As I’ve mentioned before, It’s only really been the last few weeks – mainly due to my holiday in Canada – that I’ve finally picked up the Kindle I was given for Christmas and loaded it up with ebooks. Last autumn, I decided I needed to read a few rock star autobiographies, largely because one of the novel series I’m writing – the first of which I did for last year’s NaNoWriMo – involves the world of 20th century rock stars, and I needed to do some research into it. Also, I thought they’d be pretty fun to read.
The first one I read, while on holiday in Canada, was Rod Stewart’s autobiography from 2012, and on the latter point it did not disappoint.
Stewart tells his story very engagingly and comes across as very likeable, even at the points when you want to shake him and scream ‘you’re married to yet another beautiful woman – WHY CAN’T YOU STOP WOMANISING, YOU MUPPET???’ I found his justification for why he has always felt Scottish from a football fan perspective really interesting, even if I still don’t really understand it. The book also provided a really interesting look into all my favourite eras of British pop and rock music, as he’s been involved in the industry for a long time now.
Also, Mum’s read this one as well, because of course she has – she’s read everyone’s autobiography. As such, we were able to have a good discussion of it while we were in Canada. We’re distantly related to one of Stewart’s ex-wives, model Rachel Hunter, through the Shetland connection (she’s my fourth cousin! See the Wikipedia entry if you’re not sure how cousins work. Suffice to say it’s pretty distant). Because of this, Mum was pretty pleased that she was the only ex-wife he never cheated on. You gotta take those victories somewhere!
Overall, it’s a nice optimistic, fun read and I really enjoyed it.
Top fact that I gleaned from this non-fiction work: while everyone knows that it was John Peel who mimed the mandolin playing during the Top of the Pops performance of Maggie May in 1971, it was Ray Jackson from Lindisfarne who played the part on the actual recording!