Frank cover art

Frank

The True Story that Inspired the Movie

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Frank

By: Jon Ronson
Narrated by: Jon Ronson
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About this listen

In the late 1980s Jon Ronson was the keyboard player in the Frank Sidebottom Oh Blimey Big Band. Frank wore a big fake head. Nobody outside his inner circle knew his true identity. This became the subject of feverish speculation during his zenith years. Together, they rode relatively high. Then it all went wrong.

Twenty-five years later and Jon has co-written a movie, Frank, inspired by his time in this great and bizarre band. Frank is set for release in 2014, starring Michael Fassbender, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Domhnall Gleeson and directed by Lenny Abrahamson.

Frank: The True Story that Inspired the Movie is a memoir of funny, sad times and a tribute to outsider artists too wonderfully strange to ever make it in the mainstream. It tells the true story behind the fictionalized movie.

Jon Ronson is an award-winning writer and documentary maker. He is the author of four best sellers, Them: Adventures with Extremists, The Men Who Stare at Goats, The Psychopath Test and Lost at Sea: The Jon Ronson Mysteries, and two collections, Out of the Ordinary: True Tales of Everyday Craziness and What I Do: More True Tales of Everyday Craziness. He lives in London and New York City.

©2014 Jon Ronson (P)2014 Audible Ltd Entertainment & Celebrities Music Celebrity Witty Heartfelt Thought-Provoking

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All stars
Most relevant
Jon Ronson at his warm, funny & insightful best. If you don't know about the marvel that was Frank Sidebottom you're in for a treat.

What's not to love?

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While this audiobook has most of what we want from a John Ronson audiobook, I'm left disappointed, wanting more - and not in a good way.

John Ronson narrates is hown book with his usual superb humour and nuance. This book expands on his Guardian article about Frank (the original one, from England), and also discusses some of the outsider musician influences that fed into his excellent film. And just when it gets going by shining a bleak light onto some of America's weirdest performers the book ends.

I feel that this is the sort of territory that Ronson could have done so much more with. This barely even counts as a Novella. File it under short non-fiction story but don't waste a whole credit for something this short.

Ronson fans may be dissapointed

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Best £1.83 you'll spend today unless you've obtained the sticky back plastic (and the other components needed) to build your very own flux capacitor and have successfully opened a time traveling vortex A-road to 1983.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

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Having seen the movie and being vaguely aware of Jon's link to the real life Frank Sidebottom this sounded like an interesting tale. The book chronicles the bizarre story of how Jon stumbled into the Frank Sidebottom Oh Blimey Big Band, and how whilst those around them succeeded, the core band struggled to garner even a cult following. The movie is touched upon briefly, but I would have liked to have heard more.

This is a very short book, but entertaining all the same and for Ronson fans, an easy purchase.

A charming, minor entry in the Robson oeuvre

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I never knew Frank the movie was based on a real character. Who'd have thought? Jon has an interesting style - no ego - just tells it like it happened.

Seen the movie, read the book

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