Nile Rodgers (2012 event)

He may be best known for the disco hit Le Freak but Nile Rodgers’ influence on pop music has been so very much greater than that. Rodgers wrote and produced classics such as Like a Virgin for Madonna, We Are Family for Sister Sledge and David Bowie’s bestselling album Let’s Dance. He’s worked with Mick Jagger, Bob Dylan, Prince and Debbie Harry; he’s jammed with Jimi and dined out with Diana. Nile Rodgers also happens to be a brilliant storyteller, and in this event, recorded live at Edinburgh International Book Festival, he talks to Irvine Welsh, recounting the joy and pain of a life at the heart of the pop industry, and he throws in an impromptu jamming session just for the hell of it.

Loading the player... if your browser supports audio and video it should appear in a few moments.
Download MP3

Book Festival News

Celebrating the 2024 Book Festival Celebrating the 2024 Book Festival
Monday 26 August

Enjoying this event? You can help us produce more like it.

Donate

Share

Listen to more

Val McDermid Val McDermid One of Scotland's great masters of the crime genre was welcomed back to the Book Festival by capacity audiences. Great chat and some more tales from the casebooks of Dr Tony Hill and Detective Carol Jordan. A festival favourite if ever there was one!… Neil Gaiman with Audrey Niffenegger (2011 event) Neil Gaiman with Audrey Niffenegger (2011 event) It’s ten years since the publication of the landmark American Gods, a book that brought Gaiman to international fame. One reviewer even lauded him thus: ‘Saying Neil Gaiman is a writer is like saying Da Vinci dabbled in the arts.’… Pamela Stephenson-Connolly (2011 event) Pamela Stephenson-Connolly (2011 event) Her book is certainly engaging but can it live up to the claims that it is the most enlightening book on sex ever published? Pamela Stephenson-Connolly's event threw up some surprises at the Book Festival in 2011… Andrea Levy (2010 event) Andrea Levy (2010 event) In 2010 Andrea Levy joined us for a captivating event to discuss The Long Song. Alongside chair Charlotte Higgins, Andrea Levy spoke of her striking new work to an eager audience… Martin Amis (2104 Event) Martin Amis (2104 Event) The last time Martin Amis wrote about the Holocaust was in 1991 in his novel Time’s Arrow. Now he returns to the subject with the much-anticipated The Zone of Interest. In this event, recorded live at the 2014 Edinburgh International Book Festival… Michèle Roberts & Helen Simpson (2010 event) Michèle Roberts & Helen Simpson (2010 event) Two remarkable writers led an exceptional Book Festival event in 2010. Joined by chair Steven Gale, Michèle Roberts and Helen Simpson discussed their sharp and moving short story collections to great effect… Mai Al-Nakib & Tom Barbash (2014 event) Mai Al-Nakib & Tom Barbash (2014 event) Our 2014 First Book Award-winner Kuwaiti author Mai Al-Nakib comes together in this event with bestselling San Francisco writer Tom Barbash to talk about their brilliant, moving short-story collections… Kay Ryan (2013 event) Kay Ryan (2013 event) Kay Ryan is widely regarded as one of America’s great living poets. Her book The Best of It: New and Selected Poems won her the Pulitzer Prize in 2011… Alan Johnson (2015 Event) Alan Johnson (2015 Event) Amid a slew of politicians’ memoirs in recent years, Alan Johnson’s This Boy was comfortably among the finest: one critic called it ‘the best political testament I’ve ever read’. The former Home Secretary returns to the Book… Ian Rankin: A Rebus for the Dark Times (2020 Event) Ian Rankin: A Rebus for the Dark Times (2020 Event) We have all become familiar with living through these strange times but for Ian Rankin 2020 was unusual in more ways than one. For starters, even though the number one bestselling writer thought he was taking a year off, he found himself topping the…