Tenement Kid cover art

Tenement Kid

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Tenement Kid

By: Bobby Gillespie
Narrated by: Bobby Gillespie
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About this listen

Born into a working-class Glaswegian family in the summer of 1961, TENEMENT KID begins in the district of Springburn, soon to be evacuated in Edward Heath's brutal slum clearances. Leaving school at 16 and going to work as a printers' apprentice, Bobby's rock n roll epiphany arrives like a bolt of lightning shining from Phil Lynott's mirrored pickguard at his first gig at the Apollo in Glasgow. Filled with 'the holy spirit of rock n roll' his destiny is sealed with the arrival of the Sex Pistols and punk rock which to Bobby, represents an iconoclastic vision of class rebellion and would ultimately lead to him becoming an artist initially in the Jesus and Mary Chain then Primal Scream.

Building like a breakbeat crescendo to the Summer of Love, Boys Own parties, and the fateful meeting with Andrew Weatherall in an East Sussex field, as the '80s bleed into the '90s and a new kind of electronic soul music starts to pulse through the nation's consciousness, TENEMENT KID closes with the release of Screamadelica, the album often credited with 'starting the '90s'. A book filled with the joy and wonder of a rock n roll apostle who would radically reshape the future sounds of fin de siècle British pop, Bobby Gillespie's memoir cuts a righteous path through a decade lost to Thatcherism and saved by acid house.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2021 Bobby Gillespie (P)2021 Orion Publishing Group
Entertainment & Celebrities Music Celebrity Thought-Provoking

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Critic reviews

'Gillespie is rock and roll's Oliver Twist. A punk rock fairytale, razor sharp on class struggle, music, style, and a singular view of the world resulting in one of the world's great bands. Couldn't put down' Courtney Love

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If you are one of the lucky people who lived the party life and grew up on this amazing music then you’ll have so much to relate to….. a truly brilliant listen. They guy is a legend and you learn so much more about the man/band behind the music. The struggles, the insane nights you can picture happening to yourself back in the day and the feelings that we all felt in that era.
Gives you the shivers/butterflies in your stomach at times 😉

So so good…….

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Reviewers have complained about the narration. I loved it, and Gillespie's voice defiinitely gets stronger, more confident and more nuanced as the book progresses.
Loved the story he tells where he finds that a song he's written is too high for him to actually sing at the recording session, but is unaware that you can change key, until a session player points it out to him. Beautiful.
And who doesn't miss the times when you could turn up and play a live gig to a packed venue on an instrument you'd never even touched before, no rehearsal. Those were the days.
And it's always nice to know exactly what Bobby Gillespie was wearing, and when..!
I really recommend this audio book, the narration is captivating and the story and anecdotes will interest any music/pop-rock culture nut, Primal Scream fan or otherwise.

Interesting. Loved the narration.

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Great to hear the book read by Bobby himself really enjoyed it awesome 👌

fantastico

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l had to speed it up to 1.15 as Bobby read quite slow.Still Great though.

Great book.

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A fantastic memoir. Not a massive PS fan but a fan of music from early 90s era. Highly recommended for music fans.

Awesome, not just for Primal scream fans!

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