Mark Radcliffe

He shoots. He scores.

Mr Radcliffe was in front of an open goal with not even the keeper to beat. Needless to say he slotted the ball home with style and aplomb. Then again, how could me miss? 55 year old DJ, all round good guy, and music obsessive writes a book (when he was 52 years of age) about his favourite songs (one for each year of his life), which is read by a 51 year music obsessive. It was already a pretty good "fit".

I don't share Mark's enthusiasm for Pink Floyd or Genesis, though show more daresay I would have if I was four years older, however - that aside - I agreed with all his opinions.

It's fair to say I didn't learn anything about the artists or tunes I didn't already know (except the origin of Leadbelly's moniker (chronic constipation triv fans)), however I did read a lot of interesting biographical stuff about Mark, and warmed to his dry, matter-of-fact, and quietly witty style.

If you can answer "yes" to at least two of the the following:

Do you love popular music?
Do you find Mr Radcliffe engaging?
Do you enjoy biographies?

Then I'd say you will really enjoy this book too. show less

It took me a couple of chapters to realize that the book was going to be 75% Radcliffe enjoying his own jokes and 25% actual rock history. But fortunately, once I did realize that, it turned out that I also kind of enjoyed his sense of humor. And the history bits tended to focus on things I didn't already know. So in the end I liked it more than I would have guessed.

Charming and funny in places but a bit of a patchy collection of interesting days and my hopes were slightly higher for it. If only some of the other stories were as hilarious as the tale of Bros or as interesting and well written as the chapters on Dr Feelgood and John Peel.

Thank You For The Days is subtitled 'A Boy's Own Adventures In Radio' and broken down into chapters dealing with notable incidents from Radcliffe's career, such as meeting his idols (Bowie, Bush, Jagger), getting fired from the breakfast show, swearing on live radio, and unintentionally upsetting Kylie Minogue. There's also much about his love of music, from the band that changed his life (Dr. Feelgood) to the band that made his life complete (the Family Mahone). Yet the most affecting show more chapter has nothing to do with radio at all. It deals instead with a coast-to-coast walk he undertook between leaving Radio 1 and joining Radio 2. There's real emotion on display here, and genuine wit, making this far more than just another celebrity memoir. If he ever gets tired of radio, Mark Radcliffe could easily become the next Bill Bryson. I hope he finds the time to write more soon.

Read the full review at my blog. show less