Photo: Justine Trickett
Frank Turner has announced his plans to a release a book of his recent tour diaries next year.
The punk-folk troubador has signed a deal with Headline Publishing to pen a book that will tell his colourful story from his last show with hardcore heroes Million to performing at the opening of the 2012 London Olympics opening ceremony and beyond.
"It took some persuading for me to think about writing a book of any kind, but in the end I realised that I have spent a pretty unusual amount of time touring hard in the last few years, and I have a fair few stories to tell, and maybe even a tiny smidgen of wisdom to impart to people starting out on the same path," said Turner in a statement. "Plus, I come from a family of yarn-spinners, and I can run my mouth, so it makes sense."
He then tweeted that the book will be released in Spring 2015 - after the release of his upcoming new album. Speaking to Gigwise, Turner said that the next album is 'of a sunnier disposition' to his recent work.
"With Tape Deck Heart, I'm just at a point where I can get a bit of hindsight on that record," he said. "It's a strange beast and it's a lot darker than I thought it was when I was writing it. A lot of people were like 'fuck me dude, are you really going to say that on the record?' and I was like 'yeah' but now it's quite surprising. It's definitely a record that I needed to make, on a creative as well as a personal level.
"In the future, I suspect that it will be seen as a transitional record of a kind. I'm writing quite upbeat songs at the moment, by my standards anyway - they're still about the long dark night of the soul."
He continued: "It's not so much to do with career stuff, but just to do with that fact that I was in quite a shitty place and I managed to pull myself out of it and I feel good about that," said Turner. "There's a deree of defiance as well because I think one of the things was that while we were recording the last album, I had my moment of getting a kicking in the press and copped an awful lot of shit from an awful lot of arseholes."
In the meantime, Frank Turner will be performing at Kendal Calling, Sonisphere, Wakestock, Standon Calling, Y Not Festival and OnBlackheath in the UK this summer. For more information visit Gigwise tickets.
Below: 11 exclusive photos of Frank Turner's massive O2 Arena gig
