Wednesday, October 01, 2014

Setting the record straight – music memoirs

From Morrissey to Marr, Hook to Sumner, musicians are falling over themselves to give us their side of the story – but are any of them worth reading?

Tuesday 30 September 2014   
Bernard Sumner in 2011
‘Eminently readable’… Bernard Sumner’s book, Chapter and Verse. Photograph: Kristy Sparow/Redferns
In June 1976 the Sex Pistols played a sparsely attended gig at Manchester’s Lesser Free Trade Hall. The night has gone down in history, not for the music played, but for the creativity it inspired in certain audience members. This creativity continues to reverberate into the 21st century – though nowadays it is more likely to appear on paper than on vinyl.

Thus recent years have seen the publication of Morrissey’s Autobiography, Mark E Smith’s Renegade, and Peter Hook’s Unknown Pleasures; there are rumours of forthcoming memoirs from Johnny Marr, Stephen Morris, Peter Hook (again: this time concentrating solely on New Order) and, perhaps most intriguingly, Brix Smith Start, ex-wife of Mark E Smith.

This month alone has seen the publication of Steve Hanley’s The Big Midweek, a warm and generous recollection of his 20 years as bass player in the Fall, and Bernard Sumner’s Chapter and Verse, an eminently readable and (mostly) amiable account of Joy Division and New Order.
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