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Good Reading : March 2016
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GOODREADINGMAGAZINE.COM.AU GOOD READING MARCH 2016 56 Road Series, a memoir by musician Hugo Race, begins with the author sprawled on a share-house bed, cloaked in black op-shop clothes and a haze of amphetamine, his brain electrified by an increasingly urgent obsession with music. It’s 1981 and he is 18. He floats in and out of bands, bashing out exper imental rock in tiny rented bedrooms and abandoned artist studios. He spends days and days without sleep, chasing originality and distorted sounds in basements into the early hours of morning. He plays to keyed-up crowds on secondhand guitars, opening for bands such as Psychedelic Furs and Violent Femmes, learning how to handle gigs and survive on tour. Eventually he joined a band called Man or Myth? and travelled to London. He met up with the black-humoured, charismatic lead singer called Nick, and over the following few months Hugo, Nick and the rest of the band recorded music, played gigs, and eventually morphed into the Bad Seeds. Since that first trip to London, Hugo hasn’t stopped travelling the world. ‘I just have to move back and forth. I’ve normally had two or three locations at a time that I’m living at in the past 20 years. It’s always been pretty fluid.’ Settled back in Melbourne for the time being, Hugo repeats a word that’s constantly used to describe him: restless. Music has been the only constant in his life. He’s jumped from project to project, he’s delved into stints as an actor and screenwriter, he’s started his own production company, released over 30 records and travelled extensively throughout Amer ica, Eastern Europe, Brazil and Mali. A musician’s touring lifestyle, combined with a profound urge to travel, meant that Hugo was never going to stay in his hometown of Melbourne for long. HUGO RACE, founding member of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, tells gr about his evocative memoir, Road Series. It’s a poetic and charged account of a life that entwines travel and music, following a nomadic journey that started when Hugo first left Melbourne in the early 1980s and which took to him to Timbuktu. , a memoir by begins with the author sprawled on a share-house bed, cloaked in black op-shop clothes and a haze electrified by an increasingly urgent obsession with music. He floats in and out of bands, early hours of morning. He plays to keyed-up crowds on secondhand guitars, morphed into the Bad Seeds. Since that first trip to London, Hugo hasn’t stopped travelling the world. back and forth. I’ve normally had two or three locations at a time that I’m living at in the past 20 years. It’s always been pretty fluid.’ Settled back in Melbourne for the time being, Hugo repeats a word that’s constantly used to describe him: restless. Music has been the only constant in his life. He’s jumped from project to UP CLOSE 3 The Restless Rocker and eventually morphed into the Bad that entwines travel and music, following a nomadic journey that started when Hugo first left Melbourne in the early 1980s and morphed into the Bad The Restless HugoRacel
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