Nina Simone's Gum: A Memoir of Things Lost and Found

Description

THE TIMES BESTSELLER FEATURING AN INTRODUCTION BY NICK CAVE 'Warren has turned this memento, snatched from his idol's piano in a moment of rapture, into a genuine religious artefact.' - NICK CAVE 'In praise of meaning-rich relics and magical things. Totally heartwarming project.' - MAX PORTER 'A unique study of a fan's devotion, of transcendence and of the artistic vocation - it's got depth and great warmth. It's a beautiful piece of work.' - KEVIN BARRY I hadn't opened the towel that contained her gum since 2013. The last person to touch it was Nina Simone, her saliva and fingerprints unsullied. The idea that it was still in her towel was something I had drawn strength from. I thought each time I opened it some of Nina Simone's spirit would vanish. In many ways that thought was more important than the gum itself. On Thursday 1 July, 1999, Dr Nina Simone gave a rare performance as part of Nick Cave's Meltdown Festival. After the show, in a state of awe, Warren Ellis crept onto the stage, took Dr Simone's piece of chewed gum from the piano, wrapped it in her stage towel and put it in a Tower Records bag. The gum remained with him for twenty years; a sacred totem, his creative muse, a conduit that would eventually take Ellis back to his childhood and his relationship with found objects, growing in significance with every passing year. Nina Simone's Gum is about how something so small can form beautiful connections between people. It is a story about the meaning we place on things, on experiences, and how they become imbued with spirituality. It is a celebration of artistic process, friendship, understanding and love. '[A] beautiful, strikingly idiosyncratic book - part memoir, part essay, part conceptual art project, all testament to humans at their strangest and best . . . [Ellis] sees signifiance where others might not.' - MOJO '[Nina Simone's Gum] is a metaphor for [Ellis'] creativity - the blossoming of a small idea into something bigger and bolder - but also a journey inside the impulsive, improvisatory mind of Warren Ellis, his passions, obsessions and superstitions.' - OBSERVER

Warren Ellis is an Australian multi-instrumentalist and composer, most famous for his work as collaborator and bandmate of Nick Cave, in both the Bad Seeds and Grinderman. Both solo and alongside Nick he is also a multi-awardwinning film composer whose soundtracks include The Proposition, The Road, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Mustang and most recently This Train I Ride. His own band Dirty Three have released eight studio albums since 1994 and he is an in-demand producer and writer, working with artists including Marianne Faithful, Jupiter and Okwess and Tinariwen.

"Warren has turned this memento, snatched from his idol's piano in a moment of rapture, into a genuine religious artefact." -- Nick Cave "Such a mad, happy book about art and music and obsession. I'm so glad I got to read it. It made the world feel lighter."-- Neil Gaiman "A moving, inspirational insight into a beautiful mind." -- Jim Jarmusch "Romantic, poetic, I was enchanted." -- Courtney Love "Ellis' opus is a lyrical reminder that the ephemera we collect in life, that ignite our imagination and memory-- become the things we leave behind. Objects that seem like nothing-- a broken violin or piece of gum--can mean everything." -- Michael Stipe "In praise of meaning-rich relics and magical things. Totally heartwarming project." -- Max Porter "This is such a beautiful f*@king book. Thank you, Warren. I highly recommend this motherf*@ker." --Flea "[A] beautiful, strikingly idiosyncratic book - part memoir, part essay, part conceptual art project, all testament to humans at their strangest and best . . .[Ellis] sees signifiance where others might not." --MOJO "A glorious piece of object fetishism . . . Marvel as Ellis' collection of eccentric personal mementos morphs into a celebration of the intangible wonder of music." -- Uncut, Books of the Year "Inspired, polyvocal, joyful . . . completely charming and joyful . . . you are in the company of a person with immense joie de vivre, combined with great intelligence and vitality, who wants to pass some of it on to you . . . a glorious testament." --LA Review of Books "A joyous work full of love, connection, creativity and gratitude." -- Spectator "A beautiful, haunting quasi-memoir about the 57-year-old's early life growing up in southeastern Australia and his years spent busking across Europe in the 1980s, as well as one particular, transcendent night that changed the course of his life." -- Vanity Fair