ABOUT ME
Vernon grew up mostly in Oxford, England. He was heavily into music from a young age and always listened to the radio whenever he could.
In the mid-sixties offshore pirate radio stations that broadcast from ships, mostly in the North Sea (off the East Coast of England) were a huge influence on the development of his musical taste. The best were Radio London and Radio Caroline. From March 1967 DJ John Peel who'd been in LA until then had a late night show from 12 midnight - 2am called 'The Perfumed Garden' which introduced him to many of the most exciting US psych/garage acts of this era, which were not well known at all in the UK at this time.
After graduating from Leeds University with a BA in Political Studies in 1974 Vernon came up to London to work for the GLC. With more disposable income than when he was a student he started searching London's second hand records shops for all the great records he heard in the late sixties but never had the money to buy as well as many contemporary releases. Most of the records in his collection were compiled between 1974-1990. Some were bought on trips to the US.
In searching for records Vernon was frustrated by the lack of any detailed encyclopaedic guides covering the more obscure psychedelic artists he loved so he decided to write one himself.
The book was called The Acid Trip and published by Babylon Books in 1984. It was the world's first guide to psychedelic music. He would never recommend anyone to buy that book now and it's been out of print for many years but psychedelia was a bibliographical wilderness at the time. What followed with The Flashback and the various iterations of Fuzz Acid and Flowers was an attempt to improve on the previous ones. There was also a steady stream of gems from the late 60s and early 70s being reissued and lots of previously undiscovered gems emerging!
In time Vernon wrote books about 60s and 70s music from other parts of the world and also about other genres punk, new wave, post-punk and most recently Britpop.
The books took a huge amount of time to write and were produced alongside a demanding full-time job, a family and quite a few regular sporting commitments too. So Vernon was very grateful for the assistance he had from other collectors and music dealers too in helping the books become a reality.
Primarily Vernon wrote the books because he wanted to 'spread the word'. A lot of really good artists and bands were overlooked the first time around for various reasons. These books were written by Vernon and fellow collectors for other music collectors and fans. They were very well received by music critics and collectors around the world. Just three of them remain in print today.
