Spiritualized

Good news from Will. Looking forward to this.

http://www.theransomnote.co.uk/music/ne ... h-memoirs/

https://willcarruthers.squarespace.com/

I enjoyed Book of Jobs so looking forward to this one. As far as I can tell it focuses on his Spacemen and Spiritualized years.

Nice 'Taking Drugs...' type cover

book of jobs was great. I particulalry remember the abattior story in Crick a few miles away from where I grew up. Hepled consolidate my move towards vegetarianism. I'll be looking out for a hand bound copy of this I reckon.

Likewise Its probably time to re read Eric Morse's book.

on Will's website you can also preorder a lino print of the new book

http://willcarruthers.squarespace.com/

he's doing some appearances reading from it.. spotted Hebden Bridge on Aug 14th and London Aug 15th so far..

I'm trying to get him to Glasgow for a reading... at Mono hopefully.

First round of handmade editions now on sale; picked up the box set edition

wowzer. Not sure If I can rationalise the cost of the box set, will see if I can steel my courage to pay for a hand made copy.

Waiting for reviews from you guys about this book. Not sold in the states. I don't know how much more he can say about the SP3/SPZ days ?

my book has been dispatched.. woop!

spacemanrich wrote:Waiting for reviews from you guys about this book. Not sold in the states. I don't know how much more he can say about the SP3/SPZ days ?

Will sent this link.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Playing-Bass-T ... 0571329969

Officially out now! Currently downloading onto my Kindle as I type, and I've got a five-hour train journey tomorrow that's aching to be filled with tales of Spacemen days. I'll get a physical copy as well at one point, I just want to read it straight away!

angelsighs wrote:my book has been dispatched.. woop!

Arrived yet? Mine hasn't!

runcible wrote:
Arrived yet? Mine hasn't!

nope. not yet... which is a little worrying!

well, mine arrived- but not only was it shoved through the letterbox, the side of the envelope was wide open- and there were no pages within. just the cover and spine. I feel like going down to Royal Mail with a flaming torch. I can claim this back from them surely?? how do I go about this.

That sucks.

Mine shipped today.
Due to arrive in the States in 2 weeks.

Excepts read by Will (first 2) and Johnny "Fatcock" (3rd, which is really great!):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVtm_yTeBGE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNAMNVp--yY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0v63f5BFbU

a good review in the new- slim lined more expensive and essentially an advertising magazine with a couple of features- edition of uncut

Picked up the paperback at Waterstones today and read the first few chapters on the way home. It is quite amusing but very frank and sometimes confronting. The fingers in the folding press story and the ramifications (i.e. none for the boss) was a bit of a jarring note.....

Another excerpt: https://youtu.be/zgKmRv-iR6s

My payment for it was pending so long, that it can not be coming in during this week.
Now all we need is to pursue Jason also to start writing a book about the history of SPZ. Or Sean Cook...

veiko wrote: Jason writing a book about the history of SPZ. Or Sean Cook...

maybe that's why the new album is taking so long?

I finished reading Will's book this morning having read 90% of it yesterday. It is very entertaining and quite easy to read, despite some fairly confronting sections. He avoided grinding any axes quite elegantly yet made his position on his departure from SP3 and SPZ very clear. The narrative in the book finishes around the end of the Britpop era so the BJM period is not touched upon, which hopefully will feature in a later book. I'll avoid saying much else for fear of spoilers, but I do recommend you buy it, if only for the sheer hilarity of some of the descriptions of SP3 events. Morse's book is so po-faced and tedious that it fails completely to capture any of the joy of being a musician in a happening band. Will's book is very clear on what drives him...

[quote="veiko"] Jason writing a book about the history of SPZ. quote]

you are more likely to get a 'J Spacemen sings The Spice Girls album' I reckon.


this book sounds really good. I am not sure if I can be arsed to claim back the money on the one that was 'kind-of' delivered to me. I might just buy a standard version.

just read that Will will be at Liverpool Psych Fest talking about it, which I will definitely try and catch.

I started reading this evening to the sounds of Spacemen 3 in the background, starting with DJ Tones, Playing With Fire and then Recurring. By the time the heavy squalls of "When Tomorrow Hits" came round, the book's end came all too soon. It was a fantastic read; I won't say much just now for fear of spoilers, but I wasn't expecting Will's recollections of leaving both Sp3 and Spz to be so poignant and resigned and bittersweet. I got the impression he really, really loved and lived what both bands were doing, and will always hold the music he helped created dear to his heart.

It's a great book and very highly recommended. And it's brought in appreciation from many peers also, stuart Braithwaite, jo whiggs, phil king, Simone Butler etc.

I think he handled the tales very well indeed, both highlighting how much fun he had, how much he learnt, and yet never received any of the subsequent monies (pierce is alleged to have sold 'if I Were With Her Now' to Nestle for the Toffee Crisp advert for £70,000, but no-one apart from him received any of this money).

I could never afford his book of jobs, but 'playing the bass' is beautifully well written.

I believe Dom Gourlay is to interview Will over the book at Liverpool Psych Fest this year.

Can I buy that from Amazon.co.uk if I live in the USA? I can't find it otherwise. Thx

SpaceLine wrote:Can I buy that from Amazon.co.uk if I live in the USA? I can't find it otherwise. Thx

Yes.
Yes you can.

Rough trade has it too

Good read, very entertaining Although anyone expecting a blow-by-blow account of the two bands might be disappointed. It's not that kind of book.

My only quibble would be that some of the chapters had previously appeared in Book of Jobs, but I understand totally why they're included here.
Heard Will on the radio recently and his advice to any aspiring musician was "Get a trade"

finished this book last night. it's a pretty easy read- only took me a couple of nights. It's definitely not a traditional linear biography- it's a collection of anecdotes. Will is really great at putting an anecdote across however- sometimes funny, sometimes poetic and although he didn't 'dish the dirt' per se, I still think I got an insight into what it was like to be in the bands.

he evokes Rugby, Coventry and Birmingham perfectly too

Well, 7 years later I finally got around to reading this great book.

Like another book I read recently, 'Dreaming in Yellow', about the DIY Sound System (thoroughly recommended) - I can't believe how quickly I went through it. In both cases I wish they'd been twice as long. Both just felt a little bit too short and seemed to end rather abruptly. Another half dozen chapters would have given the book a bit more depth. (yeah, easy to say as I sit here stoned, but perhaps much harder to do)

Will's definitely a great writer, with so much humour in just about every page - even the in the darkest moments. The trip to the meat factory is a real eye-opener and has to be one of the most depressing jobs in existence. It would make a good candidate for a segment in a sequel to the documentary 'Working Man's Death' (well worth a watch if you think you've got it bad in the workplace!)

But what do I come away with, having read this, the Erik Morse book and the 'Are Your 3 Dreams 3 Sizes Too Big' mini-novel about life as a SP3 fan....

What is the overriding conclusion?

Well, it's a bit grim really - Sonic, in Morse's book, comes across as the self-elected band leader and slowly tries to take over the direction of the band. The trips to Europe where he's loaded and the others are dry seems to sum it all up. I had that experience once with my cousin - and I still think he's a bit of a cunt some 30 years later Driven, yes, no doubt about that (they all were) but also very single-minded - and it's that single-mindedness that seems to put the final nail in the SP3 coffin. By the end of it, it's more Spaceman 1 than Spacemen 3.

Likewise, in Will's book we delve more into Jason's side of things (he doesn't contribute to either book) and he seems to screw Will in just the same way Palmer screwed Pete, Jason and Will. Will is skint, paid zero royalties and on the dole while Jason and Kate are "looking to buy a big new house in the local area". Unless I misread something, that's how it's presented here. Or the Nestle deal, as already mentioned above.

And for all the evils that Palmer seems to have done - he seems to stick around and be accepted by everyone in the book - even after he's shafted them all. Make of that what you will. They clearly knew what he was like early on - but seemed to just keep him there anyway. This is never really explained at all in either Morse or Will's books. They just let him do his thing.

The funniest moment in Will's book: Definitely the sound engineer losing the plot on what sounds like MDMA just before a gig - having been in a similar state many times in my misspent youth, I found it very easy to relate to

I come away from these books feeling sorry for Will, and thinking a lot less of Pete and Jason in those later years just before SP3 disbanded. Spacemen 3's golden years were (in my mind) - The Perfect Prescription and Playing With Fire - and both those albums were written, recorded and promoted all over Europe by a young, hardworking team where all members started out on a reasonably level playing field - but the moment success and money start to appear on the horizon it all falls apart very quickly for one reason or another. Pete and Jason did okay but they certainly weren't saints by any stretch of the imagination based on the stories in these books.

A cracking read and well recommended.

Aside from those three books - are there any other books that shine a spotlight on those years in Rugby and the surrounding areas? Although I do think that these three seem to have it all pretty well covered.

I dont see it

angelsighs wrote: ↑Wed Jul 27, 2016 12:42 pm on Will's website you can also preorder a lino print of the new book

http://willcarruthers.squarespace.com/

he's doing some appearances reading from it.. spotted Hebden Bridge on Aug 14th and London Aug 15th so far..

that post was from years ago, I guess Wills site has changed now, probably not for sale any more

The special hand-crafted edition sold out straight away or not long after, but the normal paperback edition is easily available on Amazon, eBay, etc - and cheap as chips - unlike the Erik Morse book which has been stupidly expensive for years.

https://www.amazon.com/Playing-Bass-Thr ... 0571329977

https://www.ebay.com/itm/275013501758?h ... R7D3y-vgYg

(bargain!)

Can anyone explain to me why the kindle version of 'Playing the Bass...' (as in digital, no paper or ink or postage) costs more than the print edition? This makes no sense to me?