To Ease My Troubled Mind by Ted Kessler and Billy Childish
signed deluxe edition
hardback
Bound in lime green linen-covered boards with foiled titles designed by Billy Childish, unique to this strictly limited run of 500 copies
Comes with a 7” black vinyl EP with four tracks from four different Wild Billy Childish bands, and an original one colour woodcut print signed and numbered by the artist and the author with Billy’s customary gallows symbol
All housed in a custom kraft paper covered solander box with four-colour inside printing designed by Billy Childish, with foiled titles and rubber stamped ‘Ltd Edition’
In 1977, 17-year-old Steven Hamper was a stonemason in the dockyards of Chatham, Kent. His heart, however, beat in sync with the punk rock tremors of the era, seduced by its celebration of amateurism. So, in a gesture of revolutionary defiance, he took a 3lb club hammer and smashed his hand, vowing to never work again.
In doing so, Steven Hamper metamorphosed into Billy Childish, a true renaissance man. Childish has since remained steadfastly true to punk's DIY cred, becoming one of the most recognisable and authentic voices in whichever artistic endeavour he undertakes. He has released over one hundred and fifty albums of raw rock and roll, punk, blues and folk, written many volumes of searing poetry as well as several autobiographical novels.
But what he is perhaps best known for in recent years is his painting, for which he is now critically, commercially and internationally feted. He hasn't changed course in any of his disciplines, though. The world just caught up with the sheer volume of his brutally honest work.
To Ease My Troubled Mind is a mosaic portrait collated over a year of interviews with Childish, as well as with close family, ex-girlfriends, bandmembers past and present, friends, foes, collaborators, even his therapist. It is an unflinching, yet frequently spiritual and funny portrait of an artist whose obstacle-strewn upbringing formed the backbone of his work: raised in a broken home and abused as a child, Childish was an undiagnosed dyslexic in remedial class at school who is nevertheless now Britain's most prolific and uncompromising creative force.
signed deluxe edition
hardback
Bound in lime green linen-covered boards with foiled titles designed by Billy Childish, unique to this strictly limited run of 500 copies
Comes with a 7” black vinyl EP with four tracks from four different Wild Billy Childish bands, and an original one colour woodcut print signed and numbered by the artist and the author with Billy’s customary gallows symbol
All housed in a custom kraft paper covered solander box with four-colour inside printing designed by Billy Childish, with foiled titles and rubber stamped ‘Ltd Edition’
In 1977, 17-year-old Steven Hamper was a stonemason in the dockyards of Chatham, Kent. His heart, however, beat in sync with the punk rock tremors of the era, seduced by its celebration of amateurism. So, in a gesture of revolutionary defiance, he took a 3lb club hammer and smashed his hand, vowing to never work again.
In doing so, Steven Hamper metamorphosed into Billy Childish, a true renaissance man. Childish has since remained steadfastly true to punk's DIY cred, becoming one of the most recognisable and authentic voices in whichever artistic endeavour he undertakes. He has released over one hundred and fifty albums of raw rock and roll, punk, blues and folk, written many volumes of searing poetry as well as several autobiographical novels.
But what he is perhaps best known for in recent years is his painting, for which he is now critically, commercially and internationally feted. He hasn't changed course in any of his disciplines, though. The world just caught up with the sheer volume of his brutally honest work.
To Ease My Troubled Mind is a mosaic portrait collated over a year of interviews with Childish, as well as with close family, ex-girlfriends, bandmembers past and present, friends, foes, collaborators, even his therapist. It is an unflinching, yet frequently spiritual and funny portrait of an artist whose obstacle-strewn upbringing formed the backbone of his work: raised in a broken home and abused as a child, Childish was an undiagnosed dyslexic in remedial class at school who is nevertheless now Britain's most prolific and uncompromising creative force.
signed deluxe edition
hardback
Bound in lime green linen-covered boards with foiled titles designed by Billy Childish, unique to this strictly limited run of 500 copies
Comes with a 7” black vinyl EP with four tracks from four different Wild Billy Childish bands, and an original one colour woodcut print signed and numbered by the artist and the author with Billy’s customary gallows symbol
All housed in a custom kraft paper covered solander box with four-colour inside printing designed by Billy Childish, with foiled titles and rubber stamped ‘Ltd Edition’
In 1977, 17-year-old Steven Hamper was a stonemason in the dockyards of Chatham, Kent. His heart, however, beat in sync with the punk rock tremors of the era, seduced by its celebration of amateurism. So, in a gesture of revolutionary defiance, he took a 3lb club hammer and smashed his hand, vowing to never work again.
In doing so, Steven Hamper metamorphosed into Billy Childish, a true renaissance man. Childish has since remained steadfastly true to punk's DIY cred, becoming one of the most recognisable and authentic voices in whichever artistic endeavour he undertakes. He has released over one hundred and fifty albums of raw rock and roll, punk, blues and folk, written many volumes of searing poetry as well as several autobiographical novels.
But what he is perhaps best known for in recent years is his painting, for which he is now critically, commercially and internationally feted. He hasn't changed course in any of his disciplines, though. The world just caught up with the sheer volume of his brutally honest work.
To Ease My Troubled Mind is a mosaic portrait collated over a year of interviews with Childish, as well as with close family, ex-girlfriends, bandmembers past and present, friends, foes, collaborators, even his therapist. It is an unflinching, yet frequently spiritual and funny portrait of an artist whose obstacle-strewn upbringing formed the backbone of his work: raised in a broken home and abused as a child, Childish was an undiagnosed dyslexic in remedial class at school who is nevertheless now Britain's most prolific and uncompromising creative force.
