My Rock 'n' Roll Friend
Tracey Thorn
Available as Paperback, Hardback, eBook, Downloadable audio
An exploration of female friendship and women in music, from the iconic singer-songwriter and bestselling author of Another Planet and Bedsit Disco Queen
‘Entertaining, affectionate and righteous’ Guardian
‘Says so much about being a woman’ Cosey Fanni Tutti
In 1983, backstage at the Lyceum in London, Tracey Thorn and Lindy Morrison first met. Tracey’s music career was just beginning, while Lindy, drummer for The Go-Betweens, was ten years her senior. They became confidantes, comrades and best friends, a relationship cemented by gossip and feminism, books and gigs and rock ’n’ roll love affairs.
Thorn takes stock of thirty-seven years of friendship, teasing out the details of connection and affection between two women who seem to be either complete opposites or mirror images of each other. She asks what people see, who does the looking, and ultimately who writes women out of – and back into – history.
“A vivid and witty memoir of the friendship between Thorn and Lindy Morrison of the Go-Betweens, two women in a cultural world dominated by men … [Thorn] brings wit, candour and vividness to her storytelling … As well as providing a portrait of a mercurial and brilliant musician, the book exposes the sexism and hypocrisy of an industry … Entertaining, affectionate and righteous”
guardian
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“This book says so much about being a woman”
Cosey Fanni Tutti
“Thorn’s audacious salute to Lindy Morrison of Brisbane’s gorgeous romantic heroes The Go-Betweens resonates far beyond its 1980s indie milieu … Their parallel history not only triggers moving meditations on female friendship, motherhood and ageing, but also gives Thorn the chance to prise away old rock’n’roll myths, revealing fresh stories hidden beneath”
the Times, Best Books Of The Year
“It’s such a radical act – as well as a loving one – for a woman to tell the story of her friend like this, and to free her (and all of us, it feels!) from the distorting prism of the male gaze. I honestly wanted to stand up and cheer!”
Melissa Harrison
“Philosophical and furious … Illuminates rock’s double standards … This is a book about more than music: it recounts the intricacies of female friendship and its crush of projection, permission, allyship and trying-on-for-size”
observer
Tracey Thorn
Tracey Thorn is a singer-songwriter and writer, best known for her seventeen years in bestselling duo Everything But The Girl. She has released four solo albums, one movie soundtrack, a large handful of singles, and three books, including the Sunday Times bestsellers Another Planet and Bedsit Disco Queen. She lives in London, with her husband Ben Watt and their three children.
@tracey_thorn | traceythorn.com