Bedsit Disco Queen: How I Grew Up and Tried to Be a Pop Star

Bedsit Disco Queen: How I Grew Up and Tried to Be a Pop Star by Thorn, Tracey. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9781844088669.

A frank and funny pop culture memoir in the vein of Caitlin Morans How to be a Woman, this is "how to be a woman artist" This is the story of Tracey Thorn, one half of the internationally successful group Everything But the Girl, collaborator with such artists as Paul Weller, Massive Attack, and dance legend Todd Terry. Tracey was only 16 when she bought an electric guitar and joined a band. A year later, she formed an all-girl band called the Marine Girls, played gigs, signed to an indie label, and started releasing records. Then, for 18 years, between 1982 and 2000, she was one half of Everything But the Girl. They released nine albums and sold nine million records, went on countless tours, had hits and flops, and were reviewed and interviewed to within an inch of their lives. Tracey has been in the charts, out of them, back in. Shes seen herself described as an indie darling, a middle-of-the-road nobody, and a disco diva. As she explains here, she hasnt always fit in, a fact thats helped her to face up to the realities of a pop career. She discusses her realizations—that there are thrills and wonders to be experienced, but also moments of doubt, mistakes, and violent lifestyle changes from luxury to squalor and back again, sometimes within minutes. This is the funny, perceptive, and candid story of her 30-year pop career.