In Search of The La's : A Secret Liverpool

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In Search of The La's : A Secret Liverpool is a 2003 book about the 1980s/1990s band The La's. While not quite a biography of the band, it does go into depth interviewing former members of the band to provide a decent depiction of characters and events in the band both during their heydey and what they are up to now.

[edit] Synopsis

"With the timeless single "There She Goes," Lee Mavers' La's overtook The Stone Roses as great British guitar hopes and paved the way for the Britpop renaissance of Blur and Oasis. However, since 1991, The La's have been silent, while rumors of studio-perfectionism, madness and drug addiction have abounded with Mavers lined up as another rock casualty. The author sets out to discover the truth behind Mavers' lost decade and eventually gains a revelatory audience with Mavers himself."

The author, MW Macefield, travels to Liverpool to interview several ex-members of the band and sundry other personnel, and eventually gets to chat with the group's chief songwriter Lee Mavers. In it several La's myths are dispelled along the way, new song titles are named, and the past and future of the band is discussed.

[edit] Trivia

"There She Goes" being about heroin is denied by ex-La Paul Hemmings.
Several new unreleased song titles are named during the course of the book, including "Robberman", "She Came Down", "The Human Race" and others
Lee Mavers' new guitar tuning method is discussed, in somewhat unorthodox terms - tuning the guitar strings to harmonize with feedback, for example
Several aspects of Lee Mavers' private life are mentioned, including the fact he has children and the area of Liverpool in which he lives is disclosed (Huyton)
The interviews were conducted over several years, up to January 2000, although the book was released much later. Since then the band have made a 2005 comeback with live shows