To Ease My Troubled Mind: The Authorised Unauthorised History of Billy Childish By Ted Kessler
Lord ease my troubled mind
A little bit messy but enjoyable all along especially for Steven Hamper diehard fans 9781399615556
In 1977 17 year old Steven Hamper was a stonemason in the dockyards of Chatham Kent His heart however beat in sync with the punk rock tremors of the era seduced by its celebration of amateurism So in a gesture of revolutionary defiance he took a 3lb club hammer and smashed his hand vowing to never work again In doing so Steven Hamper metamorphosed into Billy Childish a true renaissance man Childish has since remained steadfastly true to punk s DIY cred becoming one of the most recognisable and authentic voices in whichever artistic endeavour he undertakes He has released over one hundred and fifty albums of raw rock and roll punk blues and folk written many volumes of searing poetry as well as several autobiographical novels But what he is perhaps best known for in recent years is his painting for which he is now critically commercially and internationally feted He hasn t changed course in any of his disciplines though The world just caught up with the sheer volume of his brutally honest work To Ease My Troubled Mind is a mosaic portrait collated over a year of interviews with Childish as well as with close family ex girlfriends bandmembers past and present friends foes collaborators even his therapist It is an unflinching yet frequently spiritual and funny portrait of an artist whose obstacle strewn upbringing formed the backbone of his raised in a broken home and abused as a child Childish was an undiagnosed dyslexic in remedial class at school who is nevertheless now Britain s most prolific and uncompromising creative force To Ease My Troubled Mind The Authorised Unauthorised History of Billy Childish
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