Book description
Approaching 50, Mark Radcliffe decided to write about his life, most
importantly, his time in music. But crucially, he only wanted to write
about the most interesting days and not the dull ones in between. With
predictable good taste, Mark takes his title from the Kinks' song and
has written an entertaining, funny book worthy of such a pedigree.
Mark's family life is covered by 'The Day My Mother Hit Me With a
Golf Club' , his school life by 'The Day I Ruined a Perfectly Good
Suit' and 'The Day I Got My First Guitar'; through his epiphany of the
power of music in 'The Day I Met the Band Who Changed My Life' and his
star struck meeting with childhood hero, David Bowie. Many other stars
are covered too, for example in 'The Day I Went to Kate Bush's House
for Cheese Flan', and 'The Day Mick Jagger Was Taller Than Me'. He's
very funny when recounting his days working at the BBC in '80s and
'90s (how, when bored, he and colleagues invented a fictional
department), winning Stars in Their Eyes as Shane MacGowan and so on.
Yet, among the laughter are more sober days, such as the one when he
learned John Peel had died.
A cracking read and a potted history of both one man's life and his
love affair with music, THANK YOU FOR THE DAYS is a uniquely
entertaining memoir that will appeal not just to music fans but to
connoisseurs of British popular culture.
'This memoir is an amiable wander through the
interesting bits of Mark Radcliffe's life, loosely linked by the theme
of music… There are some good anecdotes, such as the time Mick Jagger
stood on tiptoe just as a photo was taken, so as to appear taller than
Radcliffe'
Independent on Sunday 5/4
'Radcliffe's
blunt, unfussy prose very much captures the spirit of what makes him
such an enticing proposition on the radio: that ability to ramble
whilst remaining both funny and compelling'
The List, 2/4
'Mark Radcliffe is, I fancy, a born raconteur and whether you're
lucky enough to be in his company or perusing the pages of his book
there's always a touch of nostalgia in his tales'
Interview,
Manchester Evening News 6/4
'With self-effacing charm, a keen eye
for a joke and John Peel-esque adulation for great music, he tells us
about how he met Tony Blair dressed as a Victorian undertaker, and how
Paul McCartney told him that before he had words for Yesterday he sang
the opening beats as "scrambled eggs." He remembers being
Shane McGowan on Stars In Their Eyes and reflects on why Keith
Richards might just be more rock'n'roll than Mick Jagger. Entertaining
and touching yarns unfold within yarns and Radcliffe… proves himself
an eminently likeable chap, one with whom you'd be chuffed to share a
few jars and a chat about his funny old life behind the
mic'
London Lite 31/1
'Enough of Radcliffe's everyman
persona shines through to make him as companionable on the page as he
is on air'
Metro 15/4
'Radcliffe's memoirs aren't
salacious, or savage, or titillating just for the hell of it. In a
world where book deals are offered to any celebrity falling out of a
cab, it's reassuring there's still room for a personal reflection like
this, in which the completion of a coast-to-coast ramble across the
north of England is valued as highly as introducing a boyhood hero
David Bowie on stage. All in all, Mark Radcliffe's in quite a good
place, really; at ease with middle age, it seems, and still not averse
to a bit of the new'
Word Magazine, May issue
'[Radcliffe]
is 50 now, looking back nostalgically at several decades (two of them
at the BBC) of a life pretty much devoted to pop music and amiable
blokeishness in the traditional British manner'
The Times
25/4
'Fans of Radcliffe's rambling, chatty style will love
this easy-going read - but it is the glimpses of his humble family
background that prove the most revealing'
News of the World,
26/4
'Radcliffe effortlessly transfers the self-effacing,
avuncular persona that serves him so well on air to the printed
word'
Waterstones Books Quarterly
'The Radio 2 Presenter is
Wowed by the Magic of David Blaine and Waterstone's during a
Booksigning Trip to London...
Visiting bookshops recently has
been life-reaffirming. The people who work there I've found to be,
without exception, welcoming, enthusiastic, interested and
interesting'
http://entertainment. timesonline. co.
uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/tv_and_radio/article6342107.
ece
Diary, The Times 23/5
'Mark Radcliffe, this
year's Sony Gold winner for music broadcasting, loves working in
radio…The subtitle, "a Boy's Own Adventures in Radio and
Beyond", carries the stamp of his particular brand of Northern
humour, being ironic (he's 50), allusive (echoes of books his father
might have read), with just a hint of the grand, the
"beyond" being where he meets such stars as David Bowie...
This is an honest and intelligent guide to the way music, heard in
adolescence, will run through your life thereafter'
Daily
Telegraph 23/5
'Pitch-perfect'
Independent on Sunday
11/7
'Always a refreshing breath of down-to-earth
amiability on the airwaves, DJ Mark Radcliffe brings the same chatty,
Northern tone to this memoir of life in broadcasting.'
The
Herald 26/6
'Anyone who enjoys the broadcaster's warm,
waggish radio patter will devour this book, as Radcliffe clearly
relishes the role of raconteur, and keeps the juicy showbiz anecdotes
coming thick and fast'
Sunday Express
04/07
'Pitch-perfect'
Independent on Sunday
11/7
'Always a refreshing breath of down-to-earth
amiability on the airwaves, DJ Mark Radcliffe brings the same chatty,
Northern tone to this memoir of life in broadcasting.'
The
Herald 26/6
'Anyone who enjoys the broadcaster's warm,
waggish radio patter will devour this book, as Radcliffe clearly
relishes the role of raconteur, and keeps the juicy showbiz anecdotes
coming thick and fast'
Sunday Express 04/07
Mark Radcliffe was born in Bolton and attended Manchester University.
He has been employed by the BBC to talk in between records for over
twenty years, many of these with Lard (aka Marc Riley) and currently
with Stuart Maconie on Radio 6. He has won 6 Gold Sony Awards plus
Sony's Music Broadcaster of the Year 2009, and has recorded five
albums with two bands. He has three daughters and lives in Cheshire.
