Rock Stars Stole My Life! cover art

Rock Stars Stole My Life!

A Big Bad Love Affair with Music

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Rock Stars Stole My Life!

By: Mark Ellen
Narrated by: Mark Ellen
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About this listen

In a sodden tent at a '70s festival, the teenage Mark Ellen had a dream. He dreamt that music was a rich meadow of possibility, a liberating leap to a sparkling future, an industry of human happiness - and he wanted to be part of it. Thus began his 50-year love affair with rock and roll.

From his time at the NME and Smash Hits to Radio One, Old Grey Whistle Test, Live Aid, Q, Select, Mojo, and The Word magazines, he's been at the molten core of its evolution, and watched its key figures from a unique perspective. This funny and touching personal memoir maps out his eventful journey. It tells stories and settles scores. It charts the peaks and disappointments. It flags up surprising heroes and barbecues the dull and self-deluded. It puts a chaotic world to rights and pours petrol on the embers of a glorious industry now in spiralling decline.

©2014 Mark Ellen (P)2014 Hodder & Stoughton Entertainment & Celebrities Celebrity Heartfelt Witty Feel-Good
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What did you like most about Rock Stars Stole My Life!?

Mark Ellen reads, a huge plus, a very entertaining and enjoyable ramble through his life and how music has played its part in it. If you have any interest in rock/ pop music I would highly recommend.

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

At times very funny, lovely anecdotes throughout the book.

Highly entertaining autobiography in music

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Mark Ellen is the clog wearing hippy who transforms into city type publicist through his insight into the music biz....funny..factual and often frenetic...well done 9/10...top of the class ellen!

good

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An interesting book looking back over the life of a rock journalist. Mark Ellen's rather breathy reading in the early stages reflecting the excitement of a young fan works well, summoning up our own memories with references to all the songs that were around then. He doesn't talk about the daily grind of running the likes of Q and (The) Word much, sticking to the fan-interesting interviews he's done with artist(e)s, giving us his view of their foibles. His friends and family are in their too, naturally, but don't play a large part. His manner is friendly and light, overall, as his media personality is known for. For rock and music fans well worth a listen.

A trip through the history of Rock music with a journalist's eye.

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I switched on the the radio and there was Mark Ellen promoting his autobiography; talking to Danny Baker about the N.M.E., LiveAid, the Old Grey Whistle Test and the misery of meeting Van Morrison. Ellen was as charming and funny as ever; I had a surge of nostalgia and immediately bought this download. For anyone who knows Ellen's work it's enough to say that he reads this with his customary charm, It's funny, wistful and informed on his specialist subjects of music and the music press.

For anyone less familiar with him Ellen started his career in music journalism just as punk was getting underway and he stayed with it, unlike many contemporaries up to the present day; interviewing Lady Gaga and enduring Rhiana's comically awful sounding 777 press junket. During that time he rose through the ranks from writer to editor; progressing from being roughed up by Elvis Costello's manager for looking like a hippy and writing for the Record Mirror, to sharing an office with Pet Shop Boys' Neil Tennant when they both worked for archetypal 80's publication Smash Hits, to being on friendly terms with the likes of Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin when he and David Hepworth set up Word. Throughout; he stayed in love with music and never lost a sense of fandom. Oh yes; and he was in a band with Tony Blair when they were both at University.

We get conversations with musicians like Noel Gallagher, Jimmy Page and Lady Gaga. We get first hand accounts of presenting LiveAid and we get genuinely interesting insights into the way in which the internet has fundamentally changed the music business and the magazine business. His writing is funny, affectionate, insightful and inventive and he has a lovely reading style. It's like being in a pub with your funniest mate. It's possible that all of the above has left you completely cold. I'm conscious that Ellen's writing about something I'm passionate about and he's covering a period from my early teens to the present day so this resonates with me. But if any of that resonates with you too this is a treat..

A Treat

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I could listen to Mark Ellen all day, he clearly enjoys reading aloud and he’s full of wit and insider’s anecdote, without ever losing the outsider’s astonishment and glee at where he found himself. Very, very funny and just lovely. At one point my other half (who’d read the paper version) wandered through and said”Are you still listening to Mark Ellen? I don’t remember the book going as far as this.” (the closing of The Word). I replied “I suspect they’ve left him in the studio and he’s enjoying himself so much they’ll never stop him”. I think audio is the best way to consume this book because of his warm voice. Recommended.

Charmed

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