The road between my feet
Frank turner
Headline publications
If i was starting again and planning out my life. I would be quite happy knowing that I would I know little about frank turner by the time interned fifty.
It would matter little to me that he was in a band called million dead that seemingly would operate in similar punk rock circles to me but while I was listening to whoever in 2005, they would be playing their last shows.
Another rock and roll band of dreamers, drinkers and smokers. Leave them to it. I would be too busy wanting to change the world and the music industry.
Fast forward to now and here I am 50, reading Frank Turners kind of autobiography. It’s a diary of gigs he has played since being in million dead. The venues are familiar, the type of places that the bands I listen to play in. However I can’t imagine too many of them feeling “ancestral in seaside towns “ like Frank does as England was a nation of sailors!!!
Reading through his gig diary I notice why we operate in different worlds. Our interest in politics differ, our world view comes from very different places and our thoughts on the music business are like chalk and cheese. I got about one third of the way through and realized why, despite having this book for 3 years, I’m only getting round to it now. It’s just not that interesting. A real shame but I suppose I had to go through it to realize it. It doesn’t go without its controversial parts. Turner has played Israel despite the call for an international cultural boycott. He equates it to China or even America. For me it’s excuses, the sort people used when there was a call for a boycott of South Africa. Turner can do as he chooses, doesn’t mean I have to choose to accept what he does.
There are parts when turners work ethic shines through. He will play any gig, anywhere and this is his tale
niallhope
