ZAPPA BOOK FIRST PUBLISHED 25 YEARS AGO

Since I mark so many anniversaries I'd like to note that it's 25 years ago this week that my Frank Zappa biography, Mother!, was first published - by a very dodgy outfit called Proteus Books. In the States it was either published or at least distributed by Cherry Lane Books, from whom I never saw a cent. It wasn't a great book: I had no budget for proper research or to go and interview any of the Mothers, or others, though I did interview Frank and did attend the surreal court case when he was in London suing the Royal Albert Hall for cancelling his scheduled concert there, so those parts are the real highlights.

It's long out of print, of course, though an updated version was published later by another very dodgy outfit with the similar name of Plexus Books. They've re-published it several times since, most recently in 2007. They haven't given me a royalty statement in over two years and if I could afford to sue them I would.