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Cider With Roadies

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Stuart Maconie was one of the great writers for the NME in its best or second best era. While it is true that he was maybe not such a persona as Nick Kent or Paul Morley, he was on the staff of this journalin some of its more exciting years: the post-punk years and he managed to stay along for a while. This book that is really nice to read is made up of a few sections: at first he explains his musical heritage and how he became a music lover. Then in the last third of the bok he manages to give an excellent account of his years at the NME. It is somewhat unfortunate that this part of the book is not the longest since it is the most interesting one; this is also a shame because it is during that time that Stuart Maconie was writing some of the most exciting rock journalism available. What is also interesting to notice is that here one has a music journalist who is actually a music fan and he does not really spend hours writing about himself (even if some of the best rock journalism has been exactly that: people witing not about the music but themselves). So overall it is a fun read and I got it very cheaply at Glasgow airport.

Funny, true, brilliantly written - my favourite book of the last year. There's a reason why 25 people have this on their Facebook visual bookshelf.

Never heard of this man before (sorry, old person)but one of the best reads of my year.

Very, very funny - many 'laugh out loud' moments (and I'm not a 'laugh out loud' type - more of a 'swear out loud' type).

Also - makes you want to listen again to some music and search out other things you haven't heard yet but suspect you may really enjoy.

Add to this some sharp social observation and sociological insight (you don't have to be Northern but it helps)and you have a real cracker on your hands.

Stuart Maconie's isn't a proper autobiography, in the sense that it doesn't cover many of life's milestones. For example, the book brings us fairly up to date in Maconie's career, but we don't find out whether his parents are still alive. The book is also poorly edited in that it is littered with spelling mistakes.

That said, this is a brilliant account of the evolution of a pop music lover's taste as he moves from Beatle-loving infant to writer for Q magazine, DJ for BBC Radio Two and contributor to TV nostalgia programmes. It helps that he is of a similar age to me (fortysomething) and many of the artists he picks out are also favourites of mine (e.g. Gentle Giant and Return to Forever). But while I was brought up in southern England, Stuart was raised in the north-west. He likes many artists and styles I have yet to grow fond of: Morrissey, Northern Soul, and the Clash, for example. And while I often dreamed of being in a band -- it would have helped if I'd bothered to learn an instrument -- Stuart actually did it, albeit to no great commercial success.

Maconie is particularly good on the religious divide that separated school kids in the 1970s. Were you a Slade fan or a T Rex fan? On such theological questions hung the matter of whether you would get beaten up at the bus stop by the school bully.

Spelling aside, Maconie is a great writer. (His three years studying for a degree in English Literature gets much coverage in the book.)

Maconie knows his audience and readership. While a family update would aid the completeness of the autobiography, Maconie knows that most of his readers would rather see the space devoted to his views on Sting (negative) and facts about Eno than his aunt Mildred's kidney problems.

This book is firmly aimed at people who lived through the 1970s knowing that there was almost nothing more important than pop music.