Miki Berenyi: Fingers Crossed: How Music Saved Me from Success

We are delighted that , following her band's appearance at The Piper in St Leonards on Friday night (tickets available here), Miki Berenyi will be coming to the book festival to talk about her recently published autobiography, Fingers Crossed: How Music Saved Me from Success.

Miki came to public prominence in the late 1980s and 1990s as a guitarist and vocalist with the band Lush. 

Ethereal vocals and dreamy soundscapes vied with hard hitting songs, as the band rose to international success via Glastonbury, Japan and the USA.

The band folded in 1996 and Miki went onto a career in publishing. 

Music remained large in her life though, with occasional guest vocals on albums, then a much-lauded Lush reunion in 2015 and 2016.

Miki then formed the band Piroshka with other iconic 1990s musicians. 

Lockdown provided her with time to reflect and write her autobiography. It is honest and engaging, with insights to the Britpop era and the toughness required to survive and thrive as a woman at a misogynistic time.

In conversation with Chrissy Brand, Miki will talk about some of the  glorious high points, as well as some of the dark times, of her life - addressing them all in her usual witty and wry way. 

Chrissy Brand is a journalist specialising in reporting on international radio, podcasts and music. She has previously worked in research at the Royal Northern College of Music. After several decades in Manchester she moved to Hastings, where she is a campaigner with local community groups.

Carol Prior, singer, songwriter, performer, choir leader and most recently memoirist having been published last year in Back The Way We Came - an anthology of older women’s writing, will be opening for Miki. 

A Super Saturday ticket is available for this event - the special ticket gives reduced price entry to all festival events on Saturday 21st Sept as well as a 20% discont on food and drink in THe Observer Cafe throughout the day.

Photo credit: Charina Pitzel