Hell Is Round the Corner: The Unique No-Holds Barred Autobiography

Very good insight about Tricky and his music. His music makes a lot more sense after reading. Tricky is a real dude that came up hard and always tried to play by his own rules and have integrity. His musical style demonstrates there is not one way to do music, that’s just a form of control, the best musicians don’t try to be, they just listen to their souls.

It's Tricky! If you are fan, it's worth the read.

Raw and true. I hope this was as healing for you to write as it was for me to read.

Tricky had gone off my radar for quite a while, but last year I really enjoyed catching up with albums like "False Idols", "Pre-Millennium Tension" and "Ununiform" - so reading "Hell Is Round the Corner" was a natural follow-up. Overall it's an interesting read, but rather like Tricky's career or most of his albums, it has its ups and down. It reads like its been transcribed from interviews, and without too much editing. Obviously the man's background and origins are relevant to the story, but a lot of the material about his family and Knowle Park West is repeated over and over again. The middle sections of the book drift along without much direction, the occasional interesting parts (like his time in Paris) along with fairly routine chat about hanging out with mates or his tax problems.As another reviewer says, there could be a lot more about the music and people he's worked with. Of course it's a timely reminder of the massive impact that Maxinquaye had when it came out (25 years ago!). There's some interesting stories from early days MC'ing with the Wild Bunch and Massive Attack. "Blue Lines" is one of my favourite albums of all time, especially for the way he showed how a rapper didn't have to copy US MC's for style or subject matter, but Tricky's pretty offhand about his involvement. Several of the people he's worked with are dismissed without too much ceremony, though he's not so forthcoming about who exactly he has in mind when he puts down various groups and artists who've based their careers on allegedly stealing his sound. Someone beginning with P maybe?I did find my attention wandering a few times as the book went on, and had to make a conscious effort to see it through to the end. I'm glad I did though, as otherwise I'd have been unaware of a concluding knock out punch in the narrative (don't worry, no plot spoilers here), which put a lot of the book's longueurs into perspective.Overall the book's an interesting and occasionally frustrating account of Tricky's life and career, and a cool reminder of what a vibrant and multicoloured place the early 90's music scene was.

I came to this book more because of the mythology of Massive Attack, the Wild Bunch and Bristol than from being a fan of Tricky's music. I always thought he had potential to be an amazing rapper, but his solo stuff failed to deliver for me, wheezy, inaudible and over an emo, sludgy musical backdrop.Despite this he always seemed to be a compelling and interesting figure, perverse and contrary, with a lot of cool cultural reference influences, the specials, hip hop etc.The book really didn't dissapoint, because Tricky has had a fascinating life. I found his family history as well as his Bristolian origins in Knowle West really interesting. Tricky also had an amazing capacity to move around and reinvent himself, which i felt in awe of.The Tricky Kid i would have liked to listen to never really emerged from the Massive Attack cocoon. My favourite of his songs is Nothing's Clear, which appears on a sickle cell charity compilation and was never properly released, sampling the specials and the soundtrack from Betty Blue.However, like Oscar Wilde his real genius seemed to be in living a flamboyant and fascinating life as an outlier and a true British original.

Interesting read, having listened to Tricky since the 90s I was aware of some of the background but not in that level of detail. It worked well that besides Tricky others close to him are also telling their stories. Didn't realise how big a role some of his family and management played in Tricky's success and longevity as an artist.Would have been great to learn more about the music making process and how he works with vocalists. It felt odd Martina didn't contribute, maybe it was her choice though. But barely any mention of other vocalists he's worked with, just in passing, and mainly about Marta with whom Tricky has worked most recently. Makes you wonder how it all worked and on what terms they are now.Enjoyed the writing style, it felt natural and easy to read.

It's weird to think that in the mid 90s Bristolian Tricky, aka Adrian Thawed was everywhere. He even had a role in a Hollywood blockbuster movie!Coming from a troubled background (his mother had committed suicide when he was very young), it reflected in his music making - a claustrophobic insular sound.This biography is more fascinating for me for what happened after the 90s. Without giving away too many spoilers, Tricky lived in several countries and continued making music but poor business decisions meant he ended up broke at one pointThere's not a happy ending to the book unfortunately, though hopefully Tricky will get through his current situation ok.It's a very revealing, honest biography of someone who never took the easy route.

This is one of the best autobiographies that I've read, certainly the most honest about a rough life. Coming from a large, mostly violent family, struggling to suevive and surviving just because he had to. This book covers his creative thinking, his distaste for the mainstream, moving from place to place, different countries, and eventually getting to a place in his life where everything was balanced, he slowed down, started looking after himself and he could finish this book. Sadly, life dealt him the biggest hurt right at the end...