years ago, Johnny Angelo's legend continues. Johnny Angelo is a rock singer, and this is his story from the beginning. As a child he is a dreamer and a solitary, a thief, a killer of birds and cats. As a man he is a god to his fans, an emperor to his cronies, a hoodlum to his enemies. Girls lie at his feet. He becomes rich. He commits murder. At the end, police shoot him down in the street. In a cool and highly original style Nik Cohn has written a bizarre fable for our time, capturing its sickness and horror yet staying true to its grandeur and allure. I Am Still The Greatest Says Johnny Angelo is Nik Cohn's hymn to rock as myth, in all its crazed, absurd and glorious excess. Partly based on the legendary rocker, P J Proby, Johnny Angelo is the pop star to end all pop stars - narcissistic, mock-heroic and massively destructive. The novel follows his progress from warped infancy to final messianic explosion. A top read, which David Bowie once claimed inspired Ziggy Stardust.

Nik Cohn was the original rock & roll writer. Arriving in London from Northern Ireland in 1964, aged 18, he covered the Swinging Sixties for The Observer, The Sunday Times, Playboy, Queen and the New York Times and he published the classic rock history Awopbopaloobop Alopbamboom in 1968. later he moved to America and wrote a short story that was filmed as Saturday Night Fever. His other books include Rock Dreams (with Guy Peellaert), Arfur Teenage Pinball Queen (which helped inspire the Who's Tommy) and Yes We Have No.