The Closest Thing to Crazy

My Life of Musical Adventures

Mike Batt

$24.99

Paperback

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English

Nine Eight Books
05 June 2025

'Fabulously readable' STEPHEN FRY

'Wildly entertaining' DAILY EXPRESS

'Rollicking ... ebullient ... Christmas present problems are instantly solved' MAIL ON SUNDAY

Nominated for the 2025 Association for Recorded Sound Collections Awards for Excellence in Historical Recorded Sound Research

Described variously as a 'polymath', a 'renaissance man' and 'one of the most colourful characters in the music business', Mike Batt has led an extraordinarily vibrant and challenging life that has been full of both glorious victories and bitter failures.

For better or for worse, he is a man who has always lived life on his own terms. Idiosyncratic but mainstream, complicated but compassionate, steadfastly maverick in spirit but avowedly commercial in outlook. He is a man of great contradictions, but even greater talent.

After starting out in the music business as a teenager, Batt shot to fame in the early 1970s for his part in the creation of the Wombles pop group. But this success proved to be just the beginning as he then went on to work with various artists as a songwriter, composer and producer, including Art Garfunkel, George Harrison, Cliff Richard, Andrew Lloyd-Webber and Katie Melua.

Featuring cameos from some of the biggest stars in the business from Paul McCartney to Prince, The Closest Thing to Crazy takes us not only on the rocky (and classical) journey of Mike Batt's life but also on a tour around the inside of his mind.

By: Mike Batt
Imprint: Nine Eight Books
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 198mm, Width: 130mm, Spine: 23mm
Weight: 252g
ISBN: 9781785120862
ISBN 10: 1785120867
Pages: 368
Publication Date: 05 June 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Mike Batt is a singer, songwriter, producer and composer who has been making hit records for more than fifty years. He was the lead singer and creator of the Wombles pop group in the early 1970s and is a multi-Ivor Novello Award winner, who has written and produced music for many artists, including Art Garfunkel, Cliff Richard, David Essex and Katie Melua, conducted many of the world's great orchestras and worked across many art forms, directing, designing, conducting and engaging in entrepreneurial activities in the entertainment industry.

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The Closest Thing to Crazy

My Life of Musical Adventures

Mike Batt

$24.99

Paperback

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