RG Kickback City ~ New Concept Book / Album Release

[Jay Jay]

A 'making of' video is up on Amazon http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/mpd/permalin ... sm_1_fb_lk

Signals, thanks for the heads up for this one..

Seems to me that Rory's record company have got something going with amazon maybe. With this book / cd concept regarding a deal??

[RobertaSparrow]

hey jj what's wrong?

[the mac]

listening now. good stuff. the live CD is the cork show, so not new material. a bit dissapointed about that as i was hoping we would have got some previously unreleased stuff. oh well, it is a superbly produced package though and a great concept.

[RobertaSparrow]

I just got my copy yesterday afternoon, read the story, still have the narration disc to listen to. I'm no stranger to that genre, but I'd never read Ian Rankin before- he's pretty good, will write a review (maybe a book report, depends) after I've had a chance to absorb it all- there will be spoiler alerts

[Mandyl]

Haven't read or listened to the book yet but am very pleased with the 'live' Cork CD, it's one of my favourite rendtions of Off The Handle. I think the concept has been well thought out and I think Rory would be very pleased with it

[RobertaSparrow]

Haven't read or listened to the book yet but am very pleased with the 'live' Cork CD, it's one of my favourite rendtions of Off The Handle. I think the concept has been well thought out and I think Rory would be very pleased with it

I listened to the audio reading of the book once, Aidan Quinn does a good read, but I think they should have interspersed more of Rory's music into the bacground- made it more like one of those old detective radio shows- but I'm going to listen to it again on the long drive to Portland- it's always more fun to read a book than to hear it. But I love the live in Cork CD- it's one of my favorites for listening to on that long drive in the car-

[SUBY1974]

I have ordered Kickback City and will give a review of it soon. Subrata. x

[SUBY1974]

I just finished reading The Lie Factory novella by Ian Rankin and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The packaging of Kickback City is nicely done and I love the fact it is like a book that one can put on their bookshelf. It’s the same with Notes From San Francisco. Timothy Trueman’s artwork is fantastic in capturing the story and I love the dark colours and the way it captures the atmosphere and tension throughout. Obviously he is a fan of Rory’s and one can see the love and effort he put into the artwork. The artwork sets the scene and captures the mood and what the plotline is going to be like. It also captures the personalities of the characters.

The CDs are good both the Studio version and the live version of Kickback City.

However I want to come back to the story .I love the way Ian Rankin has used Rory lyrics and song titles in the story and the way Timothy Trueman captures this in the pictures. References to Rory are peppered and sprinkled throughout the novella and its tastefully done. I like the way Agatha Dempsey is a “slumming angel” and then we have Albert Deutz who is a loneshark and police informant. Kid Gloves is a boxer and P.I Regan is known as “Sinnerboy” by Joe Strayhorn who own the nightclub Camille and there is a fantastic picture of PI Regan standing by a poster where Joy Strayhorn presents Rory Gallagher in concert. I love the postcards as well. You have In Your Town mentioned and Continental Op plus Barley and the Rag.

The Lie Factory Novella is a good introduction to the type of books Rory loved. I read Capo and I am now reading Strangers On A Train by Patricia Highsmith. The Lie Factory is basically a city where the underground rule and is filled with corruption, gangs, crime, bribery, prostitution etc. Capo by Peter Watson shows how this world is run by the Mafia family and it is a seedy and dangerous world. The high officials are corrupt and in this story Duke Dempsey and Anthony Costello ( the DA) represent that. There is another gangster also mentioned called Danny Booth and in this world its one gang pitching against the other. I feel as always the police are in between the warring parties. Also I am not surprised by the boxing game being fixed either. In Capo the Mafia use to fix the lotteries and make money for themselves. The women in this seedy world are important and Agatha Dempsey loves danger and risk. After all she and her sister they committed the murder of an innocent woman and framed and innocent Kids Glove. The sisters do not have a conscience and Elinor Dempsey says "the devil made me do it", obviously referring to her father and passing the blame.

I do have a few questions about the plotline. I believe its open to interpretation by the reader, because I could see no ending.

The questions I have are

1) Why did Agatha Dempsey borrow money from a loneshark like Albert Deutz and then ask PI Regan to ask Albert Deutz to give her more time to pay? Was she really scared of Albert Deutz or her father?
2) Why was Agatha passing information about Danny Booth to Anthony Costello?
3) Why was Agatha trying to escape her father?
4) Is Agatha’s sister Elinor Dempsey dating Anthony Costello?
5) Not much is known about the Duke Dempsey?
6) Will PI Regan report that Agatha Dempsey’s is a fake and what will happen to the innocent Kid Glove and will Rosetta Jones family know what really happened to her?
7) Where is Agatha Dempsey if she is not dead?

I think we are invited to draw our own conclusions and use our own imagination to what could have happened. Its a bit like looking at abstract art. The viewer is invited to bring their own conclusion and interpretations to the painting.

I feel for Rosetta Jones. She came from a good family and ended up working the streets and getting murdered by these sisters. Kid Gloves is innocent too.

I loved the audio version of the book read by Aidan Quinn. His voice and reading style is exactly how I would imagine PI Regan to speak and think to himself when he has an internal dialogue. I do love audio books and its made me think of getting Anne Franks Diary in audio version again.

I love the adverts at the back with references to Rory. I mean there is an advert where the guitarist looks like Rory and its says “Learn to Play Guitar” The Rory Gallagher Way “Complete Course” or the Law! Learn At Home Rankin Institution Chicago. Two adverts made me laugh. The first shows a man how to gain muscles fast for free and the other is for short guys:- if they want extra height they can wear lightweight form rubber cushion Cork pads in their shoes – LOL. If I went on a date with the guy wearing those I probably would be staring at their feet all night! LOL again.

All in all a lovely package and a lovely concept. I am sure Rory would have loved it and it is a fantastic introduction to the types of books Rory loved and why he wrote the songs he did . Subrata. X

I will read Ian Rankins novels in the future. It would have been nice if more of Rory's music was used for the audio version of The Lie Factory and be interspersed here and there. This whole package is a real treat for RG fans.

[RobertaSparrow]

Hi Suby,

One of the nicest things about the package is the detail and care with which it was put together- very much a labor of love from artists who are also Rory fans, and that is really special. I bet Rory is proud of it.

As for the story line, it was cleverly done, the way Ian Rankin wove Rory's songs throughout. And graphic artist Timothy Truman was very clever in his Rory references throughout his drawings. Notice in the drawing of the meeting between the detective and the victim's sister, right behind her you can see the headstock of an acoustic guitar, a Gallagher. No, I don't think there are any photos of Rory playing one, but one of Rory's favorite players, Doc Watson used to play Gallagher guitars, and anyway, I liked the reference.

In the back of the little book, there is a section of those really cheesy ads that you could find in the back of those pulp fiction/ true crime mags that were so prevalent in the 50s and 60s, and I thought the little ad "Learn to Play Guitar the Rory Gallagher Way," was a cute touch.

As for the ending- Okay,
1. It's a mystery, so if you haven't read it this is a major spoiler alert- proceed no further!
2. It's the only criticism I have of the story, but I have to be honest, and I am uncomfortable with the ending.

Spoiler: SHOW

The only thing I did not like was the ending, in some ways the story had a similar plot twist as the plot of the genre movie Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, or Chinatown, where a major character is the victim of abuse by her own father. (no graphic details). It was particularly similar to Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, where there is a body deliberately placed to fake another's death, where one sister is trying to protect her other sister from being continually molested by their father. But unlike those stories, the abuser did not meet the punishment he deserved. Instead it ended with the private detective leaving the room while the real villian, the girls' father, beats one of his daughters, who is herself a victim. It was an excellent story, but that last page was anti-climactic to put it mildly.

[SUBY1974]

I missed the guitar. Will take a look again. I wonder if there will be a sequel or continuation of the story? Subrata.x

Hi Cynthia. I just read the spoiler. However I did love those cheesy adverts at the end. The only thing missing they didn't tell me and Susie where we could purchase some Gerry curly wigs for when we play Gerry in the Rory movie. Nevermind eh?