Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsAn interesting read for music lovers
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 17 March 2021
This had been in my reading list for a while before I got round to reading it, I think it needs to be said that the man can tell a story, he has a great way with words, which is probably why he had a successful radio career for so many years. I toyed with giving this book 4 stars rather than 3 but there were too many small things that I couldn't overlook. The book is the first of three and follows Danny through the early years of his life up until around 1981, it covers his childhood growing up in post-war South-East London, his teenage years and discovery of music and working in a famous London record store which many famous faces frequented. It also includes Danny working firstly as a receptionist at the NME before becoming a writer and his early TV work and first attempts at Radio.
I loved the music sections, Danny's tales of working in the record shop and later at the NME were very interesting, I particularly liked that he has a refreshingly open outlook on music, often when someone has been a successful music critic, especially when working for magazines such as the NME like Danny did they are known for taking an arrogant pretentious approach to anything less than cool but thankfully Danny doesn't seem to have been affected by the magazines elitist approach as he wrote lovingly at many points throughout about bands that would have been sneered at by the NME journalists at the time.
Danny has some really interesting music anecdotes such as meeting Marc Bolan who gave him the t-shirt off his own back after Danny (unknown at the time) commented to Marc that he liked his shirt. I also enjoyed his tales of Mick Jagger and Elton John's separate visits to the record shop. It's nice to read stories of these now major stars in the real world and during all these Danny acted as many of us would in being awestruck and struggling to keep his cool, pretending to read a magazine whilst his manager chats with Marc Bolan.
However I really didn't like the anecdote about his school teacher and the radio, I found it really upsetting. Maybe I was being sensitive and to be fair to Danny he wasn't involved in the story at all but personally i'd have preferred it to have not been included as I don't see what the anecdote had to do with Danny's story. I skipped the story which immediately followed this one as Danny stated that one was even worse. There were also a few anecdotes which didn't sit right with me and made me feel uncomfortable such as Danny pretending to be David Essex's Brother in order to pull women and also when he would pretend to be unsure whether he was gay (when he knew he was definitely straight) in order to pull women. I know that it can be argued that we live in a different time now (these stories were from the 1970's) but they didn't sit right with me.
Several other reviews have noted about Danny's exuberant confidence in himself, on the whole I found it refreshing but there were times when it was grating. He has a confidence that is rarely seen or heard, at one point he writes that before he worked for the NME it had never occurred to him that people might not love him because everyone loved him. He writes about his childhood and that he was lucky enough to genuinely enjoy it and not suffer any hardships such as bullying. I do wonder if many of the reviewers who found his confidence a bit much struggled with it because as a nation we are generally encouraged to be self-effacing and play down our achievements so when someone does the exact opposite of that it can be hard to comprehend. Danny seems genuinely grateful and enthusiastic for the life he fell in to and the opportunities it has given him and I look forward to reading the next installment.