Greetings from Bury Park: Race. Religion. Rock 'n' Roll

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Manzoor was born in Lyallpur (now Faisalabad), the second largest city in Punjab Province and the third largest in Pakistan. He emigrated to Britain in May 1974 with his mother, older brother and sister to join their father, Mohammed Manzoor, who had left Pakistan in 1963 to find work. [1] Manzoor attended Maidenhall Infants and Primary Schools in the Bury Park district of Luton. In the autumn of 1979, Manzoor's family moved to the Marsh Farm estate and he attended Wauluds Primary School [2] and in the autumn of 1982 began at Lea Manor High School. After completing A levels at Luton Sixth Form College, Manzoor left Luton to study Economics and Politics at Manchester University. Three days before Manzoor turned 24 in 1995, his father died. [3] Career [ edit ] Manzoor's story will be familiar to migrants all over the world. . . . Luton is to London as Jersey City is to NYC: proletarian versus metropolitan, periphery versus centre, boredom versus cool. . . . Greetings from Bury Park successfully evokes not only a particular time and place, but, more importantly, a pervasive sense of marginality. . . . A very personal narrative of love, separation, loss and guilt.— The New Statesman

Greetings from Bury Park: A Memoir by Sarfraz Manzoor - Goodreads

With crisp, fresh writing and an appealing voice, Manzoor invites readers along with him on his journey from a dutiful but somewhat rebellious boy to a thoughtful, wise adult.”— Booklist As unlikely as the thought that being Asian might be considered cool, that white people might pay to watch a film about a Pakistani family growing up in the seventies or read a book about a Bangladeshi woman or laugh at a comedy sketch where the joke was on them and not the Asians performing the skit." Mohammed Manzoor and Rasool Bibi married in 1960 - neither could recall the precise date - amidst controversy. My father's family were against the marriage because they thought he could do better. Mohammed's brothers and sisters could not understand why he was willing to marry someone with such poor prospects when there were other more attractive girls available. But Mohammed couldn't care less about such malicious talk and would disarmingly say, `Why would I want a more beautiful girl? This one is good enough for me.' If the relatives kept haranguing him he would jokingly accuse them of trying to ruin his life, saying, `If I married anyone more beautiful she would only leave me.' I handed the offending machine to her and looked on helplessly as she examined it and, with the simple act of changing the direction of one of the batteries, made it work. My shame was now complete: I had been left looking like a fool in front of the woman whom I was interviewing, and whom I secretly fancied and hoped to seduce with my charm. To her eternal credit, Wurtzel remained helpful and charming despite the unpromising start to our interview; she reminded me of the questions I had asked and even extended our conversation to accommodate the earlier difficulties. This confirmed my long-held theory that anyone who likes Bruce Springsteen is by definition a nice person. The album first charted in the UK on 15 June 1985, in the wake of the Born in the USA tour arriving in Britain, and remained in the Top 100 for ten weeks. [2] Certifications and sales [ edit ] Region

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a b "Happy 40th: Bruce Springsteen's 'Greetings From Asbury Park, New Jersey' ". CBS. 1973-07-05. Archived from the original on October 8, 2016 . Retrieved 2014-01-25. Interestingly, though, given Manzoor's obsession with music, we are left wondering what sort of effect university life - and in particular the hedonistic 1990s "Madchester" scene - had on shaping his outlook on the world (perhaps, because he doesn't drink, very little). Also, a passing reference to his passion for the Qawwali Sufi music of the Pakistani singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan is left frustratingly unexplored. The interview with Elizabeth Wurtzel would be my first published article. Her book Prozac Nation was being published that summer; I had read an advance copy and noticed it contained countless references to Springsteen and his music. Wurtzel was someone who, like me, had found inspiration and sustenance in Springsteen's music. I persuaded her publishers to let me interview her on the promise I would place the interview myself. I then sold the feature to the Manchester Evening News. `If you like the piece you can publish it,' I told the women's editor, `and if you don't you won't ever have to hear from me again. You have nothing to lose.' Sarfraz Manzoor "Why do Asian writers have to be 'authentic' to succeed?", The Observer, 30 April 2006 urn:lcp:greetingsfrombur00manz:epub:35586a13-5a2f-464f-8391-7320c6dfb570 Extramarc Columbia University Libraries Foldoutcount 0 Identifier greetingsfrombur00manz Identifier-ark ark:/13960/t1hh7jb90 Isbn 9780307388025

Greetings from Bury Park: the inspiration for hit film Greetings from Bury Park: the inspiration for hit film

Sarfraz Manzoor was just two years old when he emigrated to Britain from Pakistan in 1974. His father had worked in the country for over ten years and so for him, it was not only a new country, but a new family set up. Manzoor's family were the typically industrious Pakistani immigrant family - his father worked long hours on the Vauxhall production line in Luton. His mother sewed clothes at home and he and his siblings were expected to help. Life was all about work, work, work and money, money, money. And for the young Manzoor, it seemed there was an awful lot of work, but precious little money was spreading his way. In comparison with some of his white peers, he had few toys, no fashionable clothes and an authoritarian father. He resented these things a great deal. In a bid for mental escape, he developed an obsession with Americana and in particular with the music of Bruce Springsteen. The Boss' lyrics about individual grandeur in the lives of the little people made perfect sense to him. Larkin, Colin (2011). "Bruce Springsteen". Encyclopedia of Popular Music (5thed.). Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-0857125958. I awoke and I imagined the hard things that pulled us apart Will never again, sir, tear us from each other's hearts

Manzoor scripted The Great British Asian Invasion for Channel 4 [6] and wrote and directed Death of a Porn Star for the same network which told the tragic story of the life and death of Lolo Ferrari. He presented a documentary for Channel 4 [7] on the 2006 Guardian Hay Book Festival On the Way to Hay in which he interviewed Monica Ali and Will Self. [8] We are living in a time when many of the battles I believed had been won are having to be refought. But the strongest weapon against those who seek to sow division is empathy. That this film is being made now, that it will reach audiences who haven’t read the book, gives me a reason to feel hopeful. Sarfraz Manzoor ( Urdu: سرفراز منظور; born 9 June 1971) is a British journalist, documentary maker, broadcaster, and screenwriter of Pakistani origin. He is a regular contributor to The Guardian, presenter of documentaries on BBC Radio 4, and a cultural commentator who appears on programmes such as Newsnight Review and Saturday Review. His first book, Greetings from Bury Park was published in 2007. Charming and affectionate. . . . [ Greetings from Bury Park] rises above the predictable coming-of-age genre on the strength of Manzoor's unflinching honesty and his unique world view. . . . [Manzoor] poignantly shows how he comes to admire the life his father led even though it wasn't what he chose. . . . You don't have to be a Springsteen fan to enjoy this book or understand Manzoor's devotion. You just have to recall a time when you were still open enough that music had the power to shatter the world view you inherited.”— The Miami Herald

Greetings from Bury Park by Sarfraz Manzoor: 9780307388025

A small wonder which reads like a melancholy refit of the Buddha of Suburbia, where boredom replaces bohemia and real life is only glimpsed in a Springsteen lyric. The result is a genuinely moving rite of passage in which pop music plays an essential and disposable role.” Springsteen and his first manager Mike Appel recorded the album at the low-priced, out-of-the-way 914 Sound Studios to save as much as possible of the Columbia Records advance, and cut most of the songs during the last week of June 1972. [6] [1]In real life, I was literally not allowed to leave the house until I went to university at 18 – not just in the evenings; I never, ever went out. So, the idea of having a girlfriend? I would have been slaughtered. No way. But Gurinder was like, 'C’mon, we’ve got to give this guy a girl. We’ve got to cheer him up a little bit.' So, he’s got a girlfriend, which I didn’t have." In chapters titled with Springsteen song titles Manzoor writes about his experiences growing up at once British, Pakistani, and Muslim, and at the same time not fitting into any of those catefories; indeed, the memoir is basically the story of how he is able to reconcile himself to each of those pieces of his history and reassemble them into a whole and healthy personality. While the movie compresses the timescale of events that in real life extended over a decade to fit into a filmable sequence, the screenplay written by Manzoor captures the important central themes and feelings of the memoir. The absence of any photographs of the real life Sarfraz in the book plus the cover photo from this movie tie-in edition of the actor who played him makes it impossible not to conflate the two. A clever memoir from an unlikely fan of Bruce Springsteen. . . . Along with his Sikh pal Amolak, who introduces the author to the Bruce, Manzoor tries to rebel against tradition, finding meaning in the lyrics of Jersey's native son.”— The New York Post In some ways, I think it can be argued the memoir is also a work about growing up. However, the growing that the protagonist has to work through is the death of his patriarchal father. In March 2005, Manzoor wrote and presented Luton Actually, [9] a documentary for BBC 2. The programme, a personal and affectionate portrait of his hometown, featured Manzoor tracing his family's journey from Pakistan to Luton.

I thought Britain was becoming more tolerant Ten years ago, I thought Britain was becoming more tolerant

Bruce Springsteen – Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J. – Album Review". AbsolutePunk.net . Retrieved 2014-02-21. a b Heylin, Clinton (2012). Springsteen Song by Song A Critical Look. New York: Penguin Group (USA) Inc. pp.8–13 . Retrieved 27 March 2020. Blinded by the Light] vibrantly displays a modest and unpretentious sense of optimism, and offers the hope that by connecting with our own choices in music we can transcend cultural and generational differences to reach personal freedom without denying our need to belong.” —The Guardian Hull, Tom (October 29, 2016). "Streamnotes (October 2016)". Tom Hull – on the Web . Retrieved July 2, 2020.

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Javed is a reserved and quiet boy who from the outside who seems like a shell. On the inside however, he’s in turmoil. He’s depressed and his only outlet is his writing. Discouraged by his family, he at first places no value on his writing. But through the magic of Springsteen he begins to see how his life does have meaning and more importantly how he can create meaning for himself. Perhaps what makes this film incredibly moving is- Javed learns that being free does not necessarily have to mean a complete rejection of his Pakistani roots. He learns to accept his identity as a British boy is also inherently tied to being Pakistani. This felt particularly revolutionary considering the film is set 1987 Thatcherite Britain. The inspiration for the smash Sundance hit, soon to be a major motion picture, "Blinded by the Light": T he acclaimed memoir about the power of Bruce Springsteen's music on a young Pakistani boy growing up in Britain in the 1970s. Billy Bragg also attempts to define his own national identity in The Progressive Patriot, while Nigel Slater's Toast talks about the death of a parent and a difficult paternal relationship. You might also appreciate The Cloud Messenger by Aamer Hussein. Manzoor has written on a variety of subjects, from class and race to music and film. His most recent book, They: What Muslims and Non-Muslims Get Wrong About Each Other , explored British identity and religious tolerance. After watching both "Blinded by the Light" and interviewing author Sarfraz himself, I decided that it was only right of me to read the source material itself. "Greetings from Bury Park" was a moving, fascinating read; one that really allowed for me to know this man even more so than from watching the film.