Fornication: The Red Hot Chilli Peppers Story

Fornication: The Red Hot Chilli Peppers Story
Jeff Apter
(Omnibus Press)

Just as in any great story, there's a critical point in Jeff Apter's Chilli Peppers biography, Fornication. A juncture that is crucial in sewing together where the story has come from and where it's going. In the case of the Chilli Peppers it happens to be one of the most shrewdly prescient moves made in the history of the music industry. Having become disillusioned with the ineptitude of EMI in selling 1989's Mother's Milk, the Chilli's were courted by all the other major labels. Just as the pen was about to touch the paper of a contract with Sony, music legend Mo Ostin stepped in and hijacked the party. The head of Warner Music, he rang all four members of the band and said "Congratulations and good luck with your career, and we're sad you didn't go with us, but I wish you the best." Suitably swayed by this benign gesture, they duly signed with Warners. This was a serendipitous moment, as they became one of the biggest acts of the next decade. Ostin's genius is that he poached the band just as they were preparing to record the career defining BloodSugarSexMagik, one of the best rock albums of the 1990s. Apter's book relates the whole crazy Red Hot Chilli Peppers caper in detail over 350 odd pages. There are numerous moments of serendipity, and just as many of abject misery, such as guitarist Hillel Slovak's heroin related death in 1988. Apter deals with the highs and lows of this quintessential Californian act with an even and sensitive hand, and it's a compelling read. Of modern rock'n'roll decadence stories there would be few more exhilarating or cautionary as this. It's just a shame that the whole berserk roller-coaster ride is related through a composite of historic interviews -at least when it comes to the band. While Apter has interviewed a lot of people associated with them, there have been no new interviews with Anthony Kiedis, Flea, Chad Smith or John Frusciante specifically for this book. From time to time it reads like one of those nasty 'Unauthorised' type of things, cobbled together for a quick buck. I guess it could be argued that what the band said at the time is likely to be more interesting than recollections, but some historical perspective would be useful. Mostly though, Fornication is constructed in such a way that you can forget this oversight and indulge in the Chilli's twenty years of exuberant mayhem.

Gavin Bertram.