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A Seat at the Table

On sale

6th June 2019

Price: £14.99

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Selected: Paperback / ISBN-13: 9780349009827

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‘Fascinating and illuminating’ STYLIST

‘Perceptive and candid’ IRISH TIMES

‘A fascinating, brilliant book, full of joy, rage, a love of music’ THE SKINNY

‘Variously optimistic, troubling, joyful, illuminating, fierce and thoughtful’ GUARDIAN

INTERVIEWS WITH WOMEN ON THE FRONTLINE OF MUSIC, from KATE TEMPEST to MAGGIE ROGERS, CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS to IBEYI.

Writer and critic Amy Raphael has interviewed some of the world’s most iconic musicians, including Courtney Love, Patti Smith, Björk, Kurt Cobain and Elton John. In 1995 she wrote the critically-acclaimed Never Mind the Bollocks: Women Rewrite Rock, which included a foreword by Debbie Harry.

More than two decades on, the music business has changed, but the way women are regarded has not. In this new book, A Seat at the Table, Raphael interviews eighteen women who work in the music industry about learning to speak out, #MeToo, social media, queer politics and the subtleness of everyday misogyny.

Featuring interviews with:

CHRISTINE & THE QUEENS
IBEYI
KATE TEMPEST
ALISON MOYET
NADINE SHAH
JESSICA CURRY
MAGGIE ROGERS
EMMY THE GREAT
DREAM WIFE
NATALIE MERCHANT
LAUREN MAYBERRY
POPPY AJUDHA
KALIE SHORR
TRACEY THORN
MITSKI
CATHERINE MARKS
GEORGIA
CLARA AMFO

What's Inside

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Reviews

Q Magazine
In 1995, the journalist published Never Mind The Bollocks: Women Rewrite Rock, a series of interviews with artists including Courtney Love, Bjork, and Justine Frischmann. This kind-of-sequel updates what's changed - and what hasn't - for female musicians, with Christine And The Queens, Mitski and Kate Tempest among those participating. The most urgent interview is with Chvrches' Lauren Mayberry, who offers a powerful account of the negative drag caused by online trolls and the effects of speaking out. Reasons to be cheerful - and angry
Stylist
Kate Tempest, Clara Amfo, Ibeyi, Georgia, Tracey Thorn . . . Journalist Amy Raphael talks to 18 incredible women about their experiences as musicians and the music industry with fascinating and illuminating results
Irish Times
A perceptive and candid collection of new interviews with 18 women that discuss everything from #MeToo and queer politics to the impact of social media on their lives and the subtleties of routine misogyny
The Skinny
Raphael has collated a stunning collection of interviews, then removed herself entirely, presenting each as a narrative as if the subject is talking straight to you, the reader. It breaks an added barrier in really being invited in to understand each interviewee, unfiltered. It's a fascinating, brilliant book, full of joy, rage, a love of music, and a battle to show that it can be done even when culture might push back. A celebration of some of the best and most exciting faces in music today, and a must read
Barbara Ellen, Observer
A series of wide-ranging, deep-dive, soul-baring interviews, full of candid, intimate, spiky meditations on inspiration, artistry, sexuality, race, love, self-doubt, abuse, defiance, and everything in between . . . Raphael had carved a vital space for female artists to 'womanspread', as it were, and speak freely
Fiona Sturges, Guardian
Variously optimistic, troubling, joyful, illuminating, fierce and thoughtful. It is often all these things at once
Lucy O'Brien, Mojo
Many women interviewed for this collection - including the eloquent Kate Tempest, gender activist Chris (AKA Heloise Letissier from Christine and the Queens), a feisty Alison Moyet and wise woman Natalie Merchant - argue that it's not just about whether you 'get your tits out', but whether you get respect and recognition for your work. 'I've been in this industry for 35 years . . . I've never felt the need to conform to one shape. No one has ever really claimed me,' says Moyet. 'I've never been cosseted, nor have I been someone's muse. And [that] really saved me.' Moving words indeed