When a pop star confesses, on the second page of his autobiography, that he has "philosophical bent", the heart does tend to sink. The kind of people who have spent years in that most self-deluding of industries seem unlikely to aspire to thought, let alone philosophy. But with Joe Jackson, we might be willing to make an exception. He"s more of a sometime pop star, a musicians" musician, whose various eclectic incarnations over the years--from his 1979 LP Look Sharp, to the Robert Palmeresque Stepping Out and Joe Jackson"s Jumpin" Jive--have all been united by a rare integrity, intelligence and musicality--even they"ve not always met with the success they deserve. With A Cure for Gravity Jackson demonstrates another talent. This is the story of his life, starting with a sad-sounding childhood in "Pompey" or Portsmouth, the kind of place which sees seagulls as "shitehawks". Jackson of course moves on--to the Royal Academy of Music and the National Youth Jazz Orchestra among others--but he takes with him Pompey"s resigned, sardonic take on life, which stands him in good stead through the miserable, mundane, even violent apprenticeship to pop stardom. The tale he tells here is light years away from the usual rags-to- riches banality we expect from celebrity: it¹s a beautifully observed, evocative and touchingly real account of a life sustained, through the worst of times, by an enduring, enquiring passion for music.--Alan Stewart