Thank You for the Days

A Boy's Own Adventures in Radio and Beyond

Mark Radcliffe

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK
• Year: 2009
• eBook ISBN:
  9781847377166

Approaching 50, Mark Radcliffe decided to write about his life, most importantly, his time in music. But crucially, he only wanted to write about the most interesting days and not the dull ones in between. With predictable good taste, Mark takes his title from the Kinks' song and has written an entertaining, funny book worthy of such a pedigree.

Mark's family life is covered by 'The Day My Mother Hit Me With a Golf Club' , his school life by 'The Day I Ruined a Perfectly Good Suit' and 'The Day I Got My First Guitar'; through his epiphany of the power of music in 'The Day I Met the Band Who Changed My Life' and his star struck meeting with childhood hero, David Bowie. Many other stars are covered too, for example in 'The Day I Went to Kate Bush's House for Cheese Flan', and 'The Day Mick Jagger Was Taller Than Me'. He's very funny when recounting his days working at the BBC in '80s and '90s (how, when bored, he and colleagues invented a fictional department), winning Stars in Their Eyes as Shane MacGowan and so on. Yet, among the laughter are more sober days, such as the one when he learned John Peel had died.

A cracking read and a potted history of both one man's life and his love affair with music, THANK YOU FOR THE DAYS is a uniquely entertaining memoir that will appeal not just to music fans but to connoisseurs of British popular culture.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Also by Mark Radcliffe
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Acknowledgenments
• CONTENTS
• Introduction
• 1. The Day I Met the Band Who Changed My Life
• 2. The Day I Took Bros into a Goods Yard
• 3. The Day I Lost Several Plots
• 4. The Day I Was an A.R.S.E.
• 5. The Day I Got My First Guitar
• 6. The Day I Introduced David Bowie on Stage
• 7. The Day I Missed an Open Goal at Maine Road
• 8. The Day I Left Radio 1 After Eighteen Years
• 9. The Day I Met Tony Blair’s Teeth
• 10. The Day I Ruined a Perfectly Good Suit
• 11. The Day I Reached the Coast (On the Other Side)
• 12. The Day Mick Jagger Was Taller Than Me
• 13. The Day I Didn’t Go to Ayia Napa
• 14. The Day I Heard That John Peel Had Died
• 15. The Day I Wasn’t Scottish
• 16. The Day I Bought Flowers for Kylie
• 17. The Day I Was the Pied Piper
• 18. The Day I Was On Stars In Their Eyes
• 19. The Day I Went to Kate Bush’s House for Cheese Flan
• 20. The Day I Went to Cropredy
• 21. The Day My Mother Hit Me with a Golf Club
• 22. The Day I Saved Neil Hannon’s Bacon
• 23. The Day I Swore on the Radio
• 24. The Day I Got Sacked From the Radio 1 Breakfast Show
• 25. The Day Paul McCartney Was Second Choice
• 26. The Day I Turned Fifty
• ABOUT THE AUTHOR