Jeff Apter header-graphic
Jeff Apter
Jeff Apter
Jeff Apter is one of Australia's foremost writers of non-fiction. In a career spanning more than 20 years he has written 10 commercially and critically well-received biographies, and has contributed to such publications as Rolling Stone (where he spent five years as Music Editor), the Sydney Morning Herald and GQ. Jeff is the Music Contributor to Australian Vogue and was the music reviewer for The Bulletin for many years.

His books include studies of Silverchair, the Cure and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jeff Buckley, Keith Urban and test cricketer Michael Slater. Jeff is currently working on two new books, including a biography of the Finn brothers, Neil and Tim, and a co-writing project with one of Australia's most acclaimed singer / songwriters.
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PROS & CONS:
The Apter Blog

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radio interviewClick here to hear Jeff interviewed about A Pure Drop.

Hear Jeff interviewed by Merrick & Rosso.

To read a new interview with Jeff, click on the link below:
www.neildaniels.com/Apter.html
 
Latest Project
Keith Urban

Fortunate Son:
The Unlikely Rise of Keith Urban

My latest release is a biography of country singer, Nashville superstar and tabloid favourite, Keith Urban, published by Random House. The book has recently featured in the bestselling country titles list at Barnes & Noble. It is also available through Target stores in America. What follows is the background to both Keith's remarkable rise and my book. More. 

To order from Australia please click here or here for North America.


Read an extract.
Read a Q&A on Fortunate Son.
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These reviews are from www.amazon.com

Click here to read a Sydney Morning Herald feature story.

Just Released
Jeff Buckley

A Pure Drop:
The Life of Jeff Buckley

A Pure Drop: The Life Of Jeff Buckley, is out now in the UK and Australia and has been released in North America, featuring a new, Merri Cyr photographed cover (left). The following is the book's introduction, which spells out how it came together and my motivation for writing the book. The softcover edition of the book will be available from November 2009 and can be ordered here.

Introduction
I've written books where the subject has been willing to have their life turned inside out, and other books where the subject has been more elusive than Spiderman. There's a vast difference between someone not wanting to speak in their own defence, and someone not being able to do so, as is the case with Jeff Buckley.   more

Click here to buy the book in North America. You can check out some reader's reviews at Barnes & Noble's website. It can also be purchased in a Kindle edition.

A Pure Drop is currently top of the Musicroom.com.au Top 100 Popular Biography Bestsellers list. Click here for on-line mag Treble's coverage of the book.

I was also fortunate enough to write the new foreword for the softcover version of Merri Cyr's excellent A Wished-For Song.

"I just finished A Pure Drop. Brilliant. Truly great stuff. You connect deeply with Jeff's extraordinary talents, his deeply conflicted emotional states, his soaring poetic nature, and of course with his love/hate relationship with the music biz. I think you did a bang-up job." Lee Underwood, musician and author of Blue Melody: Tim Buckley Remembered 

 


Book Reviews for A Pure Drop

A Pure Drop "This solid biography records in great detail not only the life of Jeff Buckley but also that of his father, Tim Buckley. This a book for anyone who wants to know everything about young Buckley. Apter has done his research."
Bruce Elder Sydney Morning Herald

“Jeff Apter’s lively biography, sympathetic but not hagiographical, makes you feel for those who have to have the struggle with their father in public. As Apter remarks, Buckley paved the way for a whole legion of maudlin boys, from Coldplay to Snow Patrol, who can’t compare with his vitality: Buckley could do the emotional splurge, and how.”
Owen Richardson The Age / A2

"This candid biography shows his many faces: a gifted impressionist, covers enthusiast, prankster and, most comically, an avid dog stalker . . . We get to see Buckley's personality crack as relationships strain due to touring Grace (his drinking put him on 'an emotional asteroid'), although he finds peace again cycling around Memphis shortly before that fateful swim."
Classic Rock 7/10

"In A Pure Drop: The Life of Jeff Buckley, Australian Jeff Apter explores the nooks and crannies of Buckley's short life, from his California childhood through to his fledgling music career in New York and beyond, and includes a chapter, The Wizard of Oz, that draws on accounts of those who were around him in Australia to paint a picture of a multi-layered personality; a fun-loving, mischievous party animal who was also quiet, introverted, secretive and volatile, and a great musician."
Iain Shedden The Australian
      

"Apter resists mawkishness or sentimentality in this account of Buckley's life and death, to reveal a difficult – if charismatic – man who doesn't quite match the idealised image of the gifted lost boy destroyed by fame and family." Q

more reviews... 
 
Current Releases

SilverchairA Pure Drop
The Life of Jeff Buckley

Hardcover, 256 pages,
Published in UK, Australia and Germany, September 2008; North America March 2009
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SilverchairA New Tomorrow -
The Silverchair Story

Paperback, 360 pages,
December 2006
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Click here to read a Q&A about this book 

Gwen StefaniA Simple Kind Of Life:
Gwen Stefani & No Doubt
Hardcover, 232 pages, July 2007
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chilli peppersFornication:
The Red Hot Chilli Peppers
Hardcover, 360 pages,
July 2004,
Paperback August 2005

Also published in German, Dutch and Italian
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Cure - never enoughNever Enough:
The Story Of The Cure

Hardcover, 338 pages, September 2005,
Updated Paperback April 2009

Also published in German, Italian, French, Greek and Polish
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Dave GrohlThe Dave Grohl Story
Hardcover, 277 pages,
January 2006,
Paperback April 2008

Also published in German
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Michael SlaterSlats: The Michael Slater Story
Published 2005
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In Harms WayIn Harm's Way
Paperback, 288 pages,
September 2008

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