Overview

A TOP 5 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER Shortlisted for the Penderyn Music Book Prize 2026 The Herald Music Book of the Year A Guardian Top 5 Music Book of the Year A Classic Pop Music Book of the Year A Mojo Top 5 Book of the Year 2025 An Uncut Top 3 Book of the Year 2025 “A Latter-day Lear. A truly remarkable book” John Niven, The Spectator “Might just be the finest music memoir of recent years” Independent “A minor masterpiece” Classic Pop “Full of life and joy and copious swearing” The Herald Del Amitri frontman Justin Currie reflects on life as a touring musician in the shadow of his life changing Parkinson’s diagnosis. It’s 2022 and we join Justin at the doctor’s office, looking down the barrel of a Parkinson’s diagnosis. After concerned fans noticed a tremor in his hand, Currie sought the medical advice which led him to the discovery that would throw his future into uncertainty.  The immediate fallout of his diagnosis is laid bare in Currie’s candid, stream of consciousness voice. A voice that is also by turns poetic, self-deprecating and darkly humorous across a series of diary entries that capture Justin’s innermost feelings — part travelogue, part confessional.  Following a coming to terms with the situation whilst on tour in the U.S, the second half of the story joins Currie in 2024, supporting Simple Minds on tour with Del Amitri. Anger, heartbreak and a looming sense of finality concoct a terse relationship between what once was and what may never be. Yet, page after page, what prevails is the achingly perfect timing of his acerbic wit. The Tremolo Diaries is a beautiful and unique meditation on illness and aging. It is a twilight years reflection on band life in the 21st Century. It’s a travelogue around the world’s art galleries, parks, bars and sites of natural beauty. And most importantly, it is about love and friendship, adversity and courage, life and loss. In a first-of-its-kind exploration of Parkinson’s by a multi-platinum selling musician, The Tremolo Diaries looks the dramatic irony of Currie’s affliction in the eye, puts down the guitar, and returns the needle to the start of the song.

Full Product Details

9781917923002

Table of Contents

Reviews

""A Minor Masterpiece"" Classic Pop ""For all the pain and fear and heartache in these pages, it's also full of life and joy and copious swearing. Currie is realistic about his condition but not maudlin about it and he has retained his very Scottish ability to be entertainingly angry at things that annoy him. The result is a thrill of a book"" The Herald

""A Minor Masterpiece"" — Classic Pop ""Beautifully written, moving and funny. It stands alone as a book about life on the road and life in a band. But it's so much more than that. Deserves to be much loved and admired"" — Gideon Coe, BBC Radio 6 ""For all the pain and fear and heartache in these pages, it's also full of life and joy and copious swearing. Currie is realistic about his condition but not maudlin about it and he has retained his very Scottish ability to be entertainingly angry at things that annoy him. The result is a thrill of a book"" — The Herald ""Currie is piercingly honest. About the rituals of rock, the tedium of touring and his awkward acceptance of 'this shadow with malevolent intent'. 8/10"" — Uncut ""Perfectly captures the rhythm of life on the road"" — Word in your Ear ""Sad, honest, really funny and exemplary use of the C-word"" — Teddy Jamieson ""Excellent. It's rare to see the sheer grind of touring so relentlessly documented. Fabulously written"" — Mat Osman, Suede ""A unique, truthful and frequently very funny insight into the realities of staying in the rock 'n' roll life as the years go by, Parkinson's or not"" — The Times “A candid journal of resilience” — Los Angeles Times   ""A probing, self deprecating, emotionally honest, savagely funny and deeply poignant masterclass of a memoir"" — Stereo Embers

""A Minor Masterpiece"" Classic Pop ""Beautifully written, moving and funny. It stands alone as a book about life on the road and life in a band. But it's so much more than that. Deserves to be much loved and admired"" Gideon Coe, BBC Radio 6   ""For all the pain and fear and heartache in these pages, it's also full of life and joy and copious swearing. Currie is realistic about his condition but not maudlin about it and he has retained his very Scottish ability to be entertainingly angry at things that annoy him. The result is a thrill of a book"" The Herald ""Currie is piercingly honest. About the rituals of rock, the tedium of touring and his awkward acceptance of 'this shadow with malevolent intent'. 8/10"" Uncut ""Perfectly captures the rhythm of life on the road"" Word in your Ear

Author Information

Justin Currie is the founder, frontman and songwriter of Del Amitri, the internationally acclaimed Glaswegian alternative rock band who have sold over 6 million albums globally. The band have released seven albums, five of which reached the Top 10 in the UK, including their most recent album ""Fatal Mistakes"" in 2021, their highest charting album for thirty years.

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