Mud Sharks

Harry Ferdinand is a misplaced North London teenager - in trouble at school, his dad hates him, a victim of racism who flees to a hippy squat where he discovers a drum kit, and then punk... There is little in the way of boil-in-the-bag anarchy here, and the real heart of the novel is Harry trying to impress his uninterested and estranged father, punk's lost boy screaming to fit in over the music's iconoclastic and methamphetamine roar.

Throughout an illustrious and colourful forty-year career, Dave Barbarossa has been at some of the music scene’s most important and influential touchstones. His distinctive drumming style first burst onto the scene in 1977 with the now-legendary Adam and the Ants, playing on their debut album Dirk Wears White Sox, an album that spawned several era-defining tracks such as You’re so Physical, Zerox and Cartrouble. Giving birth to the post-punk new wave era, Barbarossa’s pulsing beats changed the musical landscape. 

When in 1980 Adam Ant approached notorious punk mogul and Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McClaren to represent him, it was Barbarossa who was instantly poached, his unique tribal drumming finding a perfect fit with the famed impresario’s latest project, Bow Wow Wow. Go Wild in the Country and I Want Candy were both international hits and with the snappily titled album See Jungle! See Jungle! Go Join Your Gang Yeah, City All Over! Go Ape Crazy! they toured the globe alongside stadium acts including The Pretenders, The Police and Queen.  

Since then, Barbarossa continues to be an in-demand session player, ever-touring and recording with the great and the good. Since the ‘90s he has leant his beats to Republica, performing live on the hits Ready To Go and Drop Dead Gorgeous, Norman Cook’s Beats International, Adamski, Roland Gift of Fine Young Cannibals as well as a reuniting with Adam Ant for his Dirk Wears White Sox tour amongst many others.