Adventures in Music, Books and Film

In this book, writer, musician, and filmmaker Chris Wade recalls some of his more interesting experiences while writing books, recording music, and making films. Within these pages, Chris recounts his creative endeavours and remembers some of the highlights of his working life; like having Catherine Deneuve trying to ring his house phone but being unable to get through because Chris’s wife and mother in law were on the line discussing fireplaces; interviewing Michael Palin about Danish art; writing a book on James Woods and getting to interview him for months; having Oliver Stone tell him that he definitely has a Scottish accent; dreaming about working with Scarlet Rivera and then getting her to play on his song; interviewing his hero Paul Auster for a book which Auster then started to help him edit; recording a duet with Toyah Willcox without meeting her and her asking to write an extra verse to the song; shoving Rik Mayall into a cupboard to record an audiobook of his story; getting voice messages from Jeff Bridges sounding just like the Dude; travelling the UK to record interviews for his documentaries in 24 hour round trips which were absolutely exhausting; having Peep Show’s Matt King record his audiobook in Indonesia but him having to postpone it because his face was attacked by wasps; recording songs with Nigel Planer that Nigel wrote when he was 18; interviewing a range of people including Donald Sutherland, Sharon Stone, and others. Read about these scenarios and many more in Chris’s book, which is part work diary, part memoir, and part celebration of the madness of creativity. Chris Wade is a UK based writer, filmmaker and musician. As well as running the acclaimed music project Dodson and Fogg, he has written books on Federico Fellini, James Woods, Marlene Dietrich, Pablo Picasso, Marcello Mastroianni, Bob Dylan and many others. He has also released audiobooks of his comedic fiction, such as Cutey and the Sofaguard, narrated by Rik Mayall. For his varied projects he has interviewed such people as Sharon Stone, Paul Auster, Roger McGough, Will Self, Oliver Stone, Catherine Deneuve, Stephen Frears, Henry Jaglom, James Woods, and Bertrand Blier. His art films include The Apple Picker (winner of Best Film at Sydney World Film Festival), and he has made documentaries on such figures as Charlie Chaplin, Ken Russell, Orson Welles and George Melly.