Lias Saoudi

Musician Lias Saoudi discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Lias Kaci Saoudi is a writer, artist and musician, and the front man of genre-bending iconoclasts Fat White Family. Born to a British mother and Algerian father, he grew up in the Republic of Ireland, Scotland and Northern Ireland, before moving to London and gaining a Fine Art degree from Slade School of Art.

During the first UK lockdown, Lias began contributing a series of unflinching autobiographical pieces entitled Life Beyond the Neutral Zone to the online cultural hub, The Social Gathering. He is published in The New Frontier: Reflections From the Irish Border (New Island Books, 2021) - an anthology of new writing from some of Ireland’s greatest contemporary authors marking the centenary of partition. He is also the debut guest editor of Ambit Pop, a new annual issue of the venerable quarterly arts magazine.

His first book, Ten Thousand Apologies: Fat White Family and the Miracle of Failure, co-written with Adelle Stripe (Black Teeth and a Brilliant Smile, Bloomsbury, 2019), is described by Miranda Sawyer in The Observer as “the story of a band that’s always on the brink: of stardom, of madness, of brilliance, of disgrace”. You can buy it at https://www.whiterabbitbooks.co.uk/titles/adelle-stripe-2/ten-thousand-apologies/9781474617864/

1. It’s me, Eddie by Eddie Limonov https://literaryreview.co.uk/its-me-eddie
2. Limits to medicine by Ivan Illich https://joannamoncrieff.com/2016/04/18/limits-to-medicine-re-visiting-ivan-illich/
3. Macho Music by Peter Gordon https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbeJKaAKLos
4. The Grass Arena by John Healy https://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/aug/05/biography
5. A feast of snakes by Harry Crews https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Feast_of_Snakes
6. Ratfucker by Armand Schaubroek https://trouserpress.com/reviews/armand-schaubroeck-steals/

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