2024-09-10
34 分钟Robert Bound is joined in the studio by writer and ‘Monocle on Culture’ regular Will Hodgkinson to discuss his new book, ‘Street-Level Superstar, A Year With Lawrence’ . The book tells the story of Lawrence, the founder of the band Felt, and later, Denim. Is he the greatest pop star that never was? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Hello and welcome to Monocle on Culture.
I'm Robert Bound.
On today's show, I'm speaking to the author and music critic Will Hodgkinson about his new book titled Street Level A Year with Lawrence.
Who?
You know Lawrence, the pop star who only requires the one name like Madonna or Morrissey.
Such is his stardom, you know, the pop star, or is he?
If you're still scratching your head, then put it this way.
Lawrence, having emerged from Birmingham suburbia, founded the band Felt in the early 1980s, releasing 10 albums and 10 singles.
As per his own manifesto, Felt made some beautiful lyrical guitar based music, but didn't much trouble the charts.
Then Lawrence founded Denim with the ambition to be an out and out pop phenomenon, but it all went wrong and ended in depression, addiction and a stint of homelessness.
Lastly, we have Mozart Estate.
Surely this band would show the Spotify Massive the wonders of Lawrence's worldview and pop sensibilities.
Well, not so far.
Lawrence, however, has been an object of fascination for connoisseurs of the what might have been, as well as for those who really and rightly love some of the music that he's made.
Lawrence's career is akin to that of a great lost artist, but he's very much alive and has spent four decades telling the world that he's great and wants to be famous.
And Will's book is partly an attempt to find out why he's not.
It's part travelogue, part pop history, part as told to memoir, and also a very generous, hilarious, charming and tender portrait of an unstintingly rigorous artist for whom the vision seems worth more than life itself.
And the pursuit of that vision is more vital than success.
Maybe for Lawrence, living life in the way he chooses is the art form at which he has been a most brilliant success.
So joining me to discuss Street Level Superstar is its author, Will Hodgkinson.