Stuart Maconie

Some time late last year, the Minx asked if I fancied seeing Stuart Maconie. And I said yes partly because it's our policy to (nearly) always say yes to anything and partly because his book 'Cider With Roadies', which I read a few years ago, had me laughing out loud. In fact, I remember being on the train to London in a reasonably busy compartment, sweating, squirming and snorting as I tried to contain my mirth.

To be honest, at the time I said yes, I wasn't quite sure what he was touring or what we'd be seeing but today the Minx told me he was promoting a new book, 'The People's Songs: The Story of Modern Britain in 50 Records', which sounded rather promising.

The venue for the performance was the Lowry, which we've been to before, but I've never been into the auditorium. It's a really nice space actually and not too big (so I'm looking forward to seeing Goldfrapp there even more now).

If you'd come along expecting to hear even a selection of those songs in full or an abbreviated romp through the history of modern Britain, you'd have been disappointed, though. I think he probably played between ten and thirty seconds of maybe a dozen songs but mostly it seemed he was reminiscing about the seventies and eighties, with a large dash of autobiography.

And if I sound like I'm complaining, I'm really not. He's as entertaining a talker as he is a writer and the time flew by so quickly that I really didn't need an interval (although maybe he did!). Towards the end he took some questions from the audience, which was more of a test of his mettle as this section was unprepared but he was just as relaxed, confident, chatty and funny as he was when working from his notes.

So, in conclusion, I'm not sure that the evening was particularly relevant to his book but I really enjoyed it and I'd definitely go and see him again.