CUT-THROAT: How to get started in the
music business – and survive!
by
Meet Nash The Slash. A real life phantom of the
opera, he haunted Toronto’s Original 99 Cent Roxy
Theatre after debuting with a live soundtrack to Dali/
Buñuel’s visceral short film Un Chien Andalou. Swathed
in surgical bandages and his trademark tuxedo, Nash
The Slash was ahead of his time, creating tape loops
onstage which he accompanied with wild electric violin
phrases and fuzz-crushing mandolin in a complex blend
of punk, prog, classical and performance art.
Nash opened shows for The Who, Iggy Pop, The Tubes,
Devo and The Residents and sustained a successful
independent career for 40 years – all the while keeping
his real identity a losely-guarded secret.
How did he do that?
The clues are in Cut-Throat – a book he wrote in 1997
about surviving the music industry.
Recently discovered by the makers of new feature-
length documentary Nash The Slash Rises Again! –and
published here for the first time – Nash peppers its
hard-won revelations with witty asides to create a
music manual like no other.
Boasting brand new interviews with Nash collaborators
Gary Numan, Bill Nelson, Steve Hillage and lifelong
photographer Paul Till, Cut-Throat also pulls back the
curtain on the new documentary in the company of
executive producer Colin Brunton.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Born Jeff Plewman in 1948, Nash the Slash was a
Canadian one-man band, best known for playing
electric violin and mandolin over looped-up drum
machines and self-made ‘devices’. After co-founding the
progressive rock band FM, Nash went solo in 1978 with
his own brand of “techno frash, electronic rock’n’roll”,
appearing onstage covered in his trademark surgical bandages. He gained wider popularity after supporting Gary Numan’s 1980 tours of North America and the UK,
and released the cult classic Children Of The Night the following year. Nash also composed film soundtracks and worked with surrealist painter Robert Vanderhorst.
He died in 2014 from a suspected heart attack.
Includes exclusive interviews with Gary Numan, Steve Hillage and Bill Nelson
The book can pre-ordered using the link below, and was published 19th June 2025
