RIP UK music journalist Carol Clerk

No details yet but I learned about it from Dave Simpson's Twitter post and the news is spreading quickly. You can sample a slew of her articles via Rock's Back Pages if you have login access; I'm sure other things can be found.

I'll always remember her for a book I still dip into from time to time, her authorized biography of the Damned, The Light At the End of the Tunnel, released in concert with the two disc overview of that name back in 1987 and now completely out of print. Lots of entertaining detail from a writer who clearly loved her subjects but wasn't averse to calling things how she saw them, and who was also very careful to let her subjects speak a lot for themselves without simply having it be an oral history. By the time I was reading Melody Maker she was mostly concentrating on the news pages but it was always a treat to see her work, and what hits me now is remembering a brief notice of her wedding announcement in one issue around 1993 or so. RIP.

A Quietus piece from a couple of years back about her adventures with Hanoi Rocks in Tel Aviv (and the resultant almost prison sentence).

Also a couple of late eighties pieces via Archived Music Press.

Carol was a good friend and a valued colleague. We'll be running some sort of tribute next week but suffice to say this has been horrible news.

She did remain her typical self until the end. When I saw her after the last lot of chemo, she hadn't wasted any time in dying her newly regrown crop of hair pillar box red and was pleased with her ability to get into a tighter pair of leather trousers...

She is already sorely missed.

very sad news. as a writer, carol was deservedly a legend, and a really warm and decent person to boot. she rocked, and couldn't help be an inspiration to anyone who met her.

A very underrated UK writer. She was a consistently entertaining read, I don't think she ever got the props she deserved. RIP.

Everett True has a remembrance up:

http://everetttrue2.blogspot.com/2010/03/rip-carol-clerk.html

When did she start with Melody Maker? I used to read it on occasion in the early 80s. I wonder if she was there then?

She was definitely writing for them regularly by the early eighties (check the Rock's Back Pages link up top), as well as for Sounds; I gather her earliest published work was in the seventies.

Meantime there's now a Facebook page for memories of her:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=406898639224&v=info

Thoughts from John Robb:

http://johnrobb77.wordpress.com/2010/03/14/carol-clerk-rip/

And Classic Rock remembers, plus a story from her on AC/DC's 1976 tour:

http://www.classicrockmagazine.com/news/carol-clerk-rip/