HEYLIN, Clinton (M.) 1960-

PERSONAL: Born April 8, 1960, in Urmston, Manchester, England; son of Stanley Alexander (an insurance broker) and Maisie (a perfumery consultant; maiden name, Stone) Heylin. Education: Bedford College, London, B.A. (with honors), 1981; University of Sussex, M.A., 1983. Religion: Church of England.

ADDRESSES: Home—203 Northenden Rd., Sale, Cheshire M33 2JB, England.

CAREER: Codirector of an insurance brokerage, 1983-89; writer.

WRITINGS:

Rain Unravelled Tales, privately printed, 1982.

More Rain Unravelled Tales, privately printed, 1984.

(With Craig Wood) Form and Substance, Sound Publishing (Denver, CO), 1988.

Stolen Moments, Wanted Man (London, England), 1988.

Rise/Fall, Omnibus Press (New York, NY), 1989.

Gypsy Love Songs and Sad Refrains, privately printed, 1989.

Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades, Penguin (New York, NY), 1991.

Dylan, Viking (New York, NY), 1991.

(Editor) The Penguin Book of Rock and Roll Writing, Viking (London, England), 1992, published as The Da Capo Book of Rock and Roll Writing, Da Capo Press (Boulder, CO), 2000.

From the Velvets to the Voidoids: A Pre-Punk History for a Post-Punk World, Penguin (New York, NY), 1993.

Bootleg: The Secret History of the Other Recording Industry, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1995.

Bob Dylan: The Recording Sessions, 1960-1994, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1995.

Bob Dylan: A Life in Stolen Moments, Day by Day, 1941-1995, Schirmer (New York, NY), 1996.

(With Nina Antonia) Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols, Schirmer (New York, NY), 1998.

Going to the Wars, Macmillan (New York, NY), 2000.

Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades, The Biography—Revisited, Morrow (New York, NY), 2001.

Contributor to magazines, including Q, Goldmine, Record Collector, and Spiral Scratch.

SIDELIGHTS: Clinton Heylin is an author who has specialized in writing about popular music. In Bootleg: The Secret History of the Other Record Industry, he chronicles the story of the music pirates who make illegal copies of legally released music or record and sell completely unavailable music, such as live concerts or studio recordings dubbed substandard by record producers. Such "bootleg" versions of recorded music violate copyright laws and steal millions of dollars from both the recording companies and the artists themselves. But they also make available to the public music that would otherwise never have been offered for sale. A critic for Publishers Weekly called Heylin's effort an "exhaustively researched and absorbing volume," while Gordon Flagg said in Booklist that "Heylin seems to labor out of love . . . as he celebrates the underground entrepreneurs responsible for freeing otherwise lost recordings."

Heylin tackles one of the leading bands of the British punk movement in Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols, cowritten with Nina Antonia. Taking its title from the Sex Pistols' only album, the book focuses on the band's limited number of recorded songs rather than on their personal scandals. Library Journal contributor Lloyd Jansen found that "the authors leave the reader with a surprising appreciation for the Sex Pistols' musical ability and pop craftsmanship."

Singer and songwriter Bob Dylan has been the subject of four of Heylin's books, including Bob Dylan: A Life in Stolen Moments, Day by Day, 1941-1995, and Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades, The Biography—Revisited. The first title contains "every documented concert, recording date, personal appearance, notable private activity, and other significant event" in Dylan's life, according to Flagg in another Booklist review. A Publishers Weekly reviewer found the book to be "an offbeat yet compelling portrait of Dylan as a restless, shape-shifting artist."

In Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades, The Biography—Revisited, Heylin reworks his earlier title Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades. Some eighty percent of the more recent title is new material covering the singer's career during the 1990s. Flagg believed that the book offered "detailed information and insight into a still-vital artist," while Jansen claimed that it is "the most authoritative Dylan biography available." New Statesman contributor Julian Keeling concluded that "every serious Dylan fan should find space for it on their shelves."

Heylin once told CA: "Though my previous reputation has been derived primarily from my work on singer Bob Dylan, I have written on rock acts as diverse as Public Image Limited, Joy Division, and Richard Thompson. My . . . anthology of the best rock-and-roll writings and the history of the CBGBs scene, should prove that I work from a wider spectrum."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, April 15, 1995, Gordon Flagg, review of Bootleg: The Secret History of the Other Recording Industry, p. 1458; August, 1996, Gordon Flagg, review of Bob Dylan: A Life in Stolen Moments, Day by Day, 1941-1995, p. 1871; April 15, 1998, Gordon Flagg, review of Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols, p. 1409; October 15, 2000, Gordon Flagg, review of Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades: The Biography—Revisited, p. 404.

Globe and Mail (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), May 25, 1991, p. C8.

Library Journal, May 1, 1998, Lloyd Jansen, review of Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols, p. 100; October 1, 2000, Lloyd Jansen, review of Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades: The Biography—Revisited, p. 102.

New Statesman, October 23, 2000, Julian Keeling, "Road to Nowhere," p. 56.

Publishers Weekly, September 28, 1992, review of The Penguin Book of Rock and Roll Writing, p. 60; April 10, 1995, review of Bootleg, p. 47; July 1, 1996, review of Bob Dylan: A Life in Stolen Moments, Day by Day, 1941-1995, p. 52; September 25, 2000, review of Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades: The Biography—Revisited, p. 103.

Times Literary Supplement, May 10, 1991, p. 28.*