Up above the city, down beneath the stars : Magazine, the Bad Seeds, into the underworld and beyond

A member of seminal new-wave band Magazine, the original bassist in the legendary Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, a Mercury-Prize-nominated solo artist, and pioneer of the imaginary soundtrack album—no matter where Barry Adamson's career has taken him, the result has been consistently impressive. Covering his early life up to the 1990s, 'The Barry Adamson Story' addresses Adamson's Mancunian and mixed-race roots, beginning in the late 1950s, through to the highs of his momentous musical achievements and the lows of psychiatric hospitals and drug rehabs. Using a 'noir' style of self examination, he also investigates the acute loss of his parents and sister in his early twenties, multiple failed relationships and arrives at the beginnings of a successful Hollywood soundtrack career. In Up Above the City, Down Beneath the Stars, the enigmatic Barry Adamson shines a probing light into his own heart of darkness. Born in the black and white world of post-industrial Manchester, Adamson saw music as a chance to turn his world technicolour. Propelled into punk via Magazine, he was the founding bass player in Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, before stumbling too far down a dark, drug-induced path. Adamson steers the reader through a mix of harrowing, tragic, funny and often life-affirming straights. Throughout it all, music – be it bass lines, melodies or film soundtracks – is the glue that binds a myriad of memories. Written in Adamson's distinctive and cinematic noir style, and including personal photographs throughout, Up Above the City, Down Beneath the Stars is an original and powerful memoir, full of suspense, humour and candour. Barry Adamson's extraordinary life has taken in two hugely influential bands, instigating the idea of the imaginary film soundtrack and an acclaimed solo career, as well as work as a writer, film director and actor. The first volume of his autobiography covers his childhood and his time in both Magazine and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds.