Ten Thousand Apologies

Without knowing it I first came across Fat White Family about 4 or 5 years back. A Graphic designer I then worked with enjoyed the more bizarre world of art and film and was insistent that I watch a rather Pythonish film clip with a fair bit of blood and gore. I recall laughing at its absurdity and not giving it much thought.

Later on I was going through a Neo Psychedelia phase via Spotify and enjoying it. Recommendations came and went and Fat White Family for some reason came up, so I played their Serfs Up album, more based on what I thought was a very good name for an album than anything else. One song stood out, Tastes Good with the Money, and that was added to the Likes list to have an occasional play. As is my way with music, I moved on to other things.

The beauty of Goodreads is reading others reviews and them hitting a spot. With that, I read Nigeyb's review of Ten Thousand Apologies: Fat White Family and the Miracle of Failure and thought about how I knew this band and that the review was very compelling. Nigeyb's review linked.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5974118970

I did a bit of research and when I had a look at them on YouTube I recognised the film clip that the Graphic Designer had liked. A Parental Guidance warning for the squeamish.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLTWNfyMS5Y

I am not that keen on music and sport bio to be honest. I lost interest in what to me was the same old story many years back. I really have no need to read Keith Richard's bio, as an example, and never will. Nor any other of the more famous, they are not that interesting in my opinion. If I am going to read anything music it has to be the more obscure, those that had a brief moment in the sun, and from my part of the world Fat White family fit that obscurity.

Nigeyb makes a good point about this book, “It involves a spectacular amount of drug taking and a wanton disregard for anything approaching professionalism.” From a musical side of things the drug taking is hardly new in the world of music, as for lack of professionalism, from the point of view of making the music itself, the way that Fat White Family approached the making of their 2nd album the lack of professionalism was such drug fuelled chaos that they produced something verging on, at times, hardly listenable. It is truly a miracle it was released. But as to it being a failure, I have to say it is the perfect soundtrack for this book, and after several plays I am liking it a bit more than I might have if I had not persevered. I have a soft spot for lo-fi having listened to such luminaries as the superb Kiwi Chris Knox through to US outsider musician Daniel Johnston. The truth is, Fat White Family are nowhere in the same league in terms of songwriting ability as those two I have mentioned, but that lo-fi ethos is at times evident in Music For our Mothers and with that just gets that little better with each play.

But.........that does not matter as this book is better than just another drug fuelled rock and roll story. It is actually an exceptional telling of the lives of the major members of Fat White Family. Let's start with the fact I have actually listened to this via Audiobook via my Spotify Premium account, this is only the 2nd Audiobook I have ever listened to. It is told in the third person by Emily Spowage and in the first person by Fat White Family founder and member Lias Saoudi and is told brilliantly. Emily Spowage is perfect for the 3rd person telling, and this is offset superbly by the world weariness of Lias narration. This is not just a music Bio, we cover the Saoudi brothers multicultural upbringing of a mixed Algerian Berber father and Yorkshire mother and the trials and tribulations that that caused in such places as Northern Ireland when their parents split and their mother took them to live there with her new husband. Outsiders they were in NI and hence always outsiders and attracted abuse as such. And that is also the attraction of the book, a permanent sense of not belonging in all worlds they were exposed to, be that of their parents, the schools attended and even the world they joined, that being music and outlier performance art.

My music tastes are incredibly broad, I can take in anything from any works of the classical world through to obscure noise musicians, and even in my mid-sixties I am looking for new music to challenge me. Does Fat White Family's music challenge me? To a degree, the answer is yes. The almost unplayable 2nd album I will give a few more plays as it gets better and better, that is a challenge I like; the debut I have enjoyed but needs more plays. The more polished Serfs Up I am starting to really enjoy. Mind you, I have serious earworm with the tune Tastes Good with the Money. That is now into its 5th day now. Go away!

I would suggest that if one is into the fairly generic pop of say Taylor Swift, then one will not like this band's music one little bit. If one is into say the more experimental pop of The Beatles they may find them a curio, they also might be surprised about a very strong link to those musical superstars if they read/listened to this exceptional book.