This is Memorial Device

David Keenan's This Is Memorial Device, now available in German - and with a much cooler title! :-) This book is an oral history of the best Scottish band that never existed, and a love letter to all young music lovers longing to truly feel alive. In the small town of Airdrie, some teenagers grow up......more

What an unexpected delight. I thought this was marvellous. I found it extremely engaging. So, the ‘concept’ here: a fictionalised account of the history of an early 80s local cult band in Airdrie (‘Memorial Device’). Structure-wise, it’s novel(ish). I’ve never read B.S. Johnson, but when I say that......more

Many moons ago I used to hang around in small, dingy venues watching various friends in various bands play to a hardcore (very small) group of chums and hangers on. The line-ups would change as members left to form new bands or train to be a sound engineer once they realised that they were not likel......more

This Is Memorial Device is a novel written in a series of hallucinatory, first-person, eye-witness accounts and follows a cast of misfits, drop-outs, small town visionaries, would-be artists and musicians during the early 1980s post punk scene in Airdrie. At its core is the story of Memorial Device,......more

Memorial Device - “best band you’ve never heard of”, from the small Scottish town of Airdrie during the early 80s, David Keenan maps out the psychological, metaphysical impact of the strange musicians and the bizarre menagerie of people that were drawn to their music and art. More than two decades re......more