| AdminHistory | Jon Savage was born in 1953. Growing up in the West End of London through the 1960s meant that Jon had been exposed to heavily to the pop culture that shaped the 1960s. Jon’s career as a writer started at an early age as wrote article for various school and college magazines. His first published piece was in his school magazine where he wrote a film critique of ‘Woodstock.’ In the early 1970s Jon left London to study for his degree in Classics at Cambridge and then went on to complete a post-graduate qualification law.
The life changing moment for Jon Savage came in October 1976 when he first saw the Clash live. This event set Jon a path to becoming one the foremost experts on Punk which he not only lived through but also helped to shape. After seeing the Sex Pistols and the Clash Jon Savage published his first Fanzine London’s Outrage in November 1976 which was influenced by the already successful Sniffin Glue. Jon produced 50 xeroxed copies and 1000 printed copies of the first London’s Outrage which were distributed through Rough Trader music store. Jon then moved up to the more mainstream music press with help from Dave Fudger and Vivienne Goldman in the mid to late 1970s. Jon began writing for Sounds, one of the leading music magazines of the day, in November 1977. Alongside his work in Sounds Jon wrote for developing Fanzines on the West Coast of America including Search and Destroy, BOMP and Slash. In 1979 Jon moved to Melody Maker another leading British music magazine and by 1980 he was writing for the newly founded pop culture magazine The Face. Throughout the 1980s Jon Savage continued to write for The Face but also contributed to other publications such as New York Rocker, The Observer, Mantra Records, The Sunday Times and Spin.
Jon Savage published his book in 1984 The Kinks: The Official Biography which drew extensively on the interviews with the band members. By the late 1980s Jon had amassed a huge array of material from the Punk era and with this information he began to start researching for a book that is now regarded as the definitive and comprehensive history of punk music, England’s Dreaming. A good proportion of the material used whilst researching for the book came from Jon’s own personal archives of material he had collected over the years. However through his research he collected more material which he added to his personal archives. England’s Dreaming was published in 1991 and has yet to go out of print. The book was later used by as a basis for a television programme called ‘Punk and the Pistols’ in 1995. Jon Savage worked with Paul Tickell, who he had met whilst writing for Melody Maker, on the original concept of the programme. Since the release of England’s Dreaming Jon Savage continues to write about punk and other genres and his article are still being published magazines such as Mojo and The Observer Music Monthly. Compilation CDs based on track listings created by Jon Savage have also been released, most notably England’s Dreaming in 2004 and Meridian 1970 in 2005.
Teenage: The Creation of Youth 1875-1945 by Jon Savage, published in 2007 looks at the term ‘teenager’ and recognises the importance of this term to describe youth in mass societies, particularly youth as a consumer. With a focus on the UK, USA, Germany and France, the collection contains a wide range of material from these countries including personal diaries, academic works and popular magazines, including The Face, Frieze, Mojo and Record Collector. |
| CustodialHistory | This collection was purchased by LJMU Special Collections & Archives from Jon Savage in 2015. |
| AccessConditions | Please note that although this collection is uncatalogued and there is no list for the archive material, a database of the 700 books in this collection is available to browse via the LJMU Library Discover: https://ljmu.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/search?query=holdings_information,contains,teenage,AND&tab=Everything&search_scope=MyInst_and_CI&vid=44JMU_INST:44JMU_VU1&lang=en&mode=advanced&offset=0
There is currently no preliminary list of archive material for this collection, which may therefore impact our ability to make this material available. In addition, please be aware that access to some of these records may be closed or restricted because they contain personal data which identifies people who may be alive in accordance with data protection legislation, or other sensitive information. Please contact archives@ljmu.ac.uk for all appointments and enquiries. |