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  • Foreground Music

  • A Life in Fifteen Gigs
  • By: Graham Duff
  • Narrated by: Graham Duff
  • Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
  • 4.9 out of 5 stars (12 ratings)

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Foreground Music

By: Graham Duff
Narrated by: Graham Duff
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Summary

A chronicle of a lifetime's passion for gig-going, by one of British television's most respected writers.

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 10, to the 14-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 40 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.

©2019 Strange Attractor Press (P)2019 Strange Attractor Press
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Critic reviews

"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)

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perceptive genius

Graham Duff is a witty, perceptive Master of narrative...the book encourages music exploration and thrusts its head in and out the Underground....Great Read/listen xx

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Witty and familiar

A good listen. Graham narrates his life through the gigs that moved him at important points in his life. For music fans of a certain vintage, many names will spark some fond memories. I enjoyed it. A good impersonation of MES too!

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