Cider With Roadies and pretty much all of his NME stuff. Maybe I'm just soft and should sod off to another board.

What you're saying is, you don't like Stuart Maconie?

… who's always posting anti-Maconie stuff on the 6Music message boards? Can't see what your problem is, frankly. I mean, he's not exactly George Lamb - and he presents one of the station's best shows.

An hysterical journey to the heart of middle-class Britain's fascination with all things tennis from Henman Hill to Bonking Boris. Stuart Maconie travels the length and breadth of the British Isles in search of the ultimate tennis devotee from the precocious 7 year old in Droitwich whose father claims she is the next Navratilova to the ladies who lunch on strawberries and cream in Norwich 365 days a year.

anyone else smell troll?

Now it's Stuart Maconie.

Stuart's a good man. His writing is just gentle good natured humour and his piece on black puddings on Bury market is a classic. Plus he host the two best music shows on radio right now. You sir "sixmusicmessageboarder" sound suspiciously like another wannabee who isn't. Peace and Love. Binghamxxxx

He also has the irritating habit of lighting the blue touchpaper (i.e. posting once) and retreating to a safe distance.

I can only say much I have enjoyed the three so far. Read 'Adventures on the High Teas' in one day during a recent hospital stay and it really cheered me up.

His books aren't full of cliches, just good-natured observations about this country and a bit of left-wing politics.

I tend to think the originator of this thread hasn't actually read any of his books, if so why? Why read or listen to a person who you dislike so much as the posts on other MBs show.

Plus anyone who presents the Freak Zone must be more than OK!

Ian

is that he's tapped into a populist genre in non-fiction in the same way that Nick Hornby did with fiction. The comment that he only writes what people are already thinking is wide of the mark. What Maconie does is give an expressive voice to what people think and feel about music and, this is the clever bit, makes what you think and feel about music accessible to anyone without compromising its resonance or integrity.

Having said all that I took the thread as a challenge to think up a Maconiesque book title. Which is an alternative form of flattery to the more OBN variety of my previous paragraph.

:)

Cider With Roadies is a great title for a book about being a music journalist. Pies & Prejudice is good too. Not sure about the new one, title-wise, but I’ve just finished reading it and it’s very enjoyable. Stuart Maconie is a really good writer and a good egg. And anyone who plays “My Heart Cries For You” by Porgy & The Monarchs on Radio 2 is fine by me.

(I don’t visit any other music-related message boards. Is this sort of pointless bitching typical?)

and The Freakzone is one of the best radio shows ever. I've thumbed through a couple of his books and I'm not sure if they are really my cup of tea, but I'd rather they were on the bookshop shelves than some Z lister's ghost written latest novel or yet another Jade biography. Good luck to him, I say.

It's exceptionally mean spirited to knock Stuart Maconie for his books, and more importantly, their titles - if they were terrible books, I could understand it.

I'm not sure what the problem is with terrible puns in book titles - or indeed anywhere else - either. : )

Perhaps "sixmusicmessageboarder" ought to pick a less-Word friendly target next time?

Ian

Is one of the funniest music related books I have read - I actually thought I'd expire during the "dinner at Mark E Smith's" segment. S Mac is a good bloke and though his later books aren't as funny they are still an enjoyable read. I am mystified as to what there is to dislike about him to be honest.

Well, I think we have a near unanimous vote of support for Stuart Maconie. Let's move on, nothing to see here.

I've almost finished his latest book, Adventures On The High Teas. I've thoroughly enjoyed it, but:

a) the title is AWFUL - come on, it is! (Then again, I think Mr Maconie is probably well aware of just how bad it is.)

b) it needed a better editor. Does the thermally heated water at Bath really come out of the ground at 460 degrees centigrade? Can you really stand on a hill in Shropshire and see Wales east and south of where you are with England to the west and north?

But I have to be honest and say Adventures On The High Teas is a terrible title.

Cider with Roadies was a punningly good title for a good book about growing up and ending up on the road with bands.

Pies & Prejudice was a punningly good title for a book about snobbery based on geogrpahy. But it was badly edited (e.g. the clans involved the Culloden massacre were mis-identified), and the last few chapters were a sudden breathless rush as deadline approaced and ground was covered at 5 times the pace of the earlier chapters.

His books are patchy but certainly add to the sum total of human happiness - some cracking gags, some sharp observations, and some clunkiness.

..."based on geogrpahy. But it was badly edited"...:-)

It was 20 years ago today. Well 19.

to slagging off George Lamb please?

[quote]
Sadly
The only time sixmusicmessageboarder ever contributes here is to slag off 6 Music. Usually it's George Lamb, this time it's Stuart Maconie. I fear he/she has some kind of agenda.

reply
Fraser Lewry | 24 April 2009 - 2:20pm[/quote]

You did miss my flagging up of the good fellow and generous soul Marc Riley, there is no agenda I'm afraid, just bewilderment at the state of some broadcasters and in this case what constitutes a 'book'. I think Tv Cream have it correct when they say Maconie's books have "sweeping generalisations"

I have lived in places for long periods of time and have never felt qualified to write about them and the people who live nearby. You cannot put whole communities into a neat little box after a short visit. Stuart Maconie doesn't have my concerns about whether he is qualified to conclude what a place is all about.

This is not the end of Maconie's books as this was a two book deal so expect soon another insight in "Close to the edge" where Maconie visits long forgotten seaside resorts to talk deckchairs and 99s or perhaps "Over the boarder" in which Stuart sees that the Scots audience hasn't been served too well in his two previous books on England so writes about haggis and tartan and his observations that not all scottish people are tight. But as there are too many potential readers in Engalnd that might not want a book on Scotland it will probably be more likely to be the coastal one. Whatever it is it will surely name a few hundred places so any local newspaper will feel obliged to print a piece on Maconie's love for their village and subsequently increase the sales to the local residents who don't often get to read about their little place in a book.

The number of books by radio presenters is incresing by the day, Ken Bruce, Jo Whiley (it's split into 7 'days' all of which make up the seven parts of Jo, one is called "Icon"!?!)Stuart's chum Mark Radcliffe and Chris Evans too has put his story down in print.

Mr. Maconny (as Mark & Lard used to call him) but what I need to know is, where does he stand on squirrels?

I have read them and found them to be in need of some content other than the first thing Stuart thought of.

http://www.thebookseller.com/news/52453-maconie-takes-on-middle-england....

"Pies & Prejudice: In search of the North": he missed out Grimsby.

Apart from that I cant see what not to like - very amusing, very warm and very passionate. There was a terrible picture however of him playing Wii in the last but one edition of The Word.

"Pies & Prejudice: In search of the North": he missed out Grimsby."

One for the seaside one

Can we not have a bit of critical comment on here without it being treated like the enacting of the Nuremburg Laws?

I like Stuart Maconie quite a lot although its fair comment to point out his last two weren't a patch on Cider with Roadies (a fabulous title) and both felt extremely rushed towards the end.

Creating something leaves you open to comment. Some of it may be positive and that must be most enjoyable for the creator. However, much of it will be critical and thats as it should be. Fawining uncritical praise is worthless and pointless.

The self righteous attacks on anyone who dares to criticise certain sacred cows on here strike me as sanctimonious at best and censorious at worst.

Can't we strike a balance?

his books are very amusing, as are their titles. One or two factual inaccuracies here and there don't bother me at all.

So you don't like him, but you've ploughed through all his three books so far? Why would you do that? Life's too short.

was a great read, and 'Pies and Prejudice' was fun, i've not read the latest, although sure i will when on holiday. I find it hard to get angry about Maconie, he seems like a genuinely nice bloke.

As far as his radio work goes, 'Freak Zone' is one of the most interesting shows around and his R2 slot with Radcliffe is always a good listen

Two issues raised by your post.

Firstly, the titles are cringeworthy. Not really - they seem to me to be slightly ironic and knowing puns and not pitched as biting satire.

Secondly, you raise the question is there someone in the media who states the obvious more than Stuart Maconie. Where have you been looking if you can't find anyone. Check anyone (other than Harry Hill) on ITV1. Have a read of any tabloid or celeb mag. Have you actually listened to TalkSport before? John Gaunt?

After the kicking delivered to Andrew Collins, it was only a matter of time before we moved on to Maconie.

Actually, the worst I can say about the man is that his photo byline in The Word makes him look like a kiddyfiddler (but then, nobody seems to have told the subs that photo bylines are supposed to make the writer look better than they actually are, not worse). That, and the fact that like any other Manc (well, Wigan's practically...) he seems to think the North peters out shortly beyond the M60.

But the R2 show is great.

That's how it works. A grumpy person starts a thread attacking a Word contributor and you all jump in and defend their honour! (At least you can be sure that Stuart won't be troubling himself reading this thread.)

"Also is there another person in the media who states the obvious more than Stuart Maconie? This is why people like his books as they've already had the same thought themselves but he's just written it down, they therefore think that the man's a great writer as he is speaking to them but they should realise that his books are full to bursting with cliches and it's not just them he's in tune with it's anyone with a brain who can think."

So you're patronising the thousands who continue to buy Stuart's books and make them bestsellers by saying they don't know why they like them? That's a pretty insulting generalisation. We all like other people to voice things we have ourselves thought. Stuart has an incredibly fluid, easy-to-read writing style - that, I would argue, is why people like reading him. The idea of a "great writer" is something you've foisted upon him. People enjoy his books; they don't place him on some pedestal - you've done that (on their stupid behalf!) so you can knock him off.

Your opinion of his work is as valid as anybody else's - but you're on thin ice making claims on behalf of his sizeable readership.

...thought".

Just what I was thinking. Thanks for saying it. :-D

(* Is this the textual equivalent of that apparently 'one-sided' twisted paper loop the name of which escapes me - but which I feel sure someone here will know - that seemed so fascinating in Form 1 maths classes...?)

And answered in remarkably quick time too... Mobius, eh? [I can't do the umlaut thing, sorry] You never hear of the chap for millenia and then he pops up in a Tom Baker Dr Who adventure in the 70s and then disappears again...

has been allowed out of the stocks, so that Stuart Maconie can taste the fruit and veg.

Maconie was funny as a talking head, yeah it was obvious, but it was funny.

His books are light entertainment and what's wrong with that?

Cider With Roadies was a great book. I was around that scene and it was just like that.

Pies was enjoyable too.

New one's alright.

I suspect the gates are open for a lot of "me too"'s now.

Similar one out now about caravan and camping holidays in the 70's.

Personally, I quite like Maconie, but that may be because I come from a neighbouring town.

I don't get how uppity people get about him or Andrew Collins. They do what they do. It's generally quite funny and certainly doesn't deserve all the bile.

It strikes me as a bit of jealousy. Any of us could have thought of it, but didn't and that's not their fault.

He can look after himself, and the majority here seem to have perspective.

I would say. A writer and broadcaster who defintely moulds his taste personality to auit the format/publication that he's working through at any one time. From, for example, his column in the radio times to his performaces on the Freak Zone, he is literally an entirely different entity, in term,s of what he likes, what he says, and how he approaches the audicne.

Some might say this is a good thing - others might say it's slightly disingenuous.

About anyone who writes well about music and this green and pleasant land, meets interesting people, gets to travel a lot? I should bloody well say so. Good luck feller.

Thankfully I never had a haircut like the standard NME bobcut in the fillum above!

I liked both 'Cider' and 'Pies'. As for Stuart Maconie's writing style - it reminds me of something Clive James once said which was to the effect that he used to spend ages working on his Observer TV reviews to make them look as natural and effortless as possible; he would, of course, then be criticised for not putting any effort into them.

A style as readable as Maconie's takes a lot of talent as well as a lot of application, I suspect. Still, I will be sure to enjoy his books a lot less in the future now that the OP has put me right.

me too, in fact I'm going to put his, Radcliffe's and the squirrel bloke's ones on a bonfire this weekend and if it doesn't burn long enough I'll chuck some Sedaris, James and Quantick on as well!

That'll show the bastards!

Bad Book Titles.... "Stuart Maconie Volume 2"
;D

I found this book reduced in a Waterstones recently (it had a torn cover) and bought it. Despite the cover. It's the worst book jacket I've seen in a long while (ex-bookseller speaking here). What's inside is actually rather good, but.... to me it certainly isn't the "clever pastiche" the Amazon reviewer claims it to be.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Roxy-Music-Both-Ends-Burning/dp/1903111803