Rock in a Hard Place: Music and Mayhem in the Middle East

ISBN-13: 9781786990167 / Angielski / Twarda / 2017 / 304 str.

Orlando Crowcroft

Opis

A muggy night in Abu Dhabi in 2011. Under the stadium lights a 30,000-strong sea of Libyans, Palestinians, Syrians, and Egyptians wait in anticipation. Alongside them are Saudis, Iranians, and Israelis. Defiance and excitement course through the crowd like electricity. Standing together, they are waiting for Metallica's first-ever show in the Middle East. Many of the people in the audience have faced untold violence in their lives, but for tonight, all that is put aside, and nothing else matters.

Journalist and lifelong heavy metal fan Orlando Crowcroft spent six years penetrating the rock and metal scene in the Middle East, reporting on it and interviewing bands for Rolling Stone, Esquire, and the Atlantic. In Rock in a Hard Place, we meet young men and women making music in the back rooms of shabby houses in al-Zarqa and al-Qatif, Nazareth and Cairo. Alongside Crowcroft, we rock out at illegal shows in Tehran and Riyadh, and we listen to the songs that helped oust a dictator in Cairo. Rock in a Hard Place pays tribute to these courageous and determined musicians, who are willing to risk everything--even their lives--for music.

With this book, Crowcroft offers a different voice, one that is at odds with the view of the Middle East mired in violence, extremism, and war. It is a voice recognizable to anyone who has ever turned up a speaker or an amp to drown out the din of the everyday, and a voice that may help unite us when we need it most.

Recenzje

'Crowcroft's book is a revelation into the torture, oppression and imprisonment metalheads stand up to, just so they can be metal in the Middle East. This book is a must read!'
Max Cavalera, frontman for Soulfly and Cavalera Conspiracy

'Going to jail for liking a band like us, that's taking chances... It's shocking to hear that someone had to suffer and risk his life for nothing but a love of music and a passion for freedom of speech.'
Silenoz, guitarist for Dimmu Borgir and Insidious Disease

'Black metal, Islam, war zones - and a great shock of humanity. Orlando Crowcroft goes where no other writer has even thought of going before and brings back an improbably remarkable story.'
Mick Wall, author of Last of the Giants: The True Story of Guns N' Roses

'Rock in A Hard Place is a must read for any musician. Especially those involved in the underground. An inspiring report on the power of music to unite human beings in the face of adversity.'
Brad Logan, guitarist for F-Minus and Leftöver Crack

'A fascinating insight into the impossibility of repressing everyone no matter how fanatic you may be. It is surprising that more heavy metal rockers do not get stoned to death.'
Clive Stafford Smith, international human rights lawyer

'Crowcroft's book is a fine contribution to a growing literature on popular culture in the Middle East, providing a valuable, seldom-given glimpse into atheist, antiauthoritarian and anti-religious counter culture.'
Contemporary Islam

'Rock in a Hard Place takes readers beyond perceptions of the Middle East as an essentially violent and factional entity, instead showing the complex humanity that is shared between people in the region and the world.'
Middle East Journal

Spis treści

Preface

Introduction

1. Saudi Arabia

2. Egypt

3. Iran

4. Israel and Palestine

5. Lebanon

Epilogue

O autorze

Orlando Crowcroft is a journalist and life-long heavy metal fan and has interviewed bands throughout the Middle East for Rolling Stone , Atlantic and Esquire . He is the co-author of the Lonely Planet Guide to Israel and the Palestinian Territories (2015) and has reported from a dozen countries including Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. In 2014, he reported from Israel, the West Bank and Gaza for The Guardian and The National .