Saturday 15 June 2013

Bedsit Disco Queen by Tracey Thorn reviewed by Lynda Waterhouse


‘If you like those kinds of stories, stories where the lead characters seem to blunder through life, much as you do through your own, then you might like this one.’
I loved this biography of how Tracey Thorn grew up and tried to be a pop star. It is a self-effacing, funny and moving description of the music business from the 1980’s onwards.
Reading Tracey’s account of her life  took me straight back to my own student days in 1980’s with my big hair, flowery Oxfam dress (vintage didn’t exist then) and my precious ‘I get no love’ Buzzocks badge.
Tracey describes her experiences as a 16 year old joining a band and then forming her own all-girl band , The Marine Girls. We follow Tracey to Hull University where she meets up with Ben Watt and together they form the band Everything But The Girl and their lives change.
Each chapter is rounded off with the lyrics of one of Tracey’s songs from that period.
Tracey’s experience of pop stardom is full of high and lows. The book is also about the relationship between Ben and Tracey and how it is affected by the pressures of fame, by Ben’s illness and by having children.
Tracey does not tell us everything. It is a thoughtful account and she is a great role model for women who want to create music on their own terms.
Bedsit Disco Queen is published by Virago
ISBN 978-1-844088669



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1 comment:

Anne Cassidy said...

I read this book a while ago and LOVED it. What I really loved was her constant questioning of what it was to be an artist and yet still function sucessfully in the commercial world of music. Has a lot to say to writers of fiction, I think.

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