NEW BOOK – Noise Damage: My Life As A Rock ’n’ Roll Underdog – James Kennedy
James Kennedy played in a band called Kyshera from South Wales. They ripped stages apart with their one hundred percent one hundred mile-an-hour performances… Genre-less, insomuch that they played this crazed skewed Zappa-like, Muse-like, rock-punk like, orchestra-like noise that formed their debut album ‘Made In China’, they were out there on their own. When you put too many colours on a canvas it turns grey, it blurs the eye. Kyshera were clever enough to fill the sound spectrum without clogging it. It’s a masterpiece, as were their two follow up releases.
What the average gig goer / fan of music doesn’t realise is what a band has to go through just to get to the point of playing to you in the Queens Legs in Bargoed on a Tuesday night in January. The van hire, getting lost, lugging amps through streets of shoppers, losing the drummer to a mystery illness (again), arguing over the £20 you’ve been paid etc, It’s a shit business…
If you’re in a band, or have been in a band then this book is essential reading – you will nod despairingly and knowingly at the lows and the even lowers a musician goes through. Kyshera never ‘made it’ in the commercial sense, just like millions of other bands… You will read about the pitfalls and how you will never avoid them. You’ll read about an industry brimming will bullshitters and confidence tricksters. You’ll read about personal relationships destroyed as a result of being in a band. Of course, you’ll know this already, but believe me, once picked up, you’ll be hard pushed to put this incredible book down again.
James Kennedy’s heart is nailed to his sleeve, you will laugh out loud and wipe a tear from your eye as he takes you on an incredible journey… Book your front row seat now…