Books
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£ 19.95
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Street-Level Superstar : A Year With Lawrence:
Lawrence of Felt / Denim - Book - by Will Hodgkinson
(2024)
Lawrence is the greatest pop star who never made it, his dreams of glory
thwarted over the past five decades by bad luck and self-sabotage. At
sixty-one, he set off on a new mission: to escape poverty, obscurity and
the humiliation of kids at the bus stop laughing at him by writing a
smash hit.
But what is the cost of a dream?In 1980, Lawrence
formed Felt, who released ten albums and ten singles in ten years before
splitting up. In 1991, he reinvented himself with novelty-pop outfit
Denim. Signed to EMI, riding the wave of Britpop, in 1997, Denim's song
'Summer Smash' became Radio 1's Single of the Week and looked like a
sure-fire hit.
Then Princess Diana was killed in a car crash.
All copies were melted down. Crushing depression, addiction and
homelessness followed...
but in the face of it all, Lawrence
never gave up. In Street-Level Superstar, bestselling author and
journalist Will Hodgkinson follows Lawrence as he rebuilds his life. He
gets mistaken for an old lady by an amorous pensioner, is reduced to
dragging sacks of 2p coins to his local bank and wanders through
London's distant suburbs in search of lyrical inspiration.
As
they walk together down rain-soaked streets, Will tells the story of
Britain's most eccentric cult star. Will he write the greatest song the
world has ever known before the year is out? And was it worth
sacrificing everything - family, relationships, health, sanity - for
art?