SHORT SHARP INTERVIEW: Charlie McQuaker -Die Hard Mod!

Die Hard Mod by Charlie McQuaker is published by Brighton’s Pulp Press http://www.pulppress.co.uk/ whose slogan is Turn Off Your TV And Discover Fiction Like It Used To Be ...

And you can buy it from Amazon here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Die-Hard-Mod-Charlie-McQuaker/dp/1907499202/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1266572777&sr=8-1

PDB) Is DIE HARD MOD autobiographical?

Charlie) Apart from having lived in both Belfast and Brighton, no, not really, though I’ll admit I’ve got same weakness for pretty bob-haired brunettes, beer and 60s music that Steve the Mod does. I’m probably more of a beatnik than a Mod and I’ve also managed to avoid violence since my last unsuccessful playground scrap in Belfast when I was about 14!

PDB) Do you really think mods could beat rockers in a fight?

Charlie) The original Modernists wouldn’t have lowered themselves to scrap with greasers because they wouldn’t have wanted to get creases on their sharp Italian suits and it’s also quite difficult to indulge in fisticuffs when you’ve got the latest Mose Allison album tucked under your arm.

From about 1964, though, a lot of the Mods were hard little proto-skinheads so they’d probably have been able to handle themselves pretty well. When it comes to one-on-one combat however, you’ve got to say that biker boots can inflict much more damage than Hush Puppies so the Rockers would have the edge in that situation. Sorry to my Mod muckers for that admission!

PDB) Which drug would you choose to die of an overdose from?

Charlie) Booze is my drug of choice so can I drown in a vat of 10-year-old Bushmills please?

PDB) Who would play Steve in the film version of Die Hard Mod?

Charlie) If Colin Farrell can master a Belfast accent and get himself a decent Steve Marriott circa ’66 haircut, the part’s his for the taking!

PDB) What is Die Hard Mod’s theme song?

Charlie) 'Bad Little Woman' by The Wheels.

PDB) Belfast/ Brighton-what's the connection?

Charlie)Apart from both being situated by the sea, there’s not an obvious connection and Belfast is gritty and down-to-earth while Brighton is quite bohemian and poncey but maybe at a push you could say that they both share a bit of a maverick attitude.

All my Belfast mates love Brighton and my Brighton mates have had a blast when they’ve visited Belfast so maybe each place sees something in the other that they really like. Belfastards and Brightonians both like to party hard so that’s one definite connection!

This  interview was first up at PULP METAL MAGAZINE.

Charlie McQuaker’s blistering Die Hard Mod ...
 

‘One perfect summer, Steve the Mod got his kicks with the beautiful but wild Jeanie - now life's just giving him a right good kicking...

Set in the troubled back streets of Belfast and the thrill-seeking underworld of Brighton, Die Hard Mod is a fast-paced tale of lust, love, friendship and righteous retribution.'

Charlie McQuaker’s Die Hard Mod is not only a rush of a read, it looks great too.

The book has a beautiful retro cover with an aged look that gives the impression that it’s an old Seventies’s paperback – maybe by Richard Allen ( in fact McQuaker says 'I thought I’d have a bash at doing my own version of what I imagined Richard Allen did with the ‘Skinhead series of books thoug I’ve never actually read any of them!) -that has been stuffed in someones back pocket for about twenty years.

It’s perfectly paced, in pint sized chapters and is a great hangover cure.

Don’t start it in a Sunday night, though, because you’ll probably throw a sicky on Monday morning so you can finish it.

Die Hard Mod is the latest
release from Pulp Press – a new
publishing house which aims
to give the pulp fiction genre
a 21st century makeover

http://www.pulppress.co.uk/

and whose brilliant slogan is

Turn Off Your TV And Discover Fiction Like It Used To Be ...