Grumpy Old Rock Star

Nov 17, 2024 11:30 AM

Author:Rick Wakeman

Around about August 1948, Mr and Mrs Cyril Wakeman had an early night and some time later, at Perivale in Middlesex, Mrs Wakeman produced a bonny baby son. They named him Richard, but he quickly became known as Rick.

Rick was a likeable little fellow who had a talent for the piano and for making trouble. Music became Rick's life - he joined a popular music group called Yes and became a legend. Much later he became a Grumpy Old Man who appears on Countdown, hosts a hugely popular radio show on Planet Rock and performs a one-man show telling stories about his rather extraordinary life.

Which is where this book you are holding comes in. Mr Wakeman is simply one of the great storytellers of our age - let's face it, he has some fabulous material. It seemed a shame that some of the funniest yarns should not be more widely known. So he accepted some cash and here we are.

Curl up by the fire with a Grumpy Old Rock Star and your nearest and dearest. We defy you not to want to read it aloud and laugh.

Reviews

...witty, self-aware and poignant.

—— Observer

This droll and wise comedian's testament almost ends with a joke-free bout of acute necrotising pancreatisis (like "a mad rodent inside me"). As this book's existence hints, Arthur Smith - Daphne Fairfax, if you're from the tax office - survived, the better to redeem the clapped-out name of "alternative" comedy with a memoir that doubles as an acute slice of social history. Childhood with Syd and Hazel in London's tatty south merges HG Wells with Carry On.... UEA student years and Parisian scrapes lead into the stand-up heyday with mates such as Malcolm Hardee, "a debauched Eric Morecambe". Smith's tone of mordant pathos touches as much as it tickles. Greenwich, Balham, Bermondsey - be proud of him.

—— Independent

Dead Air is a real delight – innovative, inspired and quite easily the pick of the tenth Doctor audio exclusives.

—— E. G. Wolverson , http://www.doctorwhoreviews.co.uk

she writes so well

—— Daily Mail

no-holds-barred

—— List

very funny but also very moving

—— The London Paper

very funny

—— Hampshire View

there are moments here that shine with the genius for observational comedy for which Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders (the Fatty of the title) are famous

—— Guardian

Dawn writes (with) tenderness, caring and oodles of charm. Well-paced, it's a reminder of why she has been a staple of the British comedy scene since the early 1980s

—— Guernsey Press

Anyone perparing for another dry, identikit celebrity autobiography is going to be delighted by these hilarious memoirs

—— She

French can still cut the comic mustard

—— Time Out

while much of the book's tone is that of the unassailably jolly Dawn we all expect ... other letters are tear-jerkingly poignant and none more so than those she writes to her late father Denys French

—— Daily Express

For all her honesty anyone hoping for a light-hearted romp will be delighted ... While her charm shines throughout, the more intense moments stay with you in a way that most celeb autobiographies can only strive for

—— Sunday Express

you'll be captivated by her witty and warm style

—— Prima

Self-depracating yet never self-pitying, irreverent yet never truly cynical, she comes across as a woman genuinely at ease with herself ... French is engaging company, and at her best she writes about heartbreak and elation with such grace that her book is impossible to dislike

—— Boston Standard

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