Ten Thousand Apologies: Fat White Family and the Miracle of Failure

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER & A ROUGH TRADE BOOK OF THE YEAR 2022
SHORTLISTED FOR THE PENDERYN MUSIC BOOK PRIZE

'The story of a band that's always on the brink: of stardom, of madness, of brilliance, of disgrace' Miranda Sawyer, Observer
'You begin to wonder why more biographies aren't tackled with such invention' Record Collector
'This book is a rarity' Mark Lanegan
'One of the finest music books in aeons' Kevin Barry
'A bruising, exhilarating read, which captures the nihilistic energy of this strange and brilliant band' Independent
'Destined to become a classic of the genre' Louder Than War
'A fastidious portrait of chaos, displacement and bad acid' Mojo
'Music book of the year? Already? Don't bet against it' Crack Magazine
'Read it and writhe' Spider Stacey

From the mountains of Algeria to the squats of South London via sectarian Northern Ireland, Ten Thousand Apologies is the sordid and thrilling story of the country's most notorious cult band, Fat White Family. Loved and loathed in equal measure since their formation in 2011, the relentlessly provocative, stunningly dysfunctional "drug band with a rock problem" have dedicated themselves to constant chaos and total creative freedom at all costs.

Like a tragicomic penny dreadful dreamed up by a mutant hybrid of Jean Genet, the Dadaists and Mark E. Smith, the Fat Whites' story is a frequently jaw-dropping epic of creative insurrection, narcotic excess, mental illness, wanderlust, self-sabotage, fractured masculinity, and the ruthless pursuit of absolute art.

Co-written with lucidity and humour by singer Lias Saoudi and acclaimed author Adelle Stripe, Ten Thousand Apologies is that rare thing: a music book that barely features any music, a biography as literary as any novel, and a confessional that does not seek forgiveness. This is the definitive account of Fat White Family's disgraceful and radiant jihad - a depraved, romantic and furious gesture of refusal to a sanitised era.


About the Author

Adelle Stripe is a novelist, poet and journalist. Her debut novel, BLACK TEETH AND A BRILLIANT SMILE, was shortlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize and Portico Prize for Literature.

Lias Saoudi is the frontman in Fat White Family.