Tracey Thorn
New Statesman
United Kingdom
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Past articles by Tracey:
Watching the Company cast album, I sense the thrill and the terror of singing in front of Stephen Sondheim
The commitment to getting it right verges on cruelty, insisting on take after take – and all of these vocals happening in a room full of cigarette smoke! → Read More
How I wish my old diary held more detail of the night I met my husband
My first meeting with Ben is mentioned only fleetingly. We went back to his room and listened to the Durutti Column. I didn’t record any first impressions. → Read More
Covid has aged us, but a seaside sundae makes me feel ten years old again
On a trip to Kent, I discover plenty of literary references – and a new zest for life. → Read More
‘The ground is unstable but there are pleasures all around’ – goodbye to the joy of small things
For three years, this column has been looking for sources of quotidian joy in the darkness. As it comes to an end, what tiny delights would other writers nominate? → Read More
When I first saw my face on the side of a building, I couldn’t quite believe it was real
In the past couple of weeks my face has appeared on the outside wall of a building in Hull. I don’t mean like an image of the Virgin Mary in a small Italian hill town, visible only to true believers. I mean that I’ve been painted there, as part of a mural. The first I knew of it was when someone tweeted me a photograph showing the side of a red-brick building on Clumber → Read More
As plans for our family holiday crumble, our only option is a staycation in the garden
I should be on holiday now. I thought I’d been so clever. When last summer’s trip to Cornwall was cancelled, I looked ahead and thought, “I bet we won’t be going abroad next year either.” With that in mind, I booked a house in Dorset, in an area quiet and wooded, but close to the sea, big enough for me and Ben and the kids, plus a friend or partner for each of them. I’ve been → Read More
How I learned to love the Rolling Stones
It was 1982. A party in Hull, given by one of my university lecturers. They all seemed ancient to me, yet must have been in their thirties. I liked them, but they were clearly hippies, with their still-long hair, and their still-flared trousers, their waistcoats, their collarless shirts. They stood awkwardly at the side of the dance floor, when suddenly on came the Rolling → Read More
In my newly wildlife-friendly garden, damselflies mate to a soundtrack of London traffic
I garden amid near-constant noise. I won’t go on about the construction work next door again. I’ve told you about it before, and I don’t want to jinx my belief that it may almost be finished. Plus, it is one of the pitfalls of living in London that when a house is sold, it is not new neighbours who move in, but builders. It comes with the territory. And my garden was never → Read More
Men tend to think they’re the authority on music – but I have learned to fight my corner
I’ve been banging the feminist drum for 40 years, but when I reflect on my early song lyrics I realise that I banged it far too subtly. → Read More
Browsing my children’s shelves, I understand how the books we read make us who we are
It’s why we keep books, isn’t it, for the little ghosts of our past selves contained within? → Read More
My rock’n’roll friendship with Lindy Morrison
She was in the Go-Betweens, Tracey Thorn was in the Marine Girls, their 30-year friendship enhanced both their lives → Read More
Tracey Thorn: 'I managed 10% of War and Peace during lockdown'
The singer, songwriter and author on struggling with Tolstoy, learning from Billie Holiday, and the book to give fans of Joy Division → Read More
I have never had a nine-to-five job but I still cherish the routines of the weekend
It all starts on a Friday night with some booze, as I sink into the relaxation that the end of the week brings. → Read More
For most of us, lockdown life will pass. But for some, there is no “getting back to normal”
As we battle with lockdown fatigue, I remember that those who live with disability or chronic illness always operate within such restrictions. → Read More
Fearing for the future of the music business, I’m haunted by the ghosts of gigs past
Glastonbury’s cancellation comes as another blow upon the painful bruise being felt by the whole music industry. Yet the magnitude of the crisis is under-recorded. → Read More
Gardening brings a momentum that is otherwise absent from my life right now
One of the great consolations is gardening’s predictability. Plants want to grow, and so long as you give them soil, water and light, they will do their thing. It’s reassuring. → Read More
The New Year we long for is the one in which the virus no longer dominates our lives
As fireworks lit up London's skyline, I thought of us all in the city below watching from our separate spaces. → Read More
I don’t want a perfect Christmas, I just want to hug my children until they beg to escape
This year more than ever we'll all be doing a lot of muddling through, and hanging on stoically for better times ahead. → Read More
Ronnie Scott understood that for some people music is the only outlet – so he opened a club
As I watch the documentary Ronnie's, I am reminded of the complicated man who brought the New York jazz scene to Soho. → Read More
As the rain falls and the gloom increases, I read slowly, not wanting my book to end
Andrew O'Hagan's new novel, Mayflies, has me gripped as I revisit the giddy hedonism of Manchester in the 1980s. → Read More