Pinch Me-I Think I'm in Kent...-- Giles Smith's Lost in Music

Recently I completed Giles Smith's book Lost in Music, a personal memoir that involves musical obsession and also about reaching out for the brass ring of success in the pop music world. It's just one of those books that combine humor, wit, and humiliation, in fairly equal doses, often hard to separate. And of course about life growing up in Colchester, England. Giles takes a scalpel, and about as honestly and intelligently as a person can, attempts to forensically analyze his musical addiction from its earliest beginnings to the unrepentant present. Anyone who is in a band or dreamed of being a internationally beloved pop icon can identify with Smith. This is definitely a different kind of memoir, unlike recent ones by Keith Richards, Gregg Allman, and Dylan. This is more like Killing Bono by Neil McCormick. Maybe I have more affinity for books by the also-rans, like John Armstrong of Vancouver's Modernettes (Guilty of Everything), and New Zealand's Sneaky Feelings' Matthew Bannister (Positively George Street). And as a fellow keyboard player who also always wanted to play guitar, I sympathize with Smith's plights. To a point. Because hell, he made an album with Martin Newell! I'm a little jealous, frankly.

Giles Smith was in Martin Newell's band Cleaners from Venus, a group that he hoped would find super stardom on some level. Certainly Newell is a incredibly talented songwriter. This year many of the lo-fi, limited release recordings,of Newell are being made available to the public, notably a 3 Cd box set from Captured Tracks. Unfortunately for Giles, Newell is unlike say, a Mick Jagger, or the Gallagher brothers of Oasis, and did not have the fire in his belly to get out there and promote the music, go on tours, etc. Think more Andy Partridge of XTC or Steely Dan; record some great records and hope that the public buys them. Which is alright; from Smith's description he is a man with strong principles that he was adamant not to compromise. Even with great music and driving ambitions for glory, the recording biz is a dicey one at best. Plenty of posts on this blog can attest to this. Needless to say, the Cleaners from Venus never made it big, despite the brilliant jangle pop they made. These days Giles makes his living as a journalist, and Newell returned once more to making music, and making poetry.

Smith is not for a moment trying to make a posthumous case for the band as he is explaining the reasons why they never really had much of a chance, using very funny anecdotes, often at his own expense. He details many of the foibles of the music industry, and the fleeting fame that it might potentially provide. For example, he writes about the tour of Germany, where the Cleaners main fan base was. At the last moment Newell bowed out, as he simply could not go through with the ordeal. It was something he never wanted to ever do, but labels can be persuasive. So basically the tour went on without Newell, the singer/songwriter, i.e. the Talent. Imagine doing PR for the band, where the first question is "Where Is Martin Newell?". Like going to see a Paul Simon concert, but with an understudy filling in, like a Broadway show.

In some respects, the book also is reminiscent of High Fidelity, the novel about musical obsession and romance by Nick Hornby. If you are huge music fan, Lost in Music will definitely be both appealing and maybe a little unnerving, just as all the He writes about the bands he first was interested in as a child, and he isn't afraid to admit that he was a fan of some pretty awful bands. He waxes eloquently on the aesthetics of categorizing his collection, how his tastes were at times hand-me-downs of this brothers, and also a sometimes a reaction against the tastes of his brothers. And guiltily, he admits that most of these albums he was embarrassed to admit that he owned are still somewhere in the back of his musical catalog even today. He lovingly writes about his phases with Marc Bolan, 10cc, and about local lad made good Nik Kershaw in addition to the music of Stevie Wonder and the Buzzcocks. Any book that can name check such artists, in addition to Andrew Ridgely, Scritti Politti, Milli Vanilli, and the Status Quo has got to be pretty damned excellent.

I think this book is a great read for any music lover, both casual and fanatic. I found myself laughing out loud quite a bit. He does a great job of walking a tightrope between taking music very seriously, and laughingly expounding on all the absurdity and irrelevance of pop music. As the great John Peel stated... I have read few books as funny and none that caused me to recognise the roots of my own enthusiasm as clearly or as frequently. He summed it up much better than I have. Do yourself a favor and give Lost in Music a go! And while you are at it, look into Martin Newell and The Cleaners From Venus if you are a dedicated fan of the jangle.