NoMeansNo: Going Nowhere.

One of the measures of good writing for me is authors’ ability to engage their readers. When a writer is writing on a topic about which I know almost nothing, and in which I thought I had no interest, but somehow ended up with the volume in my hands, and I am enthralled and engaged from beginning to end, and learn something—in this case a lot—in the process, that’s good writing.



Mark Black is a good writer. His ease with language; his graceful and friendly approach to wr

NoMeansNo: Going Nowhere.

One of the measures of good writing for me is authors’ ability to engage their readers. When a writer is writing on a topic about which I know almost nothing, and in which I thought I had no interest, but somehow ended up with the volume in my hands, and I am enthralled and engaged from beginning to end, and learn something—in this case a lot—in the process, that’s good writing.



Mark Black is a good writer. His ease with language; his graceful and friendly approach to writing; the accessibility he provides for a reader uneducated on the topic--a punk band, NoMeansNo--result in a fine, slim volume, NoMeansNo: Going Nowhere, that gives readers a pleasurable and insightful reading experience.



Black’s clear affection for the genre and his knowledge of it shine through in every sentence. After you’ve read the introduction, in which Black shares personal anecdotes related to arriving at his topic, you’ll be hooked. Here’s the opening: “It’s entirely fitting that it was my brother who introduced me to NoMeansNo, a band he now barely remembers seeing. He introduced me to a lot of punk bands growing up. I’m not sure how intentional it was…. Prior to that I had a passion for the debating society, I watched Good Morning America voraciously…and I lip-synched “Lollipop” in front of my Grade 5 class…and started a punk/rap hybrid band called the Dead Fish….”” And then he heard the Ramones, and veered off in new directions. Black’s humour and warmth sets the tone for the entire volume.



Black is from Cape Breton, and though NoMeansNo was based primarily in Victoria, the breadth of the country apart, Black’s familiarity with the turf, the music, other punk bands, and the musicians; and the antics, adventures, and accomplishments of this important and influential punk band, removes any obstacles to communicating and entertaining. The reader is with him all the way. Black traces the band’s beginning—two brothers, John and Rob Wright, through various incarnations and combinations of players and song-writers, their early struggles, their tours, their trip to Europe where their band is stolen and ransomed back to them,



By the end of NoMeansNo: Going Nowhere, Black is ruminating on his own life and its meaning, bringing readers back to the beginning, to the echoes of an eleven year old boy’s search for self and the meaning of his life, seen now from the perspective of an educated, sensitive, aware listener and man.