Foreground Music

A Life in Fifteen Gigs

By: Graham Duff

Narrated by: Graham Duff

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

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)