“The Late Greats” is the second Joe Geraghty novel. Set in my home city of Hull, Geraghty, a small time Private Investigator, is employed as a general dogsbody by Kane Major, manager of reforming 1990’s Britpop band, New Holland. But the job changes when vocalist, Greg Tasker, goes missing. “The Late Greats” is first and foremost a crime novel, but music is one of my passions and the temptation to draw on it for the background of a novel was just too great.
Hull has never really been a hot bed of musical talent. True, Mick Ronson became David Bowie’s trusted lieutenant in the 1970s and The Housemartins enjoyed massive chart success in the 1980s with their catchy tunes and knowing lyrics, but by the time I was old enough to go to The Adelphi, the city’s legendry music venue in the early 1990s, the moment had passed. Kingmaker came and went, but were always just out of step with the times, and the band most likely to hit the big time, Spacemaid, didn’t get the breaks they maybe deserved.
When it came to creating a fictional band for “The Late Greats”, they had to be bigger than what I’d experienced firsthand. I needed their downfall and subsequent issues to be magnified to create the tension necessary to carry a novel. Along with Tasker and Major, guitarist Steve Priestley completes the story’s key players. Greg Tasker is at the heart of the book, so to fully explore him for different angles, Major and Priestley had to become different sides of the same coin. One had to be hardened, the other more sensitive. Whilst not explicitly based on real people, the larger than life nature of Kane Major hints at the celebrity managers of years gone by, like Andrew Loog Oldham who created the Jagger-Richards monster, whilst the dynamic between Tasker and Priestley draws on the love-hate relationship that characterised Lennon and McCartney’s time working together.
For all its musical backdrop, “The Late Greats” is resolutely a crime novel. It’s a novel which takes Joe Geraghty deep into his city and explores it through the lens of people who have transcended it. Above all, it’s a story about friendship, loyalty and what really constitutes success in life. And of course, I couldn’t resist the title. Could you if your favourite band gave you such a gift?
Information
“The Late Greats” is published by Caffeine Nights autumn 2011. “Broken Dreams” is available now. Further Geraghty stories appear in volumes eight and nine of the “Mammoth Book of Best British Crime”. For more details, see www.hullcrimefiction.co.uk
Playlist
David Bowie (with Mick Ronson on lead guitar) – “Queen Bitch” (1972)
The Housemartins – “Happy Hour” (1986)
Kingmaker – “Ten Years Asleep” (1993)
Spacemaid – “The Girl Who Sold The World” (1996)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmZzUKvWmkQ&feature=related
The Rolling Stones – “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” (1968)
The Beatles – “We Can Work It Out” (1965)
Wilco – “The Late Greats” (2004)
Now that’s MY kind of soundtrack. The Housemartins are a new treat, too. Thank you Nick.
Great tunes! Got my writing music now for today–thanks! Gonna have to get THE LATE GREATS for my reading as well.
You know, I’m loving this new weekly feature. I hope more authors jump on board and send me their soundtracks to post, because I’m discovering a lot of great music.
Great post. Really looking forward to The Late Greats. Broken Dreams is a great debut novel.