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Kiran Dass rounds up her picks of music bios
ART SEX MUSIC
by Cosey Fanni Tutti
This is essential reading for anyone who wants to read about strong, independent, pioneering women in music. Experimental musician, artist, former striptease artiste and pornographic model Cosey Fanni Tutti brought art, sound and music together in the groundbreaking 1970s English group Throbbing Gristle. Confronting, singular, reactionary and sonically adventurous, the group performed and showed art in some of the most prestigious art galleries across the world. Their disruptive approach famously provoked the Tory MP Sir Nicholas Fairbairn to disdainfully declare the group as being “the wreckers of civilisation”. Brimming with insight and detail about growing up in dreary suburban post-war England, difficult family dynamics and maintaining a successful practice in art and music without compromising, Tutti is an inspiration.
IN LOVE WITH THESE TIMES: MY LIFE WITH FLYING NUN RECORDS
by Roger Shepherd
“I wanted to be more than just an observer. I wanted to be a part of what was going on. I had told someone and the word was out, and now I had to actually do this thing. Start a record label. I must have been drunk,” writes Roger Shepherd, founder of legendary New Zealand record label Flying Nun, in this engrossing backstage pass to the indie label he started with $300, taking New Zealand music to the world. Written from a personal perspective, Shepherd writes of running a small business — with a spirited DIY approach.
TO THROW AWAY UNOPENED
by Viv Albertine
Known and loved for her work with allfemale post-punk band, The Slits, Viv Albertine has since established herself as a fine writer with her two memoirs — Clothes Music Boys and its follow-up, To Throw Away Unopened. Here, she writes about how even in middle age, her punk spirit has never left her as she reflects on the rage of being a woman smashing through the patriarchy. Albertine has had an extraordinarily interesting and colourful life and this is account is powerful.
LOST IN MUSIC
by Giles Smith
This is my favourite book ever written about music and I love it so much I’ve read it 13 times and it’s never lost its ability to crack me up. Anyone who has ever purchased a record, obsessed over a song or played in a band will relate to this warm-hearted and comic memoir by British music journalist Giles Smith. From writing about discovering a love of pop music from a young age, his illfated attempts at pop stardom with cult lo-fi group Cleaners From Venus and his career as a music journalist, this is a brilliant pop odyssey.