Product Description

A poet is a rock star without the sex’n’drugs, or the rock’n’roll. But that never stopped Simon Armitage dreaming, and in Gig, he explores how music and the muse intertwine in work and in life. Crammed with stories, anecdotes, jokes, absurdities, the odd informal homily, pitfalls and pratfalls (not all the author’s own), Yorkshire life and death, Gig is about the dream and reality of what you are, and what you might have been.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #20205 in Books
• Published on: 2009-05-28
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Review
'Engaging, eccentric, hilarious, incredibly good company. A wonderwall of moments and memories... one of our most entertaining authors' Independent 'Armitage is incapable of writing anything that is not wry, warm, witty and layered with meaning. Poignant and extraordinary' Metro 'Witty, terrific, stupendously funny' Daily Telegraph 'Profoundly affecting... probably the greatest joy I'll find on a page all year... reads like a transcript of the funniest stand-up you'll never hear' Herald 'I read this book in one sitting. It moved me to tears, to shouts of laughter, and made me look at even the most mundane things in a different way' Sunday Times

About the Author
Simon Armitage was born in West Yorkshire in 1963, and continues to live near Huddersfield. He is one of the leading writers of his generation. He has won the Sunday Times author of the year, the Forward Prize, a Lannan Award, and an Ivor Novello Award for his song lyrics in the Channel 4 film, Feltham Sings

Customer Reviews

Rock n Droll
This really shouldn't work. A series of ramblings connected only by the love of music theme, mentioning a large number of bands I have never heard of and being, at times so personal that it could be hard to connect with. Also there are strange decisions about how to deal with or write about people in his life- his wife, only referred to as speedy Sue and a range of other "characters". So- does it work? Triumphantly yes. Armitage has a wonderful droll tone as he describes his early musical influences and his kneejerk progression through punk, mod and new romantic as he fell in love with all aspects of the ever changing scene. There are Alan Bennettesque riffs on booksignings; poetry readings (gigs); writing projects and inevitably his family. The list of possible names for his own band is worth the price of the book alone, as are the short dialogues of remembered exchanges between him and the grouchy reading public. This is laugh out loud funny and brilliant writing deserving the cliche "heartwarming" and hilarious at the same time. His habit of going off on a tangent is not irritating but wonderfully unpredictable- just as you think you are reading an article on the Artic Monkeys it becomes one on the Comsat Angels and you are beguiled by his ability to riff and stream of consciousness to his hearts desire. Buy and smile and laugh and read again. He's a poet and he does know it- but by god his prose is magical as well.

Shirley Curley LOVES GIG
This is an excellent book. Simon Armitage is a natural writer. He does wander about a bit but only in good way and always with a purpose, even if it's only a roundabout route to a cracking punch line. I found myself nodding in agreement with several parts of the book, especially when he's describing the yell/shriek at the beginning of The Damned's "New Rose". It's a very funny book. I read it on a long coach journey while listening to my ipod and my fiancé kept prodding me and saying "You're laughing very loudly". To which I replied "I know". It also has its disturbing and quite frankly harrowing moments. None more so than when Armitage describes the murky goings on in a Travel Lodge near you. If you've never really understood the attraction of bands such as Simply Red or UB40 read this book and you'll laugh like a drain. If you think the aforementioned bands are some kind of musical colossus read this book, you might learn something. Five stars and no mistake.

Gig
How to describe this book? Part history, part autobiography, many songs and some poetry - but all good. Simon Armitage takes highlights of his life, as rooted by a series of gigs by a selection of 70s and later bands, and provides stories to illustrate his state of mind at the time. So his development, both as a person and as a poet (if the two are divisible), is linked by a series of musical events - some of which were cancelled.

The poetry is inevitably good: readable, accessible in the best sense and never less than deserving of several re-reads. The song lyrics from the films he has made for TV (and which I must now try and find on DVD) are similar, but with the addition of a feeling of desperation - perhaps not surprising as they are written as the words of prisoners.

Varying between moving, laugh out loud funny and a witty and dry observation of the world, this book is one of the best of the year; not least because, in the end, this man can really, really write.