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Naked at the Albert Hall
On sale
3rd March 2016
Price: £10.99
Penderyn Music Book Prize, 2016
In her bestselling autobiography Bedsit Disco Queen, Tracey Thorn recalled the highs and lows of a thirty-year career in pop music. But with the touring, recording and extraordinary anecdotes, there wasn’t time for an in-depth look at what she actually did for all those years: sing. She sang with warmth and emotional honesty, sometimes while battling acute stage-fright.
Part memoir, part wide-ranging exploration of the art, mechanics and spellbinding power of singing, NAKED AT THE ALBERT HALL takes in Dusty Springfield, Dennis Potter and George Eliot; Auto-tune, the microphone and stage presence; The Streets and The X Factor. Including interviews with fellow artists such as Alison Moyet, Romy Madley-Croft and Green Gartside of Scritti Politti, and portraits of singers in fiction as well as Tracey’s real-life experiences, it offers a unique, witty and sharply observed insider’s perspective on the exhilarating joy and occasional heartache of singing.
Part memoir, part wide-ranging exploration of the art, mechanics and spellbinding power of singing, NAKED AT THE ALBERT HALL takes in Dusty Springfield, Dennis Potter and George Eliot; Auto-tune, the microphone and stage presence; The Streets and The X Factor. Including interviews with fellow artists such as Alison Moyet, Romy Madley-Croft and Green Gartside of Scritti Politti, and portraits of singers in fiction as well as Tracey’s real-life experiences, it offers a unique, witty and sharply observed insider’s perspective on the exhilarating joy and occasional heartache of singing.
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Reviews
Gem-like confessions that make it feel like a proper discussion. I loved it
Revelatory, always entertaining . . . a genuine insider's perspective . . . Thirty years of consideration went into this quietly impressive volume, and it shows
Tracey's characterful phrasing is as persuasive on page as it is on record
Smart, chatty . . . [Thorn is] a sufficiently deft writer to negotiate the populist and the high-brow . . . a thought-provoking and enjoyable read
Honest and compassionate
An intensely readable account of thirty years of being in love with music. Warm, assertive, sweetly funny and most of all honest
A writer in fine voice . . . [a] cracker of a book
Thorn is the perfect analyst of our reverence for and terror of singing . . .Thorn's practical, warm tone gives her a Miss Marple-like ability to appear kindly while holding mistruths up to account . . . She is best, though, as a sympathetic guide to the singers she loves
Thorn eloquently strikes upon some profound truths about human communication as she tests the powers and limits of the human voice
She can pick at the scab of a subject and release some of the unsavoury contents which have been festering under the surface.
A thoughtful and sensitive study of singing and her very English struggle with the embarrassment
If you care at all about pop music you should read both [Naked at the Albert Hall and Bedsit Disco Queen]
As a witty and wise chronicle of a life spent dipping in and out of the limelight, this is second to none
A subtle, suggestive book about performance
The Alan Bennett of pop memoirists. I loved her book so much I wanted to form a band too
As distinctive and lovely as its author's singing voice . . . a wry and wise memoir of a unique career