Our next door neighbour, Quietus Editor John Doran, is celebrating the publication of his first book – Jolly Lad – by going on a 31 date reading tour called An English Trip. And it wouldn’t be a proper tour without a kicking off at The Lexington, especially given the Quietus offices are just upstairs. So when the tour hits London on Thursday May 14th and it’s going to be one hell of a party.
Jolly Lad is a retelling of Doran’s recovery from alcoholism, the attempt to cope with mental illness and becoming a father. The basis of the narrative was born out of his popular MENK columns for Vice, though the book explores these struggles in a more potent way and isn’t so deliberately limited in it’s scope. More broadly, it’s a book about “the healing power of music, how memory defines us, the redemption offered by fatherhood and what it means to be working class.” Importantly the book’s narrative is very deliberately not the typical morality tale of abuse and recovery, instead focussing on “what you face after the drink and the drugs have gone.”
John is teaming up with other writers, poets, film makers, musicians and DJs over the course of a month and putting on nights in prisons, churches, libraries, record shops, book stores, village halls, warehouses and cinemas and his musical support on every night of the tour is Kjetil Nernes aka Arabrot, the Norwegian noise rock musician.
But that’s not all, John is also bringing the loud and anarchic Krautrock Karaoke with him. Expect disciplined hedonism and indulgent improvisation of a strictly kaleidoscopic order. KK invite musicians to perform krautrock songs from CAN, NEU!, FAUST etc LIVE!
More information on getting involved/song selection here: https://www.facebook.com/
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Also on the bill is Anglo-Trinidadian dub poet and member of King Midas Sound, Techno Animal and Attica Blues, MR ROGER ROBINSON.
Tickets are just £7 in advance and we are running a special Book and Entry deal for just £18 ( book RRP £15), so grab yours here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/john-doran-feat-arabrot-krautrock-karaoke-tickets-16502178460
Jolly Lad is published by Strange Attractor Press, you can order a copy here: http://strangeattractor.co.uk/shoppe/jolly-lad/