The great kidnap plot of 1964

This story mirrors my own time as a student at Aberdeen University.  Lots of big plans and enthusiasm and then when it comes to the crunch giving up and having some beer.  All I was trying to do was sit some exams, these students were trying to kidnap the Prime Minister.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/reports/misc/hailsham_20080414.shtml

I like the fact Sir Alec’s bodyguard asked the PM to not tell anyone in case he lost his job.

The first rule of book club…

As m’colleague David Heane said on air the other day, ‘it’s like Richard and Judy, only better’.  The Sunday Showcase has started it’s very own book club.  Mostly because it seems like the sort of clever dick thing that the Sunday Showcase should be doing.

Another upside is that in the same way that I get free CDs I now get free books.  On the downside and in the same way that I have to listen to some right pish I may now be forced to read some awful nonsense.

Thankfully this week’s books were both corkers.  They were Kill All Your Friends by John Niven and The Ossiansby Doug Johnstone.

The Ossians follows a band of the same name as they tour through the North of Scotland.  The author is in the Northern Alliance and so probably comes to the book with a fair amount of knowledge of what touring in an indie band is like.  I haven’t quite finished reading the book yet, and being the pro I am I won’t review it.

However, Kill All Your Friends I have read and enjoyed very much indeed.  The book follows a year in the life A&Rman Steven Stelfox.  Indeed, not just any year but 1997 – the height of Cool Britannia.  And what a year it is for Stelfox.  The man is scared to lose out and be the man who turned down the Beatles, and desperate to have a commercial hit in a world where failure means out on your arse with no way of paying off the maxed out credit cards and mortgages. 

Despite not having had much success recently Stelfox is pretty surprised not to be promoted and so takes matters into his own hands by killing his new boss.  He also blackmails a copper, goes through fairly huge amounts of booze, cocaine and prostitutes.  He’s a complete cunt, but he knows how to play the game.  The year sees him start off doing okay, then really bad and then brilliantly.  It’s a great story, with Stelfox a surprising sympathetic character.

The book is written so well and feels like it drips with authenticity.  This book should be handed out as a sort of manual to anyone interested in being in a band and being signed, as chances are it won’t happen and even if it does happen you probably won’t get to the point of getting anywhere near a single release.

I had an interview with the author on the show which you can now hear on the podcast here