Review: “Rock Stars Stole My Life”
Saturday, July 5, 2014 at 7:08 PM The unassuming man behind some of my favorite music publications — including the beloved Word magazine — has just released his memoir, and it’s a fun ride.
;)
Mark Ellen’s ”Rock Stars Stole My Life!: A Big Bad Love Affair with Music” documents an adventurous 40-year career in British music journalism, starting as a freelancer with New Musical Express; later in editing roles at publications like Smash Hits, Q, Mojo and, perhaps most memorably, The Word; and side trips into broadcasting as a controversial stand-in for legendary British DJ John Peel and as host of “Old Grey Whistle Test.”
“Rock Stars” is a fast read, with short chapters and tons of vignettes spanning the mid-1970s through late 2012 (when he hilariously documents the sausage making behind Rihanna’s boondoggle of a tour). There are so many unexpected adventures that I started to get the sense Ellen is a musical version of Forrest Gump, a quirky but likable fellow who seems to find himself in the most unexpected of scenarios.
