Silent Music

Like many a younger sibling, the 1970s seldom gets the attention lavished on its predecessor decade - the glamorous, daring, revolutionary '60s. Like a somewhat reserved maiden aunt, the Isle of Wight has rarely been touched by the limelight enjoyed by its gaudier seaside cousins: Blackpool, Brighton, Clacton, even Margate for heaven's sake. And (like girls who don't kiss at parties) cellists, violinists and performers in semi-respectable bands have never had the allure of their acoustic guitar-playing counterparts in noisier rock groups. In Silent Music, Julian Wolfreys (noted academic with a passion for the three languages of words, music and the imagination) brings together a group of musicians and Annagreth, a young German 'blow-in', in the uncomfortable dreamscape of the Isle of Wight in the late 1970s. Writing with the benefit of 30 years' hindsight, Wolfreys chronicles the characters' first meetings, the shifting sands of their relationships, the words, actions and memories that unsettled and disrupted them. He tells tales of family gatherings, recording sessions, touring, birthday and Christmas parties, along with incidental events that assume significance over time, reaching a tragic climax that end both the band and its hopes. More than just a backdrop, the Isle of Wight, as it reluctantly confronts modernity, becomes both a character in itself and speaks through the human cast of the book - influencing everyone's lives and the music scene of the time. Alongside music and the tricks and gifts of memory, the Island lures the reader into the everyday and inner lives of its cast. Silent Music is a lyrical elegy to the enduring nature of love.