Exit Stage Left: The curious afterlife of pop stars

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The happiest people in the book are the ones who accept fame when it happened, that know that going out, playing a few gigs a year, featuring the old hits, whilst playing newer songs which go down less well is the fate that awaits them. It was very heavily geared toward older Gen-x English men, there were hardly any female pop stars profiled and it took something which could have been interesting and flattened it out. From Paul from S Club 7 and Robbie Williams to Shaun Ryder and Tim Burgess and everyone in between, Duerden leaves no stone unturned in unearthing what happens when the lights go down on a career in pop music. For many, the answer appears to be a reliance on illegal substances and for the most part everyone who has ever chased the dream of being a popular musician has found themselves ravaged by emotional scars and serious questions about their self worth. Andy Miller, Spectator 'Fame is the brightest candle, but in this brilliant collection of interviews, Nick Duerden answers the question: what does a candle do after it's burned out?

By covering their successful histories and the artist filling in how their lives have gone since, it certainly made a worthwhile read. S. publications, sometimes catching up with the same artists multiple times over the course of their careers. If you come see us live – try to let go of hearing you particular favourite or disappointment will follow. More personal subject matter — how is the artist really doing — usually wasn’t the topic of conversation.We live in a culture obsessed by the notion of fame - the heedless pursuit of it; the almost obligatory subsequent fallout. The musicians covered vary widely across genre, success story, and decade: Dexy's Midnight Runners, Musical Youth, Sigue Sigue Sputnik, Natalie Merchant, Robbie Williams, Joan Armatrading, Terence Trent D'arby, Tenpole Tudor, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, the Sugarcubes, Tears for Fears, Adam Ant, John McLean, Mission UK. Exit Stage Left: The Curious Afterlife of Pop Stars by Nick Duerden is an entertaining look at what happens to pop stars after the hits stop coming.

The interviewees who just wanted fame, riches beyond avarice, and continued critical and commercial acclaim are the ones who seemed to want the fame more.The book also touches on areas generally not touched with a ten-foot (Tudor) pole by the music biz – mental illness, poverty, shame, family estrangement, divorce, burnout. But what's it like to actually achieve it, and what's it like when fame abruptly passes, and shifts, as it does, onto someone else? Fame is the brightest candle, but in this brilliant collection of interviews, Nick Duerden answers the question: what does a candle do after it's burned out? I came away from this book with even more admiration for the sheer bravery it takes to establish and maintain a musical career, because other than the . The book includes interviews with a genre-crossing range of artists whose stories, while wildly different from one another, all echo the fickle nature of the music industry.