Bedsit Disco Queen by Tracey Thorne (a review)

As a general rule I don't read biographies. For me to pick one up it has to be of someone who interests me and I often end up not as engaged with the subject as I would have hoped, last year's Bruce (Springsteen) being a good example.

My second concern here was that I have been a fan of Thorne and her band, Everything But The Girl, from, probably, the late 80's. They say don't get to know your heroes, they will only disappoint you - well I'm glad to say that this wasn't the case here. Far from it in fact.

As an author Thorne has a syle that tells her story in a comfortable way. School days, being in her earlier band (The Marine Girls) and gigging with them fills the early part of the tale but what I believe I enjoyed most was the recollection of how she met Ben Watt (her now husband and fellow EBTG bandmate) as a fellow student in Hull. A lot of the stories, I soon realised, were relevent to the songs of the band and the fact that the songs were records, as it were, of actual events (especially 'Hadfield') lends a different feeling to both the music and the book.

All in all Thorne has done a good job with this, so much so that it isn't so much like reading, more like sitting in a comfy chair by the fire with an old friend and reminiscing.

If all biographies were this good I would read more 5/5