Under a Floorboard World: The Career of Katie Jane Garside

by Charlie Bramley

Katie Jane Garside is a multifaceted singer, artist and poet with a cult following, known most for her work in the bands Daisy Chainsaw, Queen Adreena and Ruby Throat. During a career spanning over four decades, she has produced a prolific body of creative work that has thus far been under-represented. This book provides a long overdue exploration into the career of Garside, offering rich analysis and original insight.

Featuring an original new interview with Garside herself undertaken during the writing period, the book offers much needed documentation and analysis, as well as provoking new avenues of discussion not previously explored.

Paperback

First published January 1, 2017

Reviews

[Maria · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting book. Not your normal biography by any means, but I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. Would definitely recommend.

[Rich Dodgin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm a huge Daisy Chainsaw and Queen Adreena fan, but apart from the odd online review or article, knew little about Katie Jane Garside. So when I stumbled across details of this book online I had to order it.

Charlie Bramley has written an impressive book that provides a fascinating insight into KJG and her artistic approach. Charlie's enthusiasm jumps off the page at you and as a result this is a thoroughly enjoyable and entertaining read.

What I've learned from reading this book has me itching to check out KJG's other music. And as a writer myself, I will also be checking out her poetry etc.

If you want to know more about Katie Jane Garside then this book is an absolute must -
great stuff!!

[Sabrina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Charlie Bramley’s book offers a unique and analytical insight into the career of one of the most inspirational female singers of the last three decades. Katie Jane Garside’s art has been largely ignored and underrepresented in academia and a study of this nature brings a current debate to a much under-defined performer.

Bramley’s analysis of Garside’s art and performance covers all faucets of her body of work and treats each layer with robust academic scrutiny. Bramley’s prose style is both academic and engaging but don’t think this is a standard rock-biography. There is little biographical detail about Garside’s personal-life, favouring a reading of her art as a holistic whole.

As a huge fan of Katie Jane Garside, I enjoyed reading this book immensely. I’m actually surprised nobody has written about Garside in such depth and breadth before. It made me re-question some of the decisions she has made in her career and read for allusions and parallels with other contemporary artists such as Cindy Sherman and PJ Harvey.

[Brent Bonet · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was quite the slog. Very academic. I could handle it for the first half or so but after that it was just too much. I enjoyed the comparison of KJG to other "challenging" women, particularly the way Courtney Love was treated compared to Kurt Cobain. I think many musicians can relate to the description of being in the zone when performing. The destruction of the self. Katie Jane Garside is a truly unique talent. I'm not sure that anyone other than herself can really let us into her process.

[Charlie · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF

I'm a big fan of KJG and was very excited to read this book...

I would never normally write something bad about someone's work as I don't generally see the need to be negative about something - if I don't like something that's fine, it's a matter of taste.
BUT this is just so abysmally written. It's so terrible that I've had to come online and see if other people agree with me - and it seems they do.

I can't finish it. If this was content on a fan's early noughties geocities website then it would be fine; I still wouldn't be able to finish reading it, but it would be inoffensive.
However it's absolutely not worthy of book format.
A waste of paper. Don't bother wasting 15 quid on it.

Fair play to the bloke it LOOKS really professionally done... I guess it's one time where "never judge a book by it's cover" rings true!

[Amelia · Rating 1 out of 5]

I decided to read this self published book as I was getting frustrated with the difficulties I have seen many young academics face when trying to get their work out there. Unfortunately, this book reaffirms the need for rigorous peer reviewing. I can only think Garside would be nothing short of horrified by the amateurish ramblings she has, presumably unwittingly, lent her voice to. The writing smacks of an over enthusiastic child, inappropriately pleased with their own voice which barely veils their idolisation of the book's subject, bordering on fetishistic. If you are interested in academic texts on musicians, I recommend looking for books published by Bloomsbury Continuum and Palgrave Macmillan. Unfortunately, I am not currently aware of any credible book on Garside. I only hope this will inspire an accomplished academic and writer to make her their subject in future.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was very pleased with the outcome of this after not really being sure what to expect. I saw that KJG recommended it herself, so was worth shelling out for. Overall it is a really well thought through and carefully considered book. Lots of cool avenues I had sort have considered,but not really to this depth. It goes heavy into a lot of complex areas that I found really interesting.

[V.S. Nelson]

DNF
I’m a huge fan of Katie Jane Garside. I’m pretty sure I have all of her albums, including the nice first additions of the Ruby Throat efforts and I think four different versions of The Ventriloquist. I also have Indigo Vertico, the poetry book and some handwritten poetry on some very delicate paper. But despite all of this, I couldn’t finish this book. I tried, I really did, but this was not for me.
I would add, the author’s comments about how female musicians are perceived with respect to male musicians was very interesting and something that should be highlighted.