Stoke Newington Literary Festival

Lush were part of the London gig scene during one of the most vibrant and creative periods in UK music. Now, Miki Berenyi tells all. Her young life was a blur of travel, celebrities and peripatetic schooling, but frequent relocation and parental neglect resulted in crippling shyness, mental-health issues and a vulnerability to exploitation. The route out was music – a passion shared by schoolmate Emma Anderson. The teenagers eventually formed Lush: talented and exuberant, the band became hot property, swiftly transitioning from shoegaze icons to Britpop darlings. Re-living the tours, recording sessions and music-industry madness they experienced along the way, this uncompromising memoir documents Lush’s thrilling rise and untimely fall. Yet at the heart of the book are Miki’s own battles: the conflict between her mouthy public persona and her thin-skinned private identity; the trials of being a woman in an infuriatingly male world; the struggle to find a middle ground between ‘safe’ indie obscurity and ‘sell-out’ international success.

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