Kevin Gilbert BOOK

[mnprogger]

Some people may know Lorenzo from Italy who keeps a similar blog to mine, altprogcore.

Lorenzo has published some progressive rock books previously per links on his blog http://altprogcore.blogspot.com/

but they are all in Italian.

Lorenzo like many around here, is a big fan of Kevin Gilbert's music, obviously per the book he published recently about Kevin.

So Lorenzo wants to try and get an English version of his Kevin Gilbert book published and he just launched a Kickstarter for it.

And while I would love to write something like this myself, I would hardly expect it to happen anytime soon. And more or less ANYTHING published about Kevin Gilbert is gold to me, even if it's just from a passionate fan like myself.

So, some may be up for reading a published book about Kevin Gilbert, checkout out the Campaign:


https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...?ref=user_menu


Last year I've published Independently a book about Kevin Gilbert written in italian. Obviously some not italian Kevin fans have expressed their interest on this book, but I'm not a good translator so, since then, I've tried to find someone who did a proper job of translation. At last I've found the guy, but I can't afford the fee without being sure to sell at least a certain amount of copies. So, here I am on Kickstarter if you want to help me out to fund this project and want your English version of the book. I've set the final goal adding only the print and shipping costs, I am not interested in earning money from the book, but only in the translation.

With this book I've tried to give a chronological shape to Kevin's career collecting all the facts I've found in interviews and web resources, plus I have added my thoughts about his music and every album from his early days with NRG and Giraffe until his last masterpiece "The Shaming of the True" and the band Kaviar. A full discography with his collaborations and productions is also included.

Useful informations:

122 pages
Dimesions: 10,8cm x 17,48cm
Original cover artwork (back and front) by longtime Kevin Gilbert fan Lennart Fagerman
You can find the italian version here (http://www.lulu.com/shop/lorenzo-bar...-22989538.html)

[interbellum]

Thanks for posting this information.
Just made my pledge.
I know Lulu from the autobiography from Mick Karn, which was nicely done, so I'm positive about this.
And the goal € 2400 (about $ 2825 at the moment) shouldn't be a problem to reach.

[Gruno]

The first edition of this book contained many images that were mine (and others) and were used without approval. My suggestion was for him to obtain rights to use the paintings done by longtime KG collector/superfan Lennart Fagerman, and to remove all of the other images from the book. Lennart approved, so he changed the front/back cover, but I haven't seen inside of the 2nd edition to verify that he complied with the other images.

1st edition front/back cover:




2nd edition cover:

[interbellum]

I guess this happens often with "private releases", but now this has become a more or less public issue it's too bad this wasn't done with approval.
Still, do you recommend this new edition?

[Gruno]

Because the text is in Italian, I can't say if it's a worthwhile read. I do have a few copies. If it's based off of internet articles and interviews, who knows how factual or detailed it is. As far as I know, no key individuals were interviewed for this.

In 2002, an author named Richard Buskin released a hard cover book about Sheryl Crow titled, "No Fool For This Game". I don't know how much legwork the author did, but he directly quoted (and credited) some of my interviews. His book about Sheryl has errors in the timeline and some other portions within. He relied on online interviews for a bulk of the book. So far, that's the only book that has any worthwhile mentions of Kevin and others related to his career.

[interbellum]

Thanks for the info.
Based on the first post ("With this book I've tried to give a chronological shape to Kevin's career collecting all the facts I've found in interviews and web resources, plus I have added my thoughts about his music and every album from his early days with NRG and Giraffe, his breakthrough on music biz with Toy Matinee and Tuesday Music Club, until his last masterpiece "The Shaming of the True" and the band Kaviar. A full discography with his collaborations and productions is also included.") this might be more or less the same kind of book, but with 120 page he must have added quite a lot himself (hopefully).

J. Scott(y) Smith from Giraffe, No Two and his own Treefort-project, which featured Kevin, has pledged too so it seems.

[echoclamp]

Hello, I'm Lorenzo the author of the book and I found the link to this forum on the Kickstarter activity. I'm here because I'd like to answer your questions: as mentioned by Gruno I've removed the cover images due to the copyright issues and I've also removed those inside, so the book is text only. This is mainly because I'm not in contact with all the owners of the images and also I didn't interviewed anyone in person. The only exception is the help from Scott Smith who share with me his memories about Giraffe days and TRS studios. The others interviews are part of my collection (printed some years ago and disappeared and unavailable on the web right now) and those are from Kevin, Dave Kerzner, some things I found in forums, fan sites and KG.com.

I know that the more careful fans of Kevin may already know about this informations, but on the other side I think that many of them, mainly European (German, Dutch, UK), could find some interesting stories they don't know about Kevin's career, as happened for the (few) italian fans who appreciate the book. So, this is mainly a labour of love and an attempt by a fan (me) to put order to all the informations I was able to collect in years and also an extension of an article that I wrote for the italian edition of PROG Magazine back in January 2016.

PS. Interbellum, many thanks for your pledge!

[interbellum]

Thanks Lorenzo for your information. I guess the most important thing this book will give the reader is that it brings together a lot of interviews plus your personal view and the discography.
Good luck with this campaign.

[Gruno]

Hope it all works out well echoclamp!

[Squids]

I think it's great you took the time and expense to write a book to spread the word about Kevin's story and music. I think it's a shame you've had to take all pictures out and it's only text. Surely there must be some photos you could use I would hope. But, as you said, it's still something for fans who read Italian to hopefully be lured into buying Kevin's music for the first time. Good luck with it!

[echoclamp]

Thanks Lorenzo for your information. I guess the most important thing this book will give the reader is that it brings together a lot of interviews plus your personal view and the discography.
Good luck with this campaign.

Yes! I think you've caught one of the points that is to have Kevin's biography and works to consult in one place as a compendium, instead of relying on the dispersiveness of the Web. And also, as Squids said, it could be a valuable resource to introduce Kevin's music to those who still don't know his greatness.

[interbellum]

This may need some extra attention for the weekend

[interbellum]

Here's an update from Kickstarter:

Hello dear bakers,

first of all, thank you once again for your help: we are two weeks away from the end of this Kickstarter campaign and meanwhile I keep working behind the curtain on something special to add at the final rewards for all the bakers. The campaign slowed down in the last days, but who knows, maybe the goal can still be reached. So, if you got the chance keep spreading the word to the ones you think interested in Kevin Gilbert.

Thank you for your time and kindness,

Lorenzo

[interbellum]

Last update:

Dear bakers,

I'm sorry to report that the campaign didn't reach its goal, anyway it's not a drama 'cause for me it was just an attempt to see if there was enough people interested in this project. But don't worry, the small response doesn't stop me in trying to find someone who can help me in this translation, it will take only a little longer and, if in the meantime no one else will write a better and a more in-depth book about Kevin, I hope one day to present mine to the English readers.

Thank you again for your support, generosity and for believing in me, it means a lot to me.

Until the next time,

Lorenzo

[Jimmy Giant]

Damn. Thought there would be enough interest.

[mnprogger]

it's too bad, although it does support my feeling about Kickstarter vs other Crowd Funding sites like Indiegogo and Pledgemusic that either don't have a set-in-stone time limit, or often will allow it to be extended when the goal is not reached.

I hope it still comes out of course, but it just may not be through Kickstarter as a source.

[interbellum]

I noticed on LuLu that November last year Lorenzo Barbagli's English version of the biography became available as a paperback. See: https://www.lulu.com/shop/lorenzo-ba...e=1&pageSize=4

LuLu is known for their printing on demand-titles. I once bought Mick Karn's autobiography Japan & Self Existence from them.

Other titles from Barbagli are listed here: https://www.lulu.com/search?contribu...ence_rating=00

[Gerhard]

I noticed on LuLu that November last year Lorenzo Barbagli's English version of the biography became available as a paperback. See: https://www.lulu.com/shop/lorenzo-ba...e=1&pageSize=4

Thanks, ordered.

[rapidfirerob]

Thanks, ordered.

Me as well. Problem solved! PE to the rescue!!

[interbellum]

Reading this book now I think it would be useful for Lorenzo to alter the content a bit so it can be released in the On Track-Series. Lorenzo alto gives information on individual tracks, which is more or less the strategy from the books in that series.

[mnprogger2023]

I noticed on LuLu that November last year Lorenzo Barbagli's English version of the biography became available as a paperback. See: https://www.lulu.com/shop/lorenzo-ba...e=1&pageSize=4

LuLu is known for their printing on demand-titles. I once bought Mick Karn's autobiography Japan & Self Existence from them.

Other titles from Barbagli are listed here: https://www.lulu.com/search?contribu...ence_rating=00

yeah I picked it up and showed it/talked about it on YouTube about a year ago. Definitely worth having for any KG fan. It's very extensive and anecdotal.