Tracey Thorn is a musician and writer, best known as one half of Everything but the Girl. She writes the fortnightly “Off the Record” column for the New Statesman. Her latest book is Naked at the Albert Hall.
Jake Shears’s memoir, Boys Keep Swinging, is a current example, packed with sharply told stories and proper moments of insider insight.
Fame, and social media, can flatten us out, making us cartoon-like, when actually we wish we were that simple.
For women in music, being described most of the time by men is just par for the course.
She’s always late, I forget she takes sugar. And in those humdrum rituals, true friendship is made.
Sade mixed slick soul with social realism to create a unique sound. Now, after eight years, she’s back.
There’s no one left between you and the finishing line.
It never stops being exciting hearing yourself on the radio.
I’m a baby boomer, which means I could easily join in with cynical dismissals of millennials, but I don’t want to. I’m listening to them, and I think they’re great.
Listening to her talk is comforting in itself, I am soothed by her voice in the room.
Struck down with an inevitable flu over the festive period, our writer recounted the books she enjoyed over the past 12 months.
