Cultural Writing. Memoir. Music. 1978: the first shock of punk hits Vancouver, and John Armstrong is at the center of the maelstrom. As Buck Cherry, lead singer/ guitarist for the Modernettes, Armstrong met and made music with I Braineater, Joey Shithead, Dimwit, Chuck Biscuits, Mary Jo Kopechne, Art Bergmann, and other punk luminaries. His account of drug-addled, booze-soaked days and nights with Los Popularos, DOA, the Subhumans, and the Modernettes brings this anarchic era to life. "It's a fluke of history that someone who writes as well as John Armstrong would have been at the very heart of the original Vancouver punk scene. Little did they know that Armstrong, aka Buck Cherry, would be their recording angel, but he was and here it all is: from White Rock to the back of the Smilin' Buddha and beyond. Very few recollections of a life lived in rock are this honest, or this funny"--William Gibson.

John Armstrong is an award-winning journalist, writer and musician. His early life as a "minor punk rock cult figure" is chronicled in his first book, Guilty of Everything, which was shortlisted for the Roderick Haig-Brown prize, awarded to the best non-fiction book published in BC that year. After dropping out of high school, he played in the legendary first-wave punk band the Modernettes. An accomplished journalist, Armstrong won multiple awards for critical writing, feature writing and hard news during his 15-year tenure at the Vancouver Sun. He is co-owner of Paramount Recorders, a Downtown Eastside recording studio, where he is finishing his first album of new material in 23 years. He currently lives in East Vancouver's Skid Row with a Rotweiller named BoBo.