The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
New biography charts the life of a city legend
Book on Michael Marra has been written by his friend and launch will coincide with fifth anniversary of his death
Legendary Dundee singer-songwriter Michael Marra is the subject of a new biography being published next month.
The late singer’s friend, author James Robertson, will launch Michael Marra: Arrest This Moment at the Dundee Literary Festival.
Its publication will coincide with the fifth anniversary of Marra’s death.
The book charts the singer’s life through a series of prose pieces, interviews with his family, friends and contemporaries, as well as a series of transcribed discussions between Michael Marra and the author – some real and some imagined.
Mr Robertson said: “Michael is impossible to categorise – he was allergic to fame and unimpressed by wealth or status, and he seemed to live every waking moment as an artist.
“During the course of researching the book it became clear that he touched all who knew him, not only with his creative genius but also with his personal kindness and generosity of spirit.”
Michael’s daughter Alice said James Robertson has done a “wonderful job” on the book, which took him two years to write.
She said: “It’s just the most perfect book that could have been written about him.
“I’ve read it a few times and the first time there were things I didn’t know.”
Marra was just 60 years old when he died in 2012.
Born in Dundee in 1952, he was expelled from school at the age of 14 and worked in a variety of jobs.
He formed his first band, Hen’s Teeth, in 1971 but it was not until he began releasing solo records, starting with The Midas Touch in 1980, that his fame began to spread.
Announcement of the book comes in the same week the musician’s vision of bringing the Sistema music project to Dundee finally becomes a reality.
Marra was a long-term advocate of the project, which teaches children from deprived areas to learn musical instruments, and the charity Optimistic Sound was set up after his death to continue the campaign to bring Sistema to the City of Discovery.
The Dundee project will be officially launched at St Pius Primary School on Thursday.
Michael Marra: Arrest This Moment will be published on October 20.
It became clear that he touched all who knew him, not only with his creative genius but also with his personal kindness and generosity of spirit. JAMES ROBERTSON