A thoroughly entertaining account of Moz's life from childhood through to about 2010. Early sections bring back memories of how abusive schools were back in the 70s. Today about half the teachers would be up on child abuse charges - both physical and sexual. God only knows what went on which we didn't know about and I feel sick to my stomach when thinking about our Cub Scout troop activities. Anyways we're soon into Morrissey as a young man and getting into music and the formation of the Smiths. And then the acrimonious break up. The book is written in different sections and styles. But with a cynical and defensive, verging on paranoid, thread throughout. Not many who Morrissey comes into contact with come out shining and indeed even those who he seems to value and is close to he gives warts and all details of their foibles. Himself included in a gentler manner to be fair. Those he doesn't like come out looking like demons from hell, or simply complete losers. Geoff Travis of Rough Trade comes in for some stinging treatment which epitomises Morrissey's view that he is brilliant and everyone associated with him is simply leeching off him. The Smiths being helped by RT is simply not entertained. I didn't like the dig at The Raincoats either who I thought were far better than The Smiths but hey. The long passage about his court case rails against the legal system and all who sail her and as for his former band mates... dismissive is an understatement. Although this section is repetitive it's also extremely funny as Morrissey lets us inside his head - ranting people are repetitive aren't they? The rest of the book is about how he becomes the best live band since, well, ever and how much his fans love him and how his record sales are sabotaged by terrible management and a vindictive press. Some of the latter parts are a bit too much of a list of gigs played and how loved he is at them which seems a bit lazy and skips over a chunk of time. Likewise his relationships, platonic and not, which are not delved into in any great detail apart from Morrissey's feelings. But I guess this book is about how he feels in situations rather than facts about them. To be honest I guess we could google those. NME is often in the firing line - and he makes the distinction between the NME and the old New Musical Express, which is well made. I'm not certain that he's completely in the real world (and maybe he doesn't want to be in my version of that) or he's artificially bumping up his unique value to the world. Whatever, it's a brilliant read. Some parts I took as being completely his view and I read it a bit like fiction and who knows the truth. What I love is his single minded belligerence and faith in himself and his laugh out loud cutting down of those he has a pop at. An excellent read that at times is beautifully written especially when opening up his heart to us. Very different from your usual autobiography especially of those in the music business. I'd have like to have seen more about his veganism, which is mentioned in passing a number of times, and about his gladioli. Well worth reading - although you sort of glad that you don't have to spend a lot of time with him.
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