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Street-Level Superstar: A Year With Lawrence DJ Fuzzyfelt spends a while with A Year With Lawrence and can't say he likes it much

Street-Level Superstar: A Year With Lawrence

DJ Fuzzyfelt spends a while with A Year With Lawrence and can't say he likes it much

by DJ Fuzzyfelt,
first published: October, 2024

approximate reading time: minutes

Street-Level Superstar is just a desperately sad book in which nobody really comes out of it well.

Cover artWill Hodgkinson
Street-Level Superstar: A Year With Lawrence
Eight Nine Books

Will Hodgkinson specialises in task-related music books, be it travelling the world getting guitar lessons off the likes of PJ Harvey, The Byrds’ Roger McGuinn, and acoustic folk legend Davey Graham; or trying to write a song after speaking with Keith Richards, XTC’s Andy Partridge, and Folk Grand Dame, Shirley Collins.

For his latest book Hodgkinson chooses to spend a year wandering the streets of London with Lawrence (don’t tell anybody my surname) Hayward, leader of long-term, indie darlings Felt, Denim, Go-Kart Mozart, and, latterly, Mozart Estate.

Basically it's the tale of a driven man who lives by so many self-imposed rules he never became the pop star he claims he wanted to be, but sabotaged everytime it might have come within touching distance… The examples are plentiful; Insisting on going home after every gig even if the concert is in Glasgow, not doing promotion work, or simply not turning up. A number of years of heroin addiction didn’t help.

He had the band members and supporters to put together some amazing records. At one point in Felt his band consisted of Maurice Deebank who was one of the great guitarists the 80s, often described as the British Tom Verlaine, with Phil King on bass who went on to be in Lush and Jesus and Mary Chain, a teenage Martin Duffy who went on to Primal Scream, plus Primitive Painters, Felt’s best known song, was produced by Cocteau Twins’ Robin Guthrie, and features Elizabeth Fraser on additional vocals… Of course Lawrence hated it…


Anyway, Will and Lawrence spend a year, on and off, when Lawrence deigns to turn up, wandering about with Lawrence, drinking very milky cups of tea and seemingly existing of liquorice, going into shops where Lawrence can’t afford the expensive goods on offer, all the while blaming everybody but himself for his lack of success.

Hodgkinson does take the time to interview some of Lawrence’s ex-band members, well those who want to talk about their time with him, and also a couple of ex-girlfriends both of whom seem quite traumatised that they wasted so much time on him. None of his family talk to him either but that’s obviously a two way thing.

Street-Level Superstar is just a desperately sad book in which nobody really comes out of it well.

 I shouldn’t say this but I’m glad that Amazon offers a no quibble 28-day money back policy so at least I won’t have this cluttering up my book shelves.


Essential information

Will Hodgkinson Street Level Superstar is available here and elsewhere

Read Outsideleft's interview with Maurice Deebank, 'This is How Maurice Deebank Felt' here


DJ Fuzzyfelt

DJ Fuzzyfelt is a part time intinerant farm worker, sharing their time between Portugal and Wales where there is a lot of farm work... Lover of music, megaliths, and magick.


about DJ Fuzzyfelt »»

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