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The Rise, The Fall, and The Rise

Brix Smith Start

The unmissable memoir from the Fall guitarist and fashion expert.
‘A rock ‘n’ roll must-read’ NME

2 in stock

Currently Unavailable
Format
Paperback
ISBN
9780571325061
Date Published
02.03.2017
Delivery
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Summary

SHORTLISTED FOR THE PENDERYN MUSIC BOOK PRIZE 2017

The Rise, The Fall, and The Rise is the extraordinary story, in her own words, of Brix Smith Start. Best known for her work in The Fall at the time when they were perhaps the most powerful and influential anti-authoritarian postpunk band in the world — This Nation’s Saving Grace, The Wonderful and Frightening World Of … — Brix spent ten years in the band before a violent disintegration led to her exit and the end of her marriage with Mark E Smith.

But Brix’s story is much more than rock ‘n’ roll highs and lows in one of the most radically dysfunctional bands around. Growing up in the Hollywood Hills in the ’60s in a dilapidated pink mansion her life has taken her from luxury to destitution, from the cover of the NME to waitressing in California, via the industrial wasteland of Manchester in the 1980s. What emerges is a story of constant reinvention, jubilant highs and depressive ebbs; a singular journey of a teenage American girl on a collision course with English radicalism on her way to mid-life success on TV and in fashion.

Too bizarre, extreme and unlikely to exist in the pages of fiction, The Rise, The Fall, and The Rise could only exist in the pages of a memoir.

Critic Reviews

She's one of those people who knows everyone and tells you everything - which makes for a vibrant, entertaining read, even when peppered with darker moments.

Glamour
Critic Reviews

Brix Smith-Start's new memoir charts a remarkable journey [...] While her incredible story of career and life highs and lows beggars belief, it's also universal - this is a woman who's lived a full life, grown from her mistakes and learned to trust her gut. That's a lesson all of us can learn from,

Red
Critic Reviews

The Rise, the Fall, and the Rise has satisfying quantities of rock ’n’ roll filth but also a remarkably unspoilt sweetness of spirit. [The] book is lively, fresh and funny.

The Telegraph
Critic Reviews

Smith-Start's hard-won account of the best and worst [indie] has to offer

GQ
Critic Reviews

Brix’s book is a complex, emotional rush – full of rock n roll, broken hearts and spectral madness. It’s also a fantastically written tale of another life on the rock n roll rollercoaster with a pithy humour and great turn of phrase and looks set to be one of the music books of the year.

Louder Than Words
Brix SmithStart

From a childhood in the celebrity-filled canyons of California to living in squalor in Manchester while playing in cult band, the Fall, to sitting front row in fashion shows as buyer for her own fashion store, to presenting prime-time television; Brix’s journey has been one that required a fearlessness few women have and has brought inspiration to many. A pioneering…

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Brix SmithStart
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