Broken Greek
'Do you sometimes feel like the music you're hearing is explaining your life to you?'
When Pete's parents moved from Cyprus to Birmingham in the 1960s in the hope of a better life, they had no money and only a little bit of English. They opened a fish-and-chip shop in Acocks Green. The Great Western Fish Bar is where Pete learned about coin-operated machines, male banter and Britishness.
Shy and introverted, Pete stopped speaking from age 4 to 7, and found refuge instead in the bittersweet embrace of pop songs, thanks to Top of the Pops and Dial-A-Disc. From Brotherhood of Man to UB40, from ABBA to The Police, music provided the safety net he needed to protect him from the tensions of his home life. It also helped him navigate his way around the challenges surrounding school, friendships and phobias such as visits to the barber, standing near tall buildings and Rod Hull and Emu.
Make it stand out.
With every passing year, his guilty secret became more horrifying to him: his parents were Greek, but all the things that excited him were British. And the engine of that realisation? ‘Sugar Baby Love’, ‘Don’t Go Breaking My Heart’, ‘Tragedy’, ‘Silly Games’, ‘Going Underground’, ‘Come On Eileen’, and every other irresistibly thrilling chart hit blaring out of the chip shop radio.
Reaction to ‘Broken Greek’
“Masterful.”
Jamie Atkins, Record Collector
★★★★★
“…you’ll be enthralled by Paphides’ funny, warm and sometimes heartbreaking account of how life-affirming music can be.”
Jon Dennis, Telegraph
★★★★★
Like the very best pop songs, it gets under your skin, and stays there.”
Nick Duerden, Independent
★★★★★
Lip-lickingly, dance-around-the-living-room good… A smash hit
Hannah Jane Parkinson, Observer
“A book that will leave you smiling.”
Martin Chilton, Independent
★★★★★
“A damn-near perfect book.”
Owen Richards, The Arts Desk
★★★★★
“Against the odds, Paphides has come up with one of the books of the year.”
Kieran Cunningham, Irish Star
“Wonderful”
Victoria Segal, Q Magazine
“Paphides can write like a dream, and knows how to make his particular circumstances resonate for anyone who, when young, hungered for music… a terrific achievement.”
Nick Lezard, Spectator
“If you have ever… found solace in a song, you will relish this book.”
Jackie Annesley. The Sunday Times
“All the energy, thrill and immediacy of your favourite single. I can think of no higher praise than that.”
Teddy Jamieson, The Herald
This is one of the best books I’ve read on what it means to be a pop music fan. It’s also one of the best books I’ve read on what it means to be a child trying to make sense of a grown-up world that more often than not seems to make very little sense at all. It is also magnificently funny.
Jason Barlow, GQ