Playing the Bass With Three Hands

Rock'n'roll biographies often follow a certain formula - get in a band, get famous, get fucked up, get dropped, get lost. But Playing the Bass With Three Hands by Will Carruthers is a different kind of beast.

As bass player in Spaceman 3 and Spiritualised, Will has played with two of the most cracked and fractious space rock groups the UK has spawned. But despite authoring a tome exploring his adventures with the bands, his tale is not one of success, nor one stuffed with the bragging so often afforded to musicians turned writers. Instead, his work follows him unceremoniously losing the plot and taking on jobs on building sites and abattoirs to fund his musical endeavours. The bleakness of the tall tale is off set by Will's self deprecatory tone, which takes on the eloquent rakish wit of a Victorian magician. I had the pleasure of meeting Will for an interview earlier in the year - we liaised in the lobby of a non-descript hotel in Fitzrovia and talked in its garden of his book tour and maiming song birds to make them sing sweeter. He drank a 10am Corona and smoked a series of small, gnarly little roll ups. It felt like I was holding court with a devilish gentlemen who, from his book and real life persona, has always been unsure of where fun stops and trouble begins. Read the book - it's ace..