1/30 Substance: Inside New Order - Peter Hook
2/30 The Illustrated A Brief History Of Time - Stephen Hawking
3/30 A Clash Of Kings - George R.R. Martin
4/30 Reelin' In The Years: The Soundtrack Of A Northern Life - Mark Radcliffe
5/30 Look Back In Hunger: The Autobiography - Jo Brand
6/30 Dodgers - Bill Beverly
7/30 Altamont: The Rolling Stones, The Hells Angels And The Inside Story of Rock's Darkest Day - Joel Selvin
8/30 Live At The Brixton Academy: A Riotous Life In The Music Business - Simon Parkes
The tale of the bloke who bought Brixton Academy for a quid and turned it into the best live music venue in Britain. I spent much of my mis-spent youth in his gaff so I found his stories of all the backroom stuff that was going on while I was jumping about off my face totally fascinating. Funnily, for someone who obviously shared a lot of the same interests as me, I didn't warm to him much as a person. There's a fair bit of ''Needless to say, I had the last laugh'' going on. Maybe you need a bit of that in that line of work, I dunno. Still, some good proper rock n roll stories (hiring Black Grape for two grammes of coke, fronting out gangsters, watching The Pogues wondering if there was a bomb in the venue etc). I liked hearing him rave about some of the better gigs I saw there (Pixies especially - he nails it describing the affinity they've always had with The Academy) and his lament for the post-Britpop music scene chimed with me, too. Good book. I rattled through it in two days, always a good sign.
