Resist Phony Encores!

Gruff Rhys

Resist Phony Encores! Is a selective, graphic memoir by musician Gruff Rhys. With designer Mark James’s xeroxed graphics and doctored photos at hand, Rhys weaves anecdotes from his life story and marvels at how - good and bad - they preempt his adventures in music.

He seeks explanations for the unimaginable highs and weirdness of life in music through the lens of crowd psychology. Searching for the reasons behind our communal need for music and gently and comically for the meaning of life itself. For the last 15 years or so Rhys has been using cue cards as part of his live performances- starting off as simple cues in order to avoid patronising stage banter; Applause! Louder! Thank You! Etc. These have gradually become more ambitious and absurd - Wild Abandon! Burger Franchise Opportunity! Generic Festival Reaction! The crowd generally goes wild on cue -there are pitfalls however.

The central anecdote and imagery comes from a mistakenly erected ‘TAX THE RICH’ cue card - held in the air whilst singing backing vocals for Sir Paul McCartney - much to his horror. Rhys original performed ‘Resist Phony Encores! As an acclaimed one man slide show at the Edinburgh Festival in 2018 - This is essentially the same script and slide-show expanded upon in book form. Which means as books go it has potential to be performed around release. 

Gruff Rhys has been releasing records, cassettes and flexi-discs since 1984 and is twenty something albums into a varied music career as a solo artist and member of Super Furry Animals and Neon Neon. His songwriting has bought him into previous contact with other mediums; 2 stage plays, Praxis Makes a Perfect and Candylion, his previous book American Interior and two ‘investigative concert tour’ feature films; American interior and Separado! 

Designed by Mark James