{"id":80910,"date":"2018-05-31T10:06:08","date_gmt":"2018-05-30T23:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.booktopia.com.au\/?p=80910"},"modified":"2018-05-31T10:06:08","modified_gmt":"2018-05-30T23:06:08","slug":"runnin-with-the-devil-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/2018\/05\/31\/runnin-with-the-devil-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Staff review: Runnin’ With The Devil"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Runnin'<\/a>Runnin’ With The Devil<\/strong>
\nby Noel E. Monk<\/strong>
\nReview by That Metal Man<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

What a fantastic title for a book, and given it\u2019s a “Van Halen book”, it\u2019s the only title for it, right? Band biographies and rock star tell-alls are a dime a dozen. I\u2019ve read all the Megadeth and KISS member bios, each tragically ‘funny’ in their own way. Some are true to their promise to reveal-all, if not slightly – even elaborately – embellished (Ace Frehley of KISS fame), others sluggish and laborious (Bruce Dickinson, I\u2019m looking at you).<\/p>\n

Runnin’ With The Devil<\/span><\/i><\/a>, my hard rock friends, is a tell-all on a grand scale, all thanks to Van Halen\u2019s former manager, Noel Monk and his close proximity to the band from day one, to the days leading up to David Lee Roth walking away in the mid 80s\u2019; the \u2018classic\u2019 and formative period of Van Halen. Noel Monk became the band\u2019s confidant, mopping up their mess on the road, and during which time guiding them from unknowns to household names. Monk is the man!<\/span><\/p>\n

The difference in this book is simple. As Van Halen\u2019s manager from 1979 – 1985, Noel Monk saw it all, from his first meeting with Van Halen in the late seventies when, as a road manager for Warner Bros., Monk had just finished duties with the Sex Pistols and their infamous North American tour. Monk was asked to go on the road with a young Van Halen band who were about to release their debut self-titled album, an album that went on to sell more than 10 million copies. Monk\u2019s life became Van Halen, his dedication obvious from the early pages of the book.<\/span><\/p>\n

I tore through <\/span>Runnin’ With The Devil<\/span><\/i> in a day. The stories are tragic. There\u2019s more booze and drugs in this book than can be found in most rock bios. Pipped only by Dave Mustaine\u2019s <\/span>A Life In Metal<\/span><\/i><\/a> (my benchmark for rock star bios).<\/span><\/p>\n

Runnin’ With The Devil<\/span><\/i> begins with Monk describing his life on the road as a tour manager for Warner Bros., with a brief chunk describing the Sex Pistols\u2019 tour. This establishes Monk\u2019s road cred. You know from this that Monk is a capable, dedicated guy. No shrinking violet; no push over. Fast forward a few months and Monk is describing a young, wet behind the ears Van Halen on their first ever tour as support act for Journey. The rocket ride from there seems relentless. Touring, touring and more touring; 3 week recording sessions for follow up albums; more touring; more albums; repeat. Tours begin to merge into one another, the stories almost the same except for a common theme: the band\u2019s descent into drug and alcohol-fuelled oblivion. Delusion, comas, mayhem and exhaustion drive even more unbelievable stories, each becoming more extraordinary as pages turn. By the end of the book I was shaking my head in disbelief.<\/span><\/p>\n

Have you heard about the Paternity insurance from Lloyds of London that David Lee Roth is rumoured to have taken out? You\u2019ll finally get the truth from Noel Monk.<\/span><\/p>\n

I love Noel Monk\u2019s honesty. The guy comes across as a decent human, doing all he could to hold the band together, to bring deals through the door and to help shoot the young men from Pasadena into rockstar stardom (which Monk does well over the years). Seismic proportions is the best way to describe the stories in Runnin’ With The Devil<\/em>. The stories are messy. They\u2019re incredibly sad. Stories about Eddie Van Halen\u2019s behaviour are child-like. Wait until you read the meeting between Eddie and Noel Monk to discuss a Paternity claim against the star guitarist. You can\u2019t make this stuff up. But you get the strong impression that Monk is not a man to add icing. Hotel rooms trashed, groupies enjoyed, drugs devoured by the truck load. It\u2019s amazing that Van Halen managed to achieve anything at all. Noel Monk seemed to hold it all together. Author and journalist Joe Laydon brings the stories to life.<\/span><\/p>\n

The book is fun, the stories tragic and often bordering on the ridiculous. A nice side effect is that I enjoyed revisiting the Van Halen albums in order until <\/span>1984<\/span><\/i>, one by one, as I flicked through pages. That was cool. Nice to put perspective into the music, knowing the mayhem unfolding behind the scenes.<\/span><\/p>\n

Honestly, folks, you won\u2019t buy a better rock-stardom tell-all. The end is tragic, the journey loud and full of booze. Spandex, wailing guitar solos and, Rock’n’Roll, Baby!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Runnin’ With The Devil by Noel E. Monk Review by That Metal Man What a fantastic title for a book, and given it\u2019s a “Van Halen book”, it\u2019s the only title for it, right? Band biographies and rock star tell-alls are a dime a dozen. I\u2019ve read all the Megadeth and KISS member bios, each tragically ‘funny’ in their own way. Some are true to their promise to reveal-all, if not slightly – even elaborately – embellished (Ace Frehley of KISS fame), others sluggish and laborious (Bruce Dickinson, I\u2019m looking at you). Runnin’ With The Devil, my hard rock friends, is a tell-all on a grand scale, all thanks to Van Halen\u2019s former manager, Noel Monk and his close proximity to the band from day one, to the days leading up to David Lee Roth walking away in the mid 80s\u2019; the \u2018classic\u2019 and formative period of Van Halen. Noel Monk became the band\u2019s confidant, mopping up their mess on the road, and during which time guiding them from unknowns to household names. Monk is the man! The difference in this book is simple. As Van Halen\u2019s manager from 1979 – 1985, Noel Monk saw it all, from his first…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":80917,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[6678],"tags":[916,978,993,8899,4482,8090,8900,8901],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/StaffReview-6.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80910"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80910"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80910\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80919,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80910\/revisions\/80919"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}