Product Description

Cider with Roadies is the 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 his 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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2696 in Books
• Published on: 2005-04-07
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Peter Kay
`Stuart Maconie is the best thing to come out of Wigan since the A58 to Bolton’

The Times
"From council estate to Radio 2, Stuart Maconie has lived the perfect pop fan's life...effortlessly articulate"

The Guardian
"Maconie makes a jovial, self-deprecating narrator. Sharp and funny"

Customer Reviews

Wigan Aesthetic.
Stuart Maconie is brighter than a button - witty, angry about things you should get angry about and is extremely articulate.

This book is a great piece of autobiography; a history of thatcher's Britain and a entertaining romp through the history of modern pop music.

Fun, funny and cleverly written with a mature writing style that makes for a fabulous read.

I can't wait to leave work so I can go home and finish this book!
Laugh out loud funny in parts, lump-in-the-throat touching in others this book demonstrates the difference between a music lover and someone whose whole being is consumed with obsessive need for music (in a good way). It's made me go and look up some of the tracks I'm not familiar with and wonder how I've managed to escape them for so long. It's so easy to read, and Stuart comes across as a very genuine, likeable person whose passion for music is infectious. It's great for north west nostalgia, but I'm sure there's something for everyone in here.

Laugh Till My Parker Hood Split
If you don't love this book then you probably weren't born between, say, 1965 and 1980. Anybody who falls within that span (and who doesn't have a complete aversion to popular music) will find this book very, very funny. The book is worth the money for the Peter Hook anecdote alone while the author's description the confusion he felt on first setting eyes upon the Happy Mondays ("part Mujahedddin, part Mountain Rescue") is only one of ,amy favourite excellent one-liners.