The Music Never Left Us
From gramophone to streaming and back to the live band.
Music, memory and the machines that carried songs across generations with live music waiting at the end.
The Music Never Left Us is now about 20,000 words and mixes the history of recorded music with Grant John Neville’s own life and memories.
Those memories include berry picking as a boy, a jukebox in a London bar, buying a cassette deck on hire purchase, themed compilation CDs, and buying music gear in the different countries where he worked.
The story travels from the gramophone, records and tape through compact discs, portable players, digital music and streaming, before returning to the experience that technology still cannot replace: live music.
At the centre is the simplest experience of all: real musicians, real instruments and a room full of people. Mistakes included.