A chronicle of a lifetime's passion for gig-going, by one of British
television's most respected writers.
"Foreground Music is an absolute gem. Charming, very funny and often
achingly melancholy, Graham Duff's memoir is suffused with a genuine
passion for live music and its (occasionally eccentric) power.
--Mark Gatiss
The result of a lifetime's passion for gig-going by one of British
television's most respected writers, Foreground Music is at once
enthusiastically detailed and tremendously illuminating--of both the
concert moment and its place in popular culture. It is an engaging
memoir of a life lived to the fullest, and a vivid, insightful, and
humorous exploration of what music writing might be.
Foreground Music describes music performances that range from a Cliff
Richard gospel concert, attended by Duff at the age of ten, to the
fourteen-year-old Duff's first rock show, where the Jam played so loudly
he blacks out, to a Joy Division gig that erupted into a full-scale
riot. Duff goes on pub crawls with Mark E. Smith of the Fall, convinces
Paul Weller to undertake his first acting role, and attempts to
interview Genesis P. Orridge of Throbbing Gristle while tripping on LSD.
Foreground Music captures the energy and power of life-changing gigs,
while tracing the evolution of forty years of musical movements and
subcultures. But more than that, it's an honest, touching, and very
funny story of friendship, love, creativity, and mortality, and a
testimony to music's ability to inspire and heal. Illustrated with
photographs and ephemera from the author's private collection.
