Cider With Roadies
Cider With Roadies

Author: Stuart Maconie

Publisher: Random House

Published: 2014-09-30

Total Pages: 322

ISBN-13: 1473502861

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Cider with Roadies is the true story of a boy's obsessive relationship with pop. A life lived through music from Stuart's audience with the Beatles (aged 3); his confessions as a pubescent prog rocker; a youthful gymnastic dalliance with northern soul; the radical effects of punk on his politics, homework and trouser dimensions; playing in crap bands and failing to impress girls; writing for the NME by accident; living the sex, drugs (chiefly lager in a plastic glass) and rock and roll lifestyle; discovering the tawdry truth behind the glamour and knowing when to ditch it all for what really matters. From Stuart's four minutes in a leisure centre with MC Hammer to four days in a small van with Napalm Death it's a life-affirming journey through the land where ordinary life and pop come together to make music.

Roadie
Roadie

Author: Matt McGinn

Publisher: Portico

Published: 2014-12-08

Total Pages: 286

ISBN-13: 1910232181

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'He's been part of the Coldplay family since day one, we love him.' COLDPLAY ‘A funny, honest, absorbing account from an unseen member of the World's biggest band.’ SIMON PEGG Longtime Coldplay roadie Matt has taken almost every step with the band over a decade of world tours and 40 million (and counting) record sales. In this, his first book, he reveals what life is like behind the scenes at the pinnacle of rock 'n' roll touring. As Coldplay move from club gigs to arenas and stadiums worldwide, Matt goes with them; faking it as a band member on US chat shows, flirting with Kylie, saving a life on a French motorway and even pitching in with the odd guitar riff in the studio. Roadie provides the definitive glimpse of backstage life. Tales of hurricanes and heatwaves, helicopter chases and private jets, plectrum hunters and projectiles all come together as Matt explains in his unique way - and regardless of the mountain (and gear) to move - that the show must always, always go on.

The Pie At Night
The Pie At Night

Author: Stuart Maconie

Publisher: Random House

Published: 2015-09-10

Total Pages: 354

ISBN-13: 1409033244

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Factory, mine and mill. Industry, toil and grime. Its manufacturing roots mean we still see the North of England as a hardworking place. But, more than possibly anywhere else, the North has always known how to get dressed up, take itself out on the town and have a good time. After all, working and playing hard is its specialty, and Stuart Maconie is in search of what, exactly, this entails what it tells us about the North today. Following tip offs and rumour, Stuart takes trip to forgotten corners and locals’ haunts. From the tapas bars of Halifax to the caravan parks of Berwick Upon Tweed, from a Westhoughton bowling green to Manchester’s curry mile, via dog tracks and art galleries, dance floors and high fells, Stuart compares the new and old North, with some surprising results. The Pie at Night could be seen as a companion to the bestselling Pies and Prejudice, but it is not a sequel. After all, this is a new decade and the North is changing faster than ever. This is a revealing and digressive journey and a State of the North address, delivered from barstool, terrace, dress circle and hillside.

The Nanny State Made Me
The Nanny State Made Me

Author: Stuart Maconie

Publisher: Random House

Published: 2020-03-05

Total Pages: 289

ISBN-13: 1473562104

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'He is as funny as Bryson and as wise as Orwell' Observer It was the spirit of our finest hour, the backbone of our post-war greatness, and it promoted some of the boldest and most brilliant schemes this isle has ever produced: it was the Welfare State, and it made you and I. But now it's under threat, and we need to save it. In this timely and provocative book, Stuart Maconie tells Britain’s Welfare State story through his own history of growing up as a northern working class boy. What was so bad about properly funded hospitals, decent working conditions and affordable houses? And what was so wrong about student grants, free eye tests and council houses? And where did it all go so wrong? Stuart looks toward Britain’s future, making an emotional case for believing in more than profit and loss; and championing a just, fairer society.

Long Road from Jarrow
Long Road from Jarrow

Author: Stuart Maconie

Publisher: Random House

Published: 2017-07-20

Total Pages: 383

ISBN-13: 1473527686

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The Sunday Times Bestseller 'A tribute and a rallying call' - Guardian Three and half weeks. Three hundred miles. I saw roaring arterial highway and silent lanes, candlelit cathedrals and angry men in bad pubs. The Britain of 1936 was a land of beef paste sandwiches and drill halls. Now we are nation of vaping and nail salons, pulled pork and salted caramel. In the autumn of 1936, some 200 men from the Tyneside town of Jarrow marched 300 miles to London in protest against the destruction of their towns and industries. Precisely 80 years on, Stuart Maconie, walks from north to south retracing the route of the emblematic Jarrow Crusade. Travelling down the country’s spine, Maconie moves through a land that is, in some ways, very much the same as the England of the 30s with its political turbulence, austerity, north/south divide, food banks and of course, football mania. Yet in other ways, it is completely unrecognisable. Maconie visits the great cities as well as the sleepy hamlets, quiet lanes and roaring motorways. He meets those with stories to tell and whose voices build a funny, complex and entertaining tale of Britain, then and now.

The Wit and Wisdom of the North
The Wit and Wisdom of the North

Author: Rosemarie Jarski

Publisher: Random House

Published: 2009-10-13

Total Pages: 324

ISBN-13: 1407029576

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Ey up, it's not only footie, pints and pies that are better up north - the humour also takes some beating. Whether it's comics like Peter Kay, Les Dawson and Victoria Wood, telly shows like Corrie and Open All Hours, or writers like Alan Bennett and Keith Waterhouse, the funniest and best-loved invariably hail from the land of perpetual drizzle (another thing they do better). This grand collection of northern wit is packed with these favourites and more. Likely lads and lippy lasses cast a wry eye on subjects close to the heart of every northerner, including - brass, grub, graft, courting, cricket, tittle-tattle and t'weather - adding up to a feast of northern hilarity.

Deaf School
Deaf School

Author: Paul Du Noyer

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 309

ISBN-13: 1846318602

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Liverpool has been a city of bands for decades, a dynamic center of musical innovation that gave the world one of the most iconic groups ever to grace popular music—The Beatles. Years later, in 1974, it nearly did it again. Rehearsing in the very same rooms that John Lennon did at the Liverpool College of Art, the band Deaf School formed, a chaotic and wildly entertaining group with a flair for rock cabaret. Avant-garde to the max, they were slated for instant stardom, signing with Warner Brothers. But the band would never have their heyday, lost in the vicissitudes of taste as Britain's punk rock revolution took hold, drowning their potential out. In Deaf School: The Non-Stop Pop Art Punk Rock Party, veteran music writer Paul Du Noyer pays tribute to this groundbreaking band, offering at least a little bit of the tremendous recognition that they deserve. Deaf School's influence is acknowledged by bands from Madness to Dexy's Midnight Runners to Echo & the Bunnymen. Indeed, the Sex Pistols's own manager, Malcolm McLaren, said of them “It's just as bad being too early as too late.” Though their hopes were dashed, they have never surrendered, and forty years later they still perform in madly glamorous and eccentric reunion shows, tribal gatherings of a dedicated fanbase who never forgot them. Celebrating their insider achievements, their rockers-to-rockers influence, Paul Du Noyer brings readers inside the raucous clubs where musical history would be determined, offering not just a needed biography of an overlooked band but a hidden and important story of artistic development—whispered in our ear beneath the noise. “Deaf School are such a delicious secret,” he writes, “it's almost a shame to reveal it.”

GREBO!
GREBO!

Author: Rich Deakin

Publisher: SCB Distributors

Published: 2021-10-07

Total Pages: 483

ISBN-13: 1909394807

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West Midlands 1980s, home to heavy metal. Black Sabbath and Judas Priest are household names, but over the smoking chimneys and factory yards something new and equally ugly formsa 'Grebo' was a media constructed music genre that even today sends a shudder down the spines of discerning music fans and critics. A homegrown proto-grunge a counterpart to the likes of Butthole Surfers, Mudhoney, early Nirvana, Alice In Chains, and Soundgarden in the US a grebo was a British phenomenon that drew on an eclectic range of influences, from punk, 60s garage and psychedelia, through to 70s heavy rock and thrash metal. It foreshadowed rave culture and was steeped in class politics. GAYE BYKERS ON ACID and CRAZYHEAD hailed from Leicester. They were not the first bands to be labelled grebo but they were the most unashamedly unkempt and came to be considered its greatest exponents. They were aa burst of dirty thundera and almost no one liked them. Based on interviews with band members, friends, fans, and roadies, this book is an uncompromising history of an overlooked music scene. Rich Deakin charts its course via the changing fortunes of the Bykers and Crazyhead, taking us on the booze-filled tour buses, behind the dodgy deals and onto the international stage and back again (with a pitstop for a rock movie that swallows lots of money). Their careers were short, but the two bands managed to shake up the UK indie scene and along the way became Britain's unlikely ambassadors of rock following the collapse of Soviet Russia. Strap yourself in for a rocket ride of a book. This is GREBO! a the complete loud and lousy story!

Young Soul Rebels
Young Soul Rebels

Author: Stuart Cosgrove

Publisher: Birlinn Ltd

Published: 2016-05-19

Total Pages: 414

ISBN-13: 0857908944

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The Ultimate History of Northern Soul. Young Soul Rebels is the intimate story of Britain's most fascinating underground music scene – northern soul. Stuart Cosgrove has been a well-known collector on the scene for decades, and here he takes the reader on a rollercoaster journey to the heart of this secret society: the iconic clubs – The Twisted Wheel, The Torch, Wigan Casino and the Blackpool Mecca, the infamous bootleggers, and the DJs and crate-digging collectors who voyaged to America to unearth rare sounds. The book sweeps across fifty years of social and cultural history, taking in the rise of amphetamine culture, the brutal policing of the youth scene, the north–south divide, the rise of Thatcherism and the miners' strike, and concludes with a picture of northern soul today: as popular now as it was in its 1970s heyday.

Berkmann's Pop Miscellany
Berkmann's Pop Miscellany

Author: Marcus Berkmann

Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group

Published: 2021-06-03

Total Pages: 218

ISBN-13: 1408713845

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Marcus Berkmann was for many years the pop critic of the Spectator, waiting like most freelances to get fired. He's also the author of the bestselling Berkmann's Cricket Miscellany, concentrating on the ridiculous true stories and the weird characters of that most eccentric of sports. Here he combines the two, in a wildly entertaining ride through the galloping absurdities of pop, from Elvis Presley's real hair colour, through Janet Jackson's more intimate piercings, to Courtney Love's hatred of cheese. Why does Bono always wear sunglasses? Did Ozzy Osbourne really urinate on the Alamo? What actually happened at Keith Moon's 21st birthday party at the Holiday Inn in Flint, Michigan? There's sex, there's drugs, there's violence, there's even a little rock 'n' roll from time to time. But mainly there are vital questions, now finally answered. Which notable guitarist has unfeasibly tiny hands? Which Britpop star was forced to wear lederhosen as a child? Who said, 'The majority of pop stars are compete idiots in every respect'? And was she wrong?