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Tomorrow's Here Today: Lightning Seeds, Football and Cosmic Post-Punk
A
Louder than War
Book of the Year
A Waterstones Book of the Year
A Rough Trade Book of the Year
A Resident Book of the Year
Few musicians have lived a musical life as rich as the songwriter and producer Ian Broudie.
From recording the glorious uplifting psychedelic pop of his band the Lightning Seeds to producing bands like Echo & the Bunnymen and the Fall, Ian has journeyed from the energy and potential of the 1970s punk scene to the madness of '90s indie - and out the other side.
Throughout nearly fifty years of making music, he has had a front-row seat working with generations of fantastic musicians in the creation of countless groundbreaking records. In Tomorrow's Here Today, he reveals what he has learnt about creativity, how to work with musicians touched by genius and what it is like to stumble through an exploding industry without losing sight of your dreams.
Along the way, Ian shares how he wrote the million-selling album Jollification and how - along with the comedians David Baddiel and Frank Skinner - he wrote and recorded the only single in chart history to reach number one in the UK on four separate occasions. 'Three Lions' has since become the undisputed unofficial anthem of English football, soundtracking heartbreaking defeats as well as the wondrous victories of the Lionesses.
Following 2022's long-awaited Lightning Seeds comeback, Ian reflects on a life of cosmic adventures spent in thrall to the power of music.
A Waterstones Book of the Year
A Rough Trade Book of the Year
A Resident Book of the Year
Few musicians have lived a musical life as rich as the songwriter and producer Ian Broudie.
From recording the glorious uplifting psychedelic pop of his band the Lightning Seeds to producing bands like Echo & the Bunnymen and the Fall, Ian has journeyed from the energy and potential of the 1970s punk scene to the madness of '90s indie - and out the other side.
Throughout nearly fifty years of making music, he has had a front-row seat working with generations of fantastic musicians in the creation of countless groundbreaking records. In Tomorrow's Here Today, he reveals what he has learnt about creativity, how to work with musicians touched by genius and what it is like to stumble through an exploding industry without losing sight of your dreams.
Along the way, Ian shares how he wrote the million-selling album Jollification and how - along with the comedians David Baddiel and Frank Skinner - he wrote and recorded the only single in chart history to reach number one in the UK on four separate occasions. 'Three Lions' has since become the undisputed unofficial anthem of English football, soundtracking heartbreaking defeats as well as the wondrous victories of the Lionesses.
Following 2022's long-awaited Lightning Seeds comeback, Ian reflects on a life of cosmic adventures spent in thrall to the power of music.
- GenresMusic
Audible Audio
Published October 26, 2023
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
December 26, 2023
Lucky you! This is marvellous! Well written, well structured and not short of anecdote, caper, emotion or jollification.
It’s waited patiently in the books to read pile, since publication. I’d ordered a signed copy from Rough Trade.
As soon as I finished the novel I was on, I began this- and I wasn’t disappointed. It’s been a while since I read a book so quickly, a combination of the Christmas break and being in a hotel with some downtime.
I won’t provide spoilers here. It’s unlikely that, if you like Ian Broudie’s work as a producer and singer songwriter, what I write is going to impact your decision to read or not read!
It all makes sense!
It’s waited patiently in the books to read pile, since publication. I’d ordered a signed copy from Rough Trade.
As soon as I finished the novel I was on, I began this- and I wasn’t disappointed. It’s been a while since I read a book so quickly, a combination of the Christmas break and being in a hotel with some downtime.
I won’t provide spoilers here. It’s unlikely that, if you like Ian Broudie’s work as a producer and singer songwriter, what I write is going to impact your decision to read or not read!
It all makes sense!
January 13, 2025
I recently interviewed Ian for Left Lion magazine (check it out online) and this book is a great example of how warm, self deprecating and yet massively talented he is.
Read
January 3, 2024A book which I would never have picked up were it not co-written by John Higgs, but which you'd never know had been written by John Higgs, and I don't just mean because his name isn't on the cover. I'm not averse to the Lightning Seeds, but I've been fascinated for a while by how un-fascinating Ian Broudie is, by the complete absence of star quality demonstrated if you, say, play his version of Sense next to Terry Hall's. And I think he accepts that too; he talks a few times here about being a Richards who never found his Jagger, about the series of accidents by which he ended up as a provisional frontman and then got stuck. But my memory from back when we still had a music press was that, once he was having a quiet chat, he could be really entertaining company. In particular, there was a time when he was the only person I've ever seen put his finger on exactly why Ocean Colour Scene were so shit, though possibly he didn't phrase it quite that way given this book reminded me he was collaborating with one of them around the same time. But here, despite the fact he's working with a man who on a good day is one of our best pop culture writers, that really doesn't come through. Maybe it's just the wear and tear of the years; if you've started out working with the Bunnymen and Bill Drummond, and ended up producing the Coral and Miles fucking Kane, then presumably it's going to take something out of you. But even if it's just that the records got small, the effect seems to be retroactive, such that even stories about inadvertently finding himself bunking with Motorhead, or ending up in Johnny Thunders' orbit as a nervous youth, fall oddly flat. Occasionally the sparkle is there, as when the poor sod is at a sufficiently low ebb that he even has what might be the world's only dispiriting interaction with the film Paddington. But for the most part it didn't rise above being a book that was close at hand and easy to read on sleepy evenings in the dead days. Part of the problem is that by his own admission his happy place isn't getting into anecdotal situations with famous names, it's making music, and that's a harder thing to get across - though there's a lovely bit early on about how the first Lightning Seeds records were essentially hip hop methods being used to make utterly non-hip hop music back before that was widespread. The frustrating thing is that I finish this sure that Higgs could have written something fascinating about Broudie, just not at the same time as writing with/as him. On the upside, I have now got bang into Care, Broudie's abortive but beautiful band with fellow Eric's runner-up and sometime (haunted) housemate Paul Simpson, whose own memoir I got for Christmas and which will form an intriguing counterpart to this, given the divergence of their subsequent careers, one becoming the ultimate cult figure while the other went on to produce arguably the most mainstream song in Britain.
June 3, 2024
Ian Broudie's autobiography Tomorrow's Here Today: Lightning Seeds, Football and Cosmic Post-Punk massively exceeded my expectations. Ian is very thoughtful and insightful about his life so far, and which encompasses producing music, having hit records, composing and performing the most successful and enduring football song of all time, and lots of fascinating real life stuff too in which he shares intimate moments. The non-linear approach works excellently as we skip around from The Lightning Seeds unlikely first hit, to Big In Japan and the Liverpool punk and post-punk scenes, fatherhood, ghosts, appearing in Ken Campbell's production of the Illuminatus, Eric's Club, producing Echo and the Bunnymen, and on and on. If any of that attracts you, or even if it doesn't, I highly recommend this honest, wise, and inspiring account of Ian's life.
5/5
'All Ian Broudie's great gifts as a songwriter - melody, vulnerability, empathy, hope - turn out to be in his prose too. A lovely read' - DAVID BADDIEL
'Full of heart and sparkling melancholy' - THE I
'One of the greatest rock 'n' roll stories of the past fifty years recounted with warmth and wisdom' - HOT PRESS
Few musicians have lived a musical life as rich as the songwriter and producer Ian Broudie. From recording the glorious uplifting psychedelic pop of his band The Lightning Seeds to producing bands like Echo & the Bunnymen and The Fall, Ian has journeyed from the energy and potential of the 1970s punk scene to the madness of '90s indie - and out the other side. Throughout nearly fifty years of making music, he has had a front-row seat working with generations of fantastic musicians in the creation of countless groundbreaking records. In Tomorrow's Here Today, he reveals what he has learnt about creativity, how to work with musicians touched by genius and what it is like to stumble through an exploding industry without losing sight of your dreams. Along the way, Ian shares how he wrote the million-selling album Jollification and how - along with the comedians David Baddiel and Frank Skinner - he wrote and recorded the only single in chart history to reach number one in the UK on four separate occasions. 'Three Lions' has since become the undisputed unofficial anthem of English football, soundtracking heartbreaking defeats as well as the wondrous victories of the Lionesses. Following 2022's long-awaited Lightning Seeds comeback, Ian reflects on a life of cosmic adventures spent in thrall to the power of music.
5/5
'All Ian Broudie's great gifts as a songwriter - melody, vulnerability, empathy, hope - turn out to be in his prose too. A lovely read' - DAVID BADDIEL
'Full of heart and sparkling melancholy' - THE I
'One of the greatest rock 'n' roll stories of the past fifty years recounted with warmth and wisdom' - HOT PRESS
Few musicians have lived a musical life as rich as the songwriter and producer Ian Broudie. From recording the glorious uplifting psychedelic pop of his band The Lightning Seeds to producing bands like Echo & the Bunnymen and The Fall, Ian has journeyed from the energy and potential of the 1970s punk scene to the madness of '90s indie - and out the other side. Throughout nearly fifty years of making music, he has had a front-row seat working with generations of fantastic musicians in the creation of countless groundbreaking records. In Tomorrow's Here Today, he reveals what he has learnt about creativity, how to work with musicians touched by genius and what it is like to stumble through an exploding industry without losing sight of your dreams. Along the way, Ian shares how he wrote the million-selling album Jollification and how - along with the comedians David Baddiel and Frank Skinner - he wrote and recorded the only single in chart history to reach number one in the UK on four separate occasions. 'Three Lions' has since become the undisputed unofficial anthem of English football, soundtracking heartbreaking defeats as well as the wondrous victories of the Lionesses. Following 2022's long-awaited Lightning Seeds comeback, Ian reflects on a life of cosmic adventures spent in thrall to the power of music.
April 7, 2024
Just finished Tomorrow's Here Today. While my copy was delayed in arrival by several months, I admittedly waited a few more before starting it - Meet Me In The Bathroom took up all my time!
As everyone here knows, it's the memoir of Ian Broudie, best known as perennial Lightning Seeds leader and record producer of bands Echo & The Bunnymen, The Icicle Works, The Fall, and The Coral to name but a few.
Broudie answers all the big questions surrounding his career as both a producer and a songwriter; how he got the nickname "Kingbird" for the Bunnymen albums, how he pieced the drum parts together on Sense without ever picking up a stick, and yes, how he recorded the classics "Pure" and "Three Lions."
Throughout it all, we are confronted by a man deeply conflicted about his relationship with success.
To quote one of Broudie's songs, "He's not a man of many words
He's wrapped up deep inside
Seldom seen and barely heard
The secrets of his life."
This is both a strength and a weakness, as I would've liked to have seen each era discussed fleshed out in more detail. However, it is also true to who Ian Broudie is as a person as he's never been one to tout his own accomplishments or pat himself on the back. Perhaps he's just too nice for the world of superstardom.
Towards the end of the book, Broudie teases us with a series of short excerpts - goading the reader into believing that they've entered the final chapter - in the way that a band might approach several encores.
Coming out for a final song, only to go back to the dressing room, wait for the applause and repeating the process.
Whether or not this was intentional, it is certainly appropriate for a man who says that his two great passions and calling cards in life are music and football. Add "storyteller" to that list.
As everyone here knows, it's the memoir of Ian Broudie, best known as perennial Lightning Seeds leader and record producer of bands Echo & The Bunnymen, The Icicle Works, The Fall, and The Coral to name but a few.
Broudie answers all the big questions surrounding his career as both a producer and a songwriter; how he got the nickname "Kingbird" for the Bunnymen albums, how he pieced the drum parts together on Sense without ever picking up a stick, and yes, how he recorded the classics "Pure" and "Three Lions."
Throughout it all, we are confronted by a man deeply conflicted about his relationship with success.
To quote one of Broudie's songs, "He's not a man of many words
He's wrapped up deep inside
Seldom seen and barely heard
The secrets of his life."
This is both a strength and a weakness, as I would've liked to have seen each era discussed fleshed out in more detail. However, it is also true to who Ian Broudie is as a person as he's never been one to tout his own accomplishments or pat himself on the back. Perhaps he's just too nice for the world of superstardom.
Towards the end of the book, Broudie teases us with a series of short excerpts - goading the reader into believing that they've entered the final chapter - in the way that a band might approach several encores.
Coming out for a final song, only to go back to the dressing room, wait for the applause and repeating the process.
Whether or not this was intentional, it is certainly appropriate for a man who says that his two great passions and calling cards in life are music and football. Add "storyteller" to that list.
December 18, 2023
Totally charming music memoir (and it sticks pretty firmly to the music, with only occasional insights into Broudie's personal life, as is his right), full of enthusiasm for the joy of pop music, the craft of songwriting, and the importance of knowing how to pace yourself as a recording artist. Mostly to be enjoyed by those who were there in the '90s, but there's worthwhile lessons in here too for any upcoming young songwriter.
Also, this is just a minor gripe, but a pet peeve is when I see bands described as the Beatles, the Cure, the Smiths etc., rather than The Beatles, The Cure, The Smiths. Would like to see this amended in any future editions!
Also, this is just a minor gripe, but a pet peeve is when I see bands described as the Beatles, the Cure, the Smiths etc., rather than The Beatles, The Cure, The Smiths. Would like to see this amended in any future editions!
February 10, 2024
A life in music . Ian Broudie runs through his early years as the Lightening Seeds and covers the early albums well . The half way through suddenly goes backwards to his days in Made In Japan which is a bit jarring . The subsequent section is rather downbeat with his decision to give up being a producer. The conclusion is given without much explanation . The album Tilt is dismissed with less than a paragraph .
On of the later chapters dealing with the breakdown of his marriage and the death of family members' leaves you with the impression that his current live is not as he would like it to be .
Well written , interesting read overall
On of the later chapters dealing with the breakdown of his marriage and the death of family members' leaves you with the impression that his current live is not as he would like it to be .
Well written , interesting read overall
December 14, 2023
I absolutely adored this book. I really liked The Lightning Seeds in the 90's, owned a few of their albums and singles, and one or two tracks really resonated with me. To hear Ian Broudie's life story of what music means to him, his unexpected success and the hardships his life has endured, was a very moving experience. I listened to the audiobook which is read brilliantly by Mr Broudie. Some of his tales brought me to tears half a dozen times, which I really wasn't anticipating. A beautiful book in many ways. What a musician and what a man.
April 28, 2024
Not an autobiography in the usual fashion. This feels more like conversations down the pub, recollections and anecdotes rather than a strict linear progression.
I’m all for that, in reality I’m usually looking forward to the headlines, rather than the preamble.
There are some really golden nuggets of stories in here, and then shone through very well.
Some things are brushed aside in mere moments, and I’d like to have learned more about them, but that’s the nature of autobiographies I guess.
I’m all for that, in reality I’m usually looking forward to the headlines, rather than the preamble.
There are some really golden nuggets of stories in here, and then shone through very well.
Some things are brushed aside in mere moments, and I’d like to have learned more about them, but that’s the nature of autobiographies I guess.
August 16, 2024
To most people, Ian Broudie is the guy from Three Lions that isn’t a comedian. Look a little closer and you’ll find a back catalogue of radio friendly songs that will make you go “oh yeah, I remember that” and “that’s a good song”
If you want tales of drunken antics or decades lost to drugs, you won’t find it here. If however you want to hear stories from someone you would happily go for a pint with, this is the ideal book.
If you want tales of drunken antics or decades lost to drugs, you won’t find it here. If however you want to hear stories from someone you would happily go for a pint with, this is the ideal book.
June 6, 2024
Saw the lightning seeds at Wychwood Festival this weekend and I grew up with all the albums. This book is Marvellous, fabulous, perfect.
Well worth a read, and not like a lot of the music autobiographies. It’s very honest, and personable, and sounds like the writer just telling who he is. Completely recommend.
Well worth a read, and not like a lot of the music autobiographies. It’s very honest, and personable, and sounds like the writer just telling who he is. Completely recommend.
January 5, 2024
audio book
February 23, 2024
Good read about Ian's long music career.
Reading it in the week Steve Wright died, the story about him giving 'Pure' it's first daytime play on Radio 1 was perfect.
Reading it in the week Steve Wright died, the story about him giving 'Pure' it's first daytime play on Radio 1 was perfect.
February 23, 2024
Listened to the audiobook, and so interesting to hear about his life.
April 3, 2024
I could not put this book down. He tells his story with great warmth, humour and honesty.
Fantastic read.
Fantastic read.
January 2, 2025
Fascinating autobiography. Ian is such an interesting person. I’m a lightning seeds fan but I knew nothing about his life. A great music read.
November 28, 2025
Loved this
I’ve always loved Lightning Seeds, so looked forward to reading this. By far the most interesting music book in a long time.
I’ve always loved Lightning Seeds, so looked forward to reading this. By far the most interesting music book in a long time.
November 4, 2023
This book has been an absolute privilege to be able to read and listen to. I sincerely appreciate the trust that Ian has had to believe in as he shares some very funny, very scary, very happy and very emotional parts of his life. All of them precious to him, you can feel his vunerability, honesty and bravery of such a private and unnassuming man.
This is not an account of life's best bits when you're famous... obviously we get to love and share the excitement with and for Ian...and there are plenty of moments where i was just laughing out loud!! But this is real life... just like us... a real journey with the highs and the lows... and the unfairness... and the plenty of hard work and commitment that is required just to get through each day.
You will keep wanting to turn the page or listen to the next chapter, read by Ian... to be able find out what happened next... how on earth he survived at some points... and you will feel the excitement and the laughter with Ian, but also the heartbreak, the anger and the frustration for him as he shares some very difficult times too.
I feel like this book is so unique and so special because Ian is exactly that; unique and very special. He is not about the fame or anything surface level at all and it's like he connects with people on a different level then anyone else of his status really. He is about the things in life that don't cost a penny yet are the most precious of all; family, friendships, honesty and kindness, sensitivity. Love. We all need more of that in our lives and if you read this book that is exactly what you will have.
When you finish reading or listening... you will be left feeling as if you have been trusted with some very brave stories.... but also that you have been able to enjoy some of life's best bits with someone who is truly deserving. And really there is nothing better than that.
This is not an account of life's best bits when you're famous... obviously we get to love and share the excitement with and for Ian...and there are plenty of moments where i was just laughing out loud!! But this is real life... just like us... a real journey with the highs and the lows... and the unfairness... and the plenty of hard work and commitment that is required just to get through each day.
You will keep wanting to turn the page or listen to the next chapter, read by Ian... to be able find out what happened next... how on earth he survived at some points... and you will feel the excitement and the laughter with Ian, but also the heartbreak, the anger and the frustration for him as he shares some very difficult times too.
I feel like this book is so unique and so special because Ian is exactly that; unique and very special. He is not about the fame or anything surface level at all and it's like he connects with people on a different level then anyone else of his status really. He is about the things in life that don't cost a penny yet are the most precious of all; family, friendships, honesty and kindness, sensitivity. Love. We all need more of that in our lives and if you read this book that is exactly what you will have.
When you finish reading or listening... you will be left feeling as if you have been trusted with some very brave stories.... but also that you have been able to enjoy some of life's best bits with someone who is truly deserving. And really there is nothing better than that.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews