Books
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£ 15.99
- Ex Tax: £ 15.99
Nina Simone's Gum
Warren Ellis / Bad Seeds - Book - by Warren Ellis
(2021)
Award-winning musician and composer Warren Ellis comes the unexpected and inspiring story of a piece of chewing gum.
Warren has turned this memento, snatched from his idol's piano in a moment of rapture, into a genuine religious artefact.
The
last person to touch it was Nina Simone, her saliva and fingerprints
unsullied. The idea that it was still in her towel was something I had
drawn strength from. I thought each time I opened it some of Nina
Simone's spirit would vanish.
In
many ways that thought was more important than the gum itself. On
Thursday 1 July, 1999, Dr Nina Simone gave a rare performance as part of
Nick Cave's Meltdown Festival. After the show, in a state of awe,
Warren Ellis crept onto the stage, took Dr Simone's piece of chewed gum
from the piano, wrapped it in her stage towel and put it in a Tower
Records bag.
The
gum remained with him for twenty years; a sacred totem, his creative
muse, a conduit that would eventually take Ellis back to his childhood
and his relationship with found objects, growing in significance with
every passing year. Nina Simone's Gum is about how something so small
can form beautiful connections between people. It is a story about the
meaning we place on things, on experiences, and how they become imbued
with spirituality.
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