About this item
Highlights
- I've written this memoir for my English and Colombian family, dear friends and music fans, who have followed my musical twists and turns for over half a century.
- Author(s): Phil Manzanera
- 326 Pages
- Biography + Autobiography, Music
Description
Book Synopsis
I've written this memoir for my English and Colombian family, dear friends and music fans, who have followed my musical twists and turns for over half a century. We all have different memories of the same events, and these stories are my stories. It's a memoir that spans my 50's childhood in Cuba, Hawaii and Venezuela, when everything seemed in the brightest technicolor, to grey but very cool '60's London and the start of a music career that continues to enrich my life, some 50 years later. Roxy Music is an important part of the story and I will be forever thankful to the doors it opened for me to a global world of music and musical collaborations. But I hope you'll find my family history every bit as fascinating as my music adventures, I'm proud to be related to a Colombian pirate, a spy and and an Italian opera musician.
Phil Manzanera is one of the UK's best-known musicians, record producers, having shot to prominence in the early '70's as the lead guitarist with the seminal band, Roxy Music. In 2022 the band celebrated its 50th anniversary with a critically acclaimed tour of the US and UK.
Phil combines his live playing with writing and producing new music, as well as contributing to other artist's albums.
Manzanera, born to a British father and Colombian mother, has always taken a global approach to his music making, collaborating with musicians from South and Latin America, South Africa, Cuba and continental Europe. He has worked with many of the greats of popular music, including Bob Dylan, David Gilmour, Robert Wyatt, Tim Finn and Brian Eno.
Review Quotes
'The book is a great globe-trotting read, charting 50 years...in one of the most innovative bands of them all.....the early chapters, which you sometimes skim in memoirs, are just as engaging because Manzanera had a bracingly, colourful childhood.' The Times
' This isn't one of those rockstar biographies where you skip the early chapters dealing with childhood, family and school days. In this case, that aspect of the narrative is quite as compelling as the rockstar stuff.' Prog Rock
'How one little riff (for Jay Z and Kanye West) earned me more than Roxy Music.' The i
'Phil muses in the book's preface whether the world needs another rockstar memoir. When it's as entertaining and candid as this the answer is a resounding yes.' Classic Rock
'Roxy Music guitarists' warm and conversational memoir. Few autobiographies feature their subject witnessing a revolution. But growing up in Cuba (to a British father and Colombian mother) 8 year old Phil Manzanera was there for Fidel Castro's historical coup.' Mojo
'I can honestly say that it (memoir) will prove informative and entertaining. Not least, the book is an interesting exploration of rock-band dynamics. There are stories about his longcollaboration with David Gilmour. But this isn't one of those rockstar biographies where you skip the early chapters dealing with childhood, family and schooldays, here the narrative is quite as compelling as the rockstar stuff.' Blue Moment