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Primal Scream's Bobby Gillespie releasing memoir 'Tenement Kid'

Primal Scream frontman Bobby Gillespie has led an interesting life. He was the early drummer in The Jesus & Mary Chain, worked as a roadie for Altered Images and played bass in The Wake. Gillespie was also central to the story of iconic UK indie label Creation Records via Primal Scream, leading the group through many permutations before stumbling backwards into rave culture with their classic Andrew Weatherall-produced 1990 single “Loaded” and era-defining album Screamadelica. At least through the ’90s, Gillespie and the rest of band were known for their party-friendly stance, not to mention an often politically charged agenda, which is all to say he’s overdue for a memoir. Now we’re getting one, Tenement Kid, which will be out October 28 via White Rabbit.

The book follows Gillespie from his formative years up through the release of Screamadelica:

Structured in four parts, Tenement Kid builds like a breakbeat crescendo to the final quarter of the book, the Summer of Love, Boys Own parties, and the fateful meeting with Andrew Weatherall in an East Sussex field. As the ’80s bleed into the ’90s and a new kind of electronic soul music starts to pulse through the nation’s consciousness, Primal Scream become the most innovative British band of the new decade, representing a new psychedelic vanguard taking shape at Creation Records.

Ending with the release of Screamadelica and the tour that followed in the autumn, Tenement Kid is a book filled with the joy and wonder of a rock n roll apostle who would radically reshape the future sounds of fin de siecle British pop. Published thirty years after the release of their masterpiece, Bobby Gillespie’s memoir cuts a righteous path through a decade lost to Thatcherism and saved by acid house.

You can pre-order Tenement Kid now, including a few special editions.

Screamadelica turns 30 this year and one wonders what celebrations might’ve been happening without the pandemic.