{"title":"Ted Kessler","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"to-ease-my-troubled-mind-the-authorised-unauthorised-history-of-billy-childish","title":"To Ease My Troubled Mind: The Authorised Unauthorised History of Billy Childish","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe story of \u003cstrong\u003eBilly Childish\u003c\/strong\u003e, the most famous artist you have never heard of, by legendary music journalist \u003cstrong\u003eTed Kessler\u003c\/strong\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn 1977, 17-year-old Steven Hamper was a stonemason in the dockyards of Chatham, Kent. His heart, however, beat in sync with the punk rock tremors of the era, seduced by its celebration of amateurism. So, in a gesture of revolutionary defiance, he took a 3lb club hammer and smashed his hand, vowing to never work again. In doing so, Steven Hamper metamorphosed into \u003cstrong\u003eBilly Childish\u003c\/strong\u003e, a true renaissance man.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eChildish\u003c\/strong\u003e has since remained steadfastly true to punk's DIY cred, becoming one of the most recognisable and authentic voices in whichever artistic endeavour he undertakes. He has released over one hundred and fifty albums of raw rock and roll, punk, blues and folk, written many volumes of searing poetry as well as several autobiographical novels. But what he is perhaps best known for in recent years is his painting, for which he is now critically, commercially and internationally fêted. He hasn't changed course in any of his disciplines, though. The world just caught up with the sheer volume of his brutally honest work.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eTo Ease My Troubled Mind\u003c\/em\u003e is a mosaic portrait collated over a year of interviews with \u003cstrong\u003eChildish\u003c\/strong\u003e, as well as with close family, ex-girlfriends, band members past and present, friends, foes, collaborators, even his therapist. It is an unflinching, yet frequently spiritual and funny portrait of an artist whose obstacle-strewn upbringing formed the backbone of his work: raised in a broken home and abused as a child, \u003cstrong\u003eChildish\u003c\/strong\u003e was an undiagnosed dyslexic in remedial class at school who is nevertheless now Britain's most prolific and uncompromising creative force.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"White Rabbit","offers":[{"title":"Hardback | Signed Copy","offer_id":50441777086795,"sku":"2192020","price":140.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Hardback","offer_id":50441777545547,"sku":"2192021","price":17.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/HB_Normal_Edition_-_Billy_Childish_Asset_419c0b9e_thumbnail_4096.png?v=1726986853"},{"product_id":"paper-cuts-how-i-destroyed-the-british-music-press-and-other-misadventures","title":"Paper Cuts: How I Destroyed the British Music Press and Other Misadventures","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe story of Britpop and its aftermath, told through the eyes of music editor Ted Kessler\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePAPER CUTS is the inside story of the slow death of the British music press. But it's also a love letter to it, the tale of how music magazines saved one man's life. Ted Kessler left home and school around his seventeenth birthday, determined 'to be someone who listened to music professionally'. That dream appeared forlorn when he was later arrested for theft behind the counter of the record shop he managed during acid house's long hot summer of love. Paper Cuts tells how Kessler found redemption through music and writing and takes us on a journey alongside the stars he interviewed and the work-place dramas he navigated as a senior staffer at NME through the boom-time '90s and on to the monthly Q in 2004, where he worked for sixteen years before it folded with him at its helm as editor in 2020.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWe travel in time alongside musical heroes Paul Weller, Kevin Rowland, Mark E Smith, and to Cuba twice, first with Shaun Ryder and Bez, then with Manic Street Preachers. We spend long, mad nights out with Oasis and The Strokes, quality time with Jeff Buckley and Florence Welch, and watch Radiohead deliver cold revenge upon Kessler in public. A story about love and death, about what it's like when a music writer shacks up with a conflict of interest, and what happens when your younger brother starts appearing on the cover of the magazines you work for, this is the memoir of \"a delinquent doofus\" whose life was both rescued and defined by music magazines.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"White Rabbit","offers":[{"title":"Hardback - 1145370","offer_id":50466835824971,"sku":"1145370","price":18.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"Hardback","offer_id":50466835857739,"sku":"1145998","price":18.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/421b5029-2723-4587-8e96-98c2d58892d7_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727324330"}],"url":"https:\/\/shop.roughtrade.com\/collections\/ted-kessler.oembed","provider":"Rough Trade","version":"1.0","type":"link"}