@ Edinburgh International Book Festival on Fri 28 Aug 2015 @ 20:15
Following on from her gloriously successful memoir, Bedsit Disco Queen, Tracey Thorn (aka one half of Everything But the Girl) offered an insider’s take on the art of singing in ‘Getting Vocal About Singing’.
Chaired by Sarfraz Manzoor, Thorn analyses the joy and occasional heartache of singing in her new book Naked at the Albert Hall. It was originally to be called ‘The Trouble With Singing’ but the publishers didn’t much care for that.
Thorn’s book is a look at the mechanics of singing. It’s written from the perspective of practitioner but also as a fan of it. Along the way she discusses Dusty Springfield, Green Gartside (frontman of the band Scritti Politti), Alison Moyet, Dennis Potter, the microphone and X-Factor.
Thorn reads from her book musing about ‘vocal authenticity’ and ‘stage-fright’. Despite having a successful singing career since the early 80s as part of Everything But the Girl and three solo albums, she has been racked by stage fright almost from the start, often throwing up before each gig.
The title of the book is reference to a dream she has where her stage fright anxieties manifest themselves and she is singing naked at the Albert Hall. Thorn has sought help to overcome this, although not necessarily very successfully. She recounts a hilarious occasion of seeking help from a therapist, choosing the first one who came up when she Googled, which involved visualisation, tapping and annoying spa music.
In fact, Thorn still can’t bring herself to sing live any more but she has no problem performing, with apparent confidence, in front of a large audience at the Book Festival. There’s a warmth to Thorn, rather than the mysterious, sultry on-stage persona and she looks younger than her years. There’s a girlish charm, yet also a wisdom beyond her years.
Thorn writes with humour and reads with clarity bringing the words on the page to life, as she has done for countless decades with her song-writing, which has played such a big part of many of the audiences lives.