John Harris & Jude Rogers. Maybe I'm Amazed

Name: John Harris & Jude Rogers. Maybe I'm Amazed
Start: 2025-04-22T19:30:00+01:00
Location: Elysium

Schedule

Tue, 22 Apr, 2025 at 07:30 pm

UTC+01:00

Location

Elysium | Swansea, WA

Thrilled to welcome the multiple award-winning writer, journalist, podcaster and presenter John Harris for the launch of his incredible new memoir: Maybe I'm Amazed: A Story Of Love and Connection in 10 Songs. John will be in conversation with Jude Rogers.
Long before he was a parent, John Harris obsessively went to gigs, started a band, and pursued a career in music writing. He had no idea he was actually preparing himself for the greatest challenge of his life. But so it transpired. When his son James was born, and three years later diagnosed with autism, music became their main form of communication, a hugely shared passion and - it is no exaggeration to say - the sound that saved them.

Maybe I’m Amazed describes how The Beatles, Kraftwerk, Funkadelic, The Velvet Underground, Amy Winehouse and more were soon woven into the fabric of James’s life, becoming an essential part of who he is. It takes us through the struggles of raising an autistic child in a prejudiced world, and uncovers a hidden history of neurodivergence and creativity that casts new light on why notes, chords and lyrics speak so powerfully to the human mind.

Anyone who has fallen in love with a band or heard their life reflected back at them by a song will recognise themselves in Maybe I’m Amazed. Combining the personal and the universal, it has lessons in listening and living for us all.

‘Every page breaks your heart then repairs it with love, compassion and the magical power of music. A stunning reminder that the alchemy of music and words can overcome, heal and connect like no other art form.’ Nicky Wire, Manic Street Preachers

‘This book taught me so much and delighted and moved me even more. Entrancing, heartbreaking, uplifting – a complete inspiration and education.’
Marina Hyde, Guardian

‘All of us who love music know it has a power beyond just the sound it makes. In this moving account of life with a neurodivergent child, we get to witness that power first hand.’
Billy Bragg
John Harris is a multiple award-winning writer, journalist, podcaster and presenter. He has written professionally about music since he was 19, and is also known for his pioneering political and social writing, centred on his weekly column in The Guardian and his BAFTA-nominated Anywhere but Westminster films with John Domokos. He is the author of the acclaimed pop-cultural history of the 1990s The Last Party (which is currently being developed for television) and the definitive work on Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of The Moon. In 2021, he turned 60 hours of recorded conversations into the authorised book that accompanied Peter Jackson's Beatles documentary series Get Back. He writes regularly for Mojo and has been awarded the Orwell Prize for Political Journalism (2021) and the UK Award for Political Commentator of the year (2018).
Jude Rogers is a Welsh journalist, lecturer, arts critic and broadcaster. She is a music critic for The Guardian and also regularly writes features and articles for The Observer, New Statesman and women's magazines such as Red Her articles have also been published by The Times and by BBC Music and she broadcasts on BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 4 and BBC 6 Music. She is a senior lecturer in journalism at London Metropolitan University.