Nik Cohn

Nik Cohn was born in London, England and brought up in Derry, Northern Ireland. He wrote his first novel, Market (1965), when he was eighteen. Four years later, he published his first major book, Awopbopaloobop Alopbamboom (1969), a saga of rock ‘n roll. When Cohn told The Who that their concept album Tommy lacked a hit single, he became the inspiration for "Pinball Wizard". In 1976, he published the article “Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night”, which became the basis for the hit film Saturday Night Fever (1977). He later admitted that the article was based on clubgoers he had known in his native England and the character of Tony Moreno was a total fabrication. After a troubled decade of drug abuse in the 1980s, Cohn continued as an author and newspaper columnist.