James Fearnley’s “Here Comes Everybody” is an energetic, involving story of the accordionist’s days with the Pogues

book cover - here comes everybodyIt’s always with fear and trepidation that I crack open a musician’s memoir. For every Keith Richards autobiography, there are several dozen tomes that collapse under the weight of their own self-import and overwrought prose.

James Fearnley‘s new book, Here Comes Everybody: The Story of the Pogues is as enrapturing as any I’ve read. It starts off shakily, discussing as it does Fearnley’s youth with a bit of a gloss to his upbringing.

After that, however, it’s a fascinating, rollicking series of stories. Fearnley’s time with Shane McGowan begins with the Nips, prior to the Pogues, and those stories are wonderful, giving a little-seen glimpse at the early days of McGowan’s infamous carousing.
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Campbell’s examination of Irish music in England fascinating

book-cover-irish-bloodUpon reflection, it’s surprising to think that nobody’s yet made a study of the experience of Irish immigrant children in the context of English music. Studies of Irish music, English music, and the influence of one upon the other have been made repeatedly. Yet, the immigrant experience and how it related to the children of those who came over, and how they chose to express that which resulted has never been investigated. So, it’s not without a little excitement that I cracked the cover on Sean Campbell‘s new book for Cork University Press (distributed in the U.S. by Stylus Publishing), Irish Blood, English Heart: Second Generation Irish Musicians in England.
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