SPOILERS: John Illsley will publish a book about Dire Straits

[hunter v2.0]

I've just finished reading about the Roxy show. The writing now feels very cursory. A very matter-of-factly account of the events. Like a Wiki article written in first person. And John has a tendency to state the obvious and to tell rather than show. I admit I'm skimming through a lot.

[Jules]

Yes, it's nice to read the story by someone from the inside, but it's quite disappointing in general.

[hunter v2.0]

OK, John. We get it: Chas Herington was good with the lights. LOL

[hunter v2.0]

Yes, it's nice to read the story by someone from the inside, but it's quite disappointing in general.

Just finished it. John's account of the early years of DS is clearly the best, most inspired part. The rest provides some new information and insights, but nothing essential. I understand it was a balancing act to write this book, particularly since Mark is such a private person, but the result is a pretty bland, superficial account of one the world's biggest bands. I think it was a missed opportunity.

[vgonis]

Came a bit late here, because although I bought the hardback edition when it was first issued, I kept it aside until I found a few spare days, with a clear mind to read and enjoy it. Unfortunately years passed and I never found the right time, until a dear friend of mine brought me the paperback edition. So I have made up my mind, that the best time is now, so yesterday I started reading it on the train to work. Haven't finished it yet, but I have just reached the end of part 1 where he meets MK for the first time. I read all the comments here before starting it. Very few spoilers, since most people didn't care about this part.  Dare I say that this part of the book is very well written, with many well served details about his childhood and his relation with his parents and his younger sibling. The description of the times in the UK was very nice,  setting the background, and although the details were not plenty, (after all it is his life with DS,) and the writing style was not as distinctive and flourishing as Stephen Fry's autobiography (which was surely written by Fry  himself -btw. if there is a shadow writer in Illsley's book he is a good one - so far), I found it quite pleasing and setting the tone and pace. Some nice things I found out, apart from  how similar is the riff for  "Move it" and "If I had you", (silly I haven't noticed all this time): I really connected with the way he felt about school, leaving home,  about not settling early on in life for a well paid job, about giving fair due to the people and circumstances that would later shape his life, ie. how he picked up the bass guitar and how he returned to the university, etc. Emphasizing on these matters reveals a part of his characters - or at least (ah, this shadow writer...) knows how to make the man in question likable. Mentioning somewhere about the taxation system back in the 70ies, with examples like Elton John and Thin Lizzy, took me a bit by surprise, but I guess it was meant as a counter balance for his then socialist tendencies. Isn't it weird how a man can interpret his past, given his present status?  Anyway, all in all I quite liked this introductory part of the book. Will return with more about the rest.         

[Pottel]

interested to see your feedback on the rest of the book

[the visitor]

Coincidentally I couldn't sleep last night so listened to the audio book.  It didn't put me to sleep, so it passed that test.

My view remains that this book is better than nothing.  John does take quite a vanilla matter of fact approach to the whole thing and I doesn't talk about anyone negatively really at all.  Which is nice, but you wonder what lies beneath the subtext.

We learn that John regrets not having recorded the pre Mandela gigs at Hammersmith.  But for OES the book peters away and fairly big things, like Terry's departure remain a mystery and summarised by "after 6 years of tireless service Terry left the band.  He was a terribly nice man and we all did miss him".  Super, but I'd like to know a bit more. I guess it's up to John what he wanted to reveal.

You do get the sense that the career of the band of the band was so enormous that you could probably take the BIA tour alone and write a book on it.  Maybe that was also part of the challenge.

Just some reflections after a second listen 

[vgonis]

interested to see your feedback on the rest of the book

Sure thing! Too bad I was late here. This could have been a nice experiment to create a book club, while reading it at the same time.    Maybe next time with the next DS biography.