Jolly Lad: A Menk Anthology
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Jolly Lad: A Menk Anthology
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Narrated by:
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John Doran
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By:
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John Doran
About this listen
Jolly Lad is a memoir about the recovery from alcoholism, habitual drug use, and mental illness. It is also about the healing power of music, how memory defines us, the redemption offered by fatherhood, and what it means to be working class.
"This is not a 'my drink and drug hell' kind of book for several reasons - the main one being that I had, for the most part, had a really good time drinking. True, a handful of pretty appalling things have happened to me and some people that I know or used to know over the years. But I have, for the most part, left them out of this book as they are not illuminating, not edifying and in some cases concern other people who aren't here to consent to their appearance. Instead this book concentrates on what you face after the drink and the drugs have gone."
Jolly Lad is about gentrification; being diagnosed bipolar; attending Alcoholics Anonymous; living in a block of flats on a housing estate in London; the psychological damage done by psychedelic drugs; depression; DJing; factory work; friendship; growing old; hallucinations; street violence and obsessive behavior - especially regarding music and art.
About the author:
John Doran is the co-founder and editor of The Quietus website. He lives in Hackney, London, with his girlfriend and three-year-old son, and has written for the BBC, the Guardian, The Wire, Metal Hammer, The Stool Pigeon, VICE and many others. He is also an occasional broadcaster for NOISEY and BBC TV and radio.
©2015 John Doran (P)2016 John DoranListeners also enjoyed...
Would you listen to Jolly Lad: A Menk Anthology again? Why?
I'd definitely listen again. I've got the print version, but it's a delight to hear these stories in the droll tones of Mr Doran.What was one of the most memorable moments of Jolly Lad: A Menk Anthology?
There are several memorable moments. His flatmate inexplicably making gallons of powdered milk, his explanation of what constituted a cocktail in early-90s St Helens, or the many instances of pitiless self-reflection. Mr Doran is extremely honest with and about himself, and that stays with you.What about John Doran’s performance did you like?
Mr Doran's delivery is wry, droll, occasionally excitable, sometimes irritable. But it is always appropriate to the tone of the material.Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
Parts of it can be heavy going for a single sitting. It's not by any means a unremitting descent into despair - there are many light, amusing, even joyful moments - but certain parts are understandably bleak. Perhaps listening with a hangover is best avoided!Any additional comments?
Jolly Lad isn't really about music, it's not an advisory tale about alcoholism and it's not really an autobiography, but it has elements of all of those. While certainly quite shocking in places, it retains a friendly tone and there is something very uplifting about the book as a whole. It's also extremely funny. As an audiobook, it can make for some uncomfortable listening, as the man is telling you directly about the low points of his life. But there is always balance and sometimes a tale about Bobby Gillespie falling off his bike to sweeten the deal. It's a great book, an honest and funny one, and the audiobook is an excellent companion.The good, the bad and the ugly...
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Where does Jolly Lad: A Menk Anthology rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
Really stands out for its authenticity.What did you like best about this story?
The author's sense of humour about some quite appalling events!What about John Doran’s performance did you like?
His regional accent, which lends everything he says a certain integrity and humour.Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
The descriptions of what he went through as a young man.Any additional comments?
I have already read Jolly Lad, but recently I have been listening to the audio book, which has just come out.There is something quite addictive to hearing Doran read. The horrific nature of what he endured hits you even harder, becomes all the more real. His fatalistic regional drawl - perhaps more Mancunian than Merseyside, though he grew up in the Liverpool suburb of Rainhill - infuses his words with a dark humour and irony, a disarming honesty and integrity.
Doran introduces Jolly Lad as a book about recovering from alcoholism, about the day he stopped drinking - at 37 - and finally found out what he "would be like as an adult." But as he himself also acknowledges, it is actually about so many things. About growing up Catholic and working class in Northwest England in the Thatcher years, about social upheaval and change, about battling mental illness, about the hideous things we do to ourselves, and how it is those very hideous things that help to define who we are. It is a book about love and redemption and fatherhood, about simple happy Hollywood endings and how there are no simple happy Hollywood endings.
And it’s about music, rich with anecdotes. Though he was told “you can write about whatever you want but it can’t be about music” by the editor who commissioned the column that would evolve into the book, references to music are ubiquitous throughout. It is the prism through which he looks at so many things, from childhood rebellion (“the first time he caught me I was in the middle of watching ‘Cars’ by Gary Numan when I was eight”) to the differences between Liverpool and Manchester (“warm hearted, psychedelic, romantic” vs “urgent, intellectual, dark-hearted”) to depression (“imagine all the inner and outer signals of your life running down a cable which is plugged into a 24-channel mixing deck…fourteen channels…attached to malfunctioning samplers, spitting out violently loud gobbets of low quality audio.”)
It is music that provides for him the “markers that he throws into the void” and “living mnemonics connecting...to people, time and places.” And it is music that contributes to his salvation, his subsequent career as co-founder of the highly respected music and culture website The Quietus, helping to liberate him from a life of addiction - if final absolution truly comes in the arrival of girlfriend Maria and son John.
Jolly Lad functions on many levels. We are treated to Doran as passionate cultural historian, with his extraordinary knowledge of post-punk and alternative pop culture, much of which he has gained through firsthand experience. But it is also auto-biography, an intimate and quite exposing account of one man's battle (and love affair) with alcohol, at turns amusing and horrifying. Along the way, he gives us countless insights about life in Britain over the last 30 years, all delivered with thoughtful and self-deprecating prose.
If there is one issue I have with the book, it’s that it doesn’t feel like Doran ever completely confronts the root cause of his drinking - or perhaps it is more accurate to say that he sometimes begins to, but only wants to take it so far. He does offer some reflections as to the origins of his malaise (e.g., the music of the Simple Minds, the possibility of Nuclear Armageddon) and there are many others implied (growing up in the shadow of Europe’s largest mental institution, a difficult relationship with his father, his experiences as an altar boy, a savage attack by local thugs that led him to almost lose his sight in one eye), and he does describe in great detail his anguished physical and mental state after he finally gives up the booze. And yet he declares: “I had a moderately unusual upbringing but then, doesn’t everyone? There wasn’t anything in particular that made me an alcoholic or a drug addict or mentally ill. It just panned out that way. It was just my bad luck.”
I'd like to know more. Somehow, though, I think he's more Desert Island Discs than In The Psychiatrist’s Chair. And anyway, this could be a bit disingenuous. Doran already sheds so much blood, sweat and tears (all three, quite literally) in the course of this gritty, entertaining and heartfelt memoir. This is a very courageous book. Do I really have a right as a reader to ask for more?
Jolly shocking!
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It's almost like a confession at times, but he steers clear of remorse in favour of reflection, attempting to see blotted and hazy years with as much retrospective clarity as possible. Although addiction and depression have been a much more all-encompassing thing in his life than my own, they've still been a constant, and I found it all extremely relatable, from the alienating factory work as a young man, to the blown out emotional spectrum of fatherhood, with all the metal and acid house running through everything. Anti-glamorous, just like real life. Highly recommended.
Insightful, relatable, moving and actually pretty funny.
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Would you listen to Jolly Lad: A Menk Anthology again? Why?
Yes I will, there are so many funny anecdotes, references to events and bands that I could easily listen again.What was one of the most memorable moments of Jolly Lad: A Menk Anthology?
It is hard to pick just one but the Pixies, Throwing Muses gig was a great memory I felt like I was there!.What about John Doran’s performance did you like?
I'm glad I didn't read the book but heard it straight from the author because he read it with sincerity, warmth and humour.Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
Hard to pick one but when John Doran described the moment he had accepted he would die and was only concerned with making his transition as easy as possible was very, very sad.Any additional comments?
I enjoyed listening to this book so much, John Doran is a gifted writer, his ability to bring back the times, characters, places and sounds that have surrounded him is amazing. This is such a hopeful book it shows how a clever mind with an unquenchable thirst for exploring creative experiences can get sabotaged by alcohol, drugs and then unpredictable brain chemistry but it also shows how a clever mind can survive all these things with a big project and the support of love ones. Anyone who is struggling with any of these things would do worse than listening to this audiobook.A Brilliant Writer!
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What did you like most about Jolly Lad: A Menk Anthology?
Early on in Jolly Lad, Doran is encouraged through writer's block by a friend who declares that one must write “what they know”. Doran has indeed written about a life that many of us know, at least in part, with stories and memories strung together by familial impact and a love of pop music. Starting with the awesome and slightly terrifying grandeur of martyred statuary in a Catholic Church, he moves along into an adulation of Adam Ant, a grudging love of U2 (with particular emphasis on the Unforgettable Fire) and the bizarre truth of a Sugarcubes show was that incredibly violent, yet also completely fantastic.Another key facet of the story, however, is a history of emerging addiction: it's origins from a single can of lager to a pattern of consumption that devours days, memories, and relationships. As these issues coalesce, Doran's reading of his own work out loud becomes an unrelenting cascade of events that have befallen him on his trip to becoming a music journalist. Some are mundane, some are unbelievably cool, some are wrenchingly sad, and still others are frankly hilarious, even in the midst of situations that, in retrospect, could be deemed quite dangerous. But this is the point of a person coming to terms with their own life stripped of an insulating layer of drugs and alcohol -- of willingly embracing the complexities that each day presents. Doran discloses his struggles without flinching, sharing stories that are highly personal yet also familiar to anyone who has had to step back from the deceptively simple joys of endless nights out. Jolly Lad is honest, disarmingly funny and for anyone who has encountered these difficulties themselves, an inspiring and ultimately hopeful read.Excellent, Highly Recommended
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