On Wednesday 26th November 2025, from 7.30-9.30pm, Stroud Radical Reading Group will host a discussion of Lipstick Traces: a secret history of the 20th Century by Griel Marcus. We will meet at Redz Youth Hub, 6 Threadneedle St, GL5 1AF. Entry is free and anyone interested in the book is welcome – you don’t need to have read it to join us. See below for more information.
The book examines alternative histories of resistance and reads the archival record ‘against the grain’, exploring parallels between underground 20th century art movements such as Dada, the political theories that inspired French youth to revolt in May 1968 and the punk explosion in late-70s Britain. This is a big book, physically at least, so we will focus our discussion on the opening prologue and first chapter “The Last Sex Pistols Concert”. While the book follows on well from our previous readings, you do not need to have attended a Radical Reading Group session before to attend for this session.
Below in our resources section you can find a link to buy the book at a discount, a free PDF version of both the whole book, and the section we offer as a focus for our discussion, and free audio/visual resources. There is also more information about the book and Stroud Radical Reading Group events.
Entry to the reading group session is free and everyone is welcome – you do not need to have attended previous sessions, and we do our best to make the sessions welcoming to people who have not been to reading groups or similar settings like university seminars before. We encourage people to read as much of the book as possible, but you are welcome to attend to listen to the discussion without reading any of it.
About the book:
This book is about a single, serpentine fact: late in 1976 a record called ‘Anarchy in the UK’ was issued in London, and this event launched a transformation of pop music all over the world. Made by a four-man rock’n’roll band called the Sex Pistols, and written by singer Johnny Rotten, the song distilled, in crudely poetic form, a critique of modern society once set out by a small group of Paris-based intellectuals. First organised in 1952 as the Lettrist International, and refounded in 1957 at a conference of European avant-garde artists as the Situationist International, the group gained its greatest notoriety during the French revolt of May 1968, when its slogans were spray-painted across the walls of Paris, after which their critique was given up to history and the group disappeared. The group looked back to the surrealists of the 1920s, the Dadaists who made their names during and just after the First World War, the young Karl Marx, Saint-Just, various medieval heretics, and the Knights of the Round Table.
“Some people say a record or a film changed their life. In my case, it was a book. Griel Marcus’s Lipstick Traces did that back in 1990. It really was that important” – Nicky Wire, bassist and lyricist in the Manic Street Preachers
About the author
Greil Marcus (né Gerstley; born June 19, 1945) is an American author, music journalist and cultural critic. He is notable for producing scholarly and literary essays that place rock music in a broader framework of culture and politics.
His other books include Mystery Train (published in 1975), notable for placing rock and roll in the context of American cultural archetypes; Dead Elvis, a collection of writings about Elvis Presley, in 1991, Invisible Republic: Bob Dylan’s Basement Tapes, published in 1997, and Like a Rolling Stone: Bob Dylan at the Crossroads – a book providing full analysis and context of the 1965 song.
Resources
- Buy Lipstick Traces – RRP £20, £17 with discount (saving £3). To get the 15% discount: Look at your “basket”, and enter the “couponcode” 25stroudradical. Pick up book from Nailsworth, Tetbury or Chalford shops, or get books delivered to your door for £3.50 postage. If posting books, you may wish to buy other books we are reading this year.
- Download the prologue and first section (roughly 8MB download, embedded below)
- Download the whole book as a free PDF (roughly 30MB download), embedded below)
- Watch Greil Marcus interviewed by Factory Records founder Tony Wilson in 1989 (7 minutes, embedded below)
- Listen to a YouTube playlist featuring a selection of punk and dada recordings referenced in the book (18 videos)
- Listen to a YouTube playlist featuring the debut Sex Pistols album (the key track for Marcus is “Anarchy in the UK”)
- Read a Wikipedia page on the Situationist International (relevant to the book’s later chapters which focus on Guy Debord, Gil J Wolman and Michele Bernstein)
- Read a BBC article on Dada and the Cabaret Voltaire
About our events
Stroud Radical Reading Group events are free to attend, though we will make a collection to cover venue hire costs – please bring some cash if you can afford it (a few pounds would be great).
We try to create a comfortable discussion space for everyone, including people who have not been part of a reading group or been to university. We do not want the sessions to feel like school – the idea is that everyone has something to contribute, even if primarily through finding the discussion texts difficult and having questions with other attendees can attempt to answer.
To ensure marginalised people feel welcome, we encourage care and thoughtful contributions that respect people’s identities and lives. We are an LGBTQ+ inclusive and anti-racist space.
Anyone is welcome to listen to the discussion, though we encourage contributions only from those who have read at least some of the book we are discussing.
There is an opportunity for more informal discussion after the session in the Ale House pub for anyone who wants to continue their evening.
About the venue
The venue for this session is Redz Youth Hub, a hub for organising, creativity, and community building. It’s a free space for young people to host their own events, workshops, and meetups. They’ve been hosting sessions by Mutiny: Stroud’s Youth Assembly and The RYSE – the Radical Youth Space for Educations – see their schedule for the rest of the year here, including sessions on the Peace Movement, Stroud Water riots, and decolonial action.
Redz is in central Stroud, close to the train station and bus station, with nearby stands to lock bikes, and parking for cars nearby at Fawkes Place or Church St car park. There is step-free access to the ground floor but for this session we will be meeting upstairs. Please get in touch if you’d like to get more of an idea of what the sessions are like or if you have any accessibility needs.
Stroud Radical Reading Group 