Sathnam Sanghera: Tonight the Music Seems So Loud

Saturday 14 November, 5:00pm, Derby QUAD, DE1 3AS

This event will be filmed and made available as a digital recording after the Festival. Available for purchase here.

Ten years after his death, George Michael is still everywhere: the annual success of Last Christmas, new covers of his songs, and endless memes on social media.

He wrote one of the biggest hits of our age in ‘about an hour’ in his childhood bedroom.  He would go on to collaborate with some of the greatest musicians of all time, from Aretha Franklin to Stevie Wonder.  He was a pop star who bleached his hair blonde, wore tiny shorts and, at the same time, critiqued his own image mercilessly.

Wham! were the first Western pop group to play in Communist China and he repeatedly broke boundaries in music too.

He lived through the AIDS crisis and one of the most homophobic periods of British history and yet when he finally came out, he did so boldly and unapologetically.

Tonight the Music Seems So Loud is at once a kaleidoscopic portrait of one of Britain’s most beloved musicians and an account of a strange and turbulent period of British history. In his unconventional and enthralling book, Sathnam Sanghera, the bestselling author of Empireland explores the connection between music and politics, exposes what secrecy does to the soul, and reveals how fame rots the sense of self.

Throughout, Sanghera captures, joyfully and poignantly, one of Britain’s greatest artists in all his musical glory.

Sathnam will be in conversation with Festival Trustee and former journalist, Sarah Newton.

'This affecting exploration of the troubled genius’s impact is packed with anecdote, sharp analysis and social context . . . Michael emerges as a messy, unpredictable but ultimately hugely likable figure' – The Guardian

One of my favourite writers - Greg James, BBC

When you get to QUAD's website to book your ticket/s, you need to log in/set up an account.  When you click 'Book Tickets' it takes you to another page and you MUST click on the time (even though there is only one time for most of our events) in order to get to the seating plan page