About the Author

Steve Hanley is a legendary bass player best known for his time with iconic Manchester band The Fall, a band he was recruited into at the age of nineteen. His distinctive and original sound has seen him acknowledged as one of Britain's foremost bassists. Olivia Piekarski is a writer with a passion for contemporary fiction and music. She has worked abroad and in the UK as a teacher, an actor and in radio. She lives in Manchester with her two children.

Reviews

Steve Hanley has seen one of British music's most perplexing and brilliant institutions from the inside and lived to tell the tale. This is the absorbing, eye-popping, hilarious story of growing up in the feverish heart of The Mighty Fall. - Stuart Maconie All the reasons why you should never join a band but also why it's impossible not to. Bless them for going through it so the rest of us mere mortals can enjoy the greatness that is The Fall. - Jim Glennie An honest, disturbing and at times hilarious look into the inner workings of a groundbreaking band. Steve, the silent, stoic, dependable beating heart and engine room of the band was my rock for all the years I played in The Fall, but I never knew what he was thinking. This book is such a gift for me. - Brix Smith Start Steve Hanley's book will of course be an essential read for fans of The Fall. But anyone would be taken in by the way it gives you a totally different take on the rock and roll experience. It's a voyage of self-discovery, but it doesn't read as some forced feel-my-pain-confessional or rock biog cliche. Steve is calm, free of hysteria, and avoids self-conscious literary flourishes in favour of the kind of measured, effortless sounding tone that actually takes a lot of thought and effort to achieve. - Stewart Lee