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That Close
Suggs is one of pop music’s most enduring and likeable figures. Written with the assured style and wit of a natural raconteur, this hugely entertaining and insightful autobiography takes you from his colourful early life on a North London council estate, through the heady early days of Punk and 2-Tone, to the eighties, where Madness became the biggest selling singles band of the decade. Along the way he tells you what it’s like to go globetrotting with your best mates, to sign away your entire song rights ‘in perpetuity’ and cause an earthquake in Finsbury Park.
368 pages, Hardcover
First published December 1, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 120 reviews
December 17, 2020
Interesting autobiography which spends more time looking at London and Suggs' non-Madness career than one would expect, which may not be what a person picking up this would expect, or indeed want? ... and to be honest, it was not what I wanted. 5 out of 12.
December 31, 2017
Still reading this one by the Madness front man. I grew up listening to Madness as a teenager and most of my peers, regardless to whether they were Punk/Mod/Motown/Reggae/Electric/Grunge/New Romantic or whatever genre, listened to their music. That is why they were so successful. Anyhow I have been reading That Close for a while now; had it for Christmas last year from my brother in law; and it is a good read. It is more like a book of anecdotes and the way Suggs writes is very... Theatrical. It is almost like I am in one of his songs...Lol! Interesting to hear what life was like in and around Covent Garden and Notting Hill when Suggs was growing up. An eclectic of characters and diversity. It warms the heart.
I really do not want to rush this book and pick it up every now and then. Like I am reading a book of prose. It is really worth the read.🐯👍
I really do not want to rush this book and pick it up every now and then. Like I am reading a book of prose. It is really worth the read.🐯👍
February 21, 2014
The Suggs charm is evident here but that can't disguise just how patchy this is. Some of the tales, such as about the Colony Club or Two-Tone are great but perhaps he should have gone with a ghost writer because this book is just so disjointed and spends way too long on things like football and various holidays. It reads as if he was a professional football fan who fronted a band in his spare time.
I saw a review which criticised this book for not having enough about Madness in it and I thought that was a bit unfair as it is about Suggs, not just about Madness. However now I think they had a point. There is to much here than could have been edited in favour of more witty bits. There is about as much on cycling in Italy as there is about post '92 Madness. Surely not a good balance. Plus there are all the song lyrics which are interspersed with the text that are often too long and only slightly relevant, sometimes not at all really.
I saw a review which criticised this book for not having enough about Madness in it and I thought that was a bit unfair as it is about Suggs, not just about Madness. However now I think they had a point. There is to much here than could have been edited in favour of more witty bits. There is about as much on cycling in Italy as there is about post '92 Madness. Surely not a good balance. Plus there are all the song lyrics which are interspersed with the text that are often too long and only slightly relevant, sometimes not at all really.
October 29, 2014
Firstly, it's not bad, it's just that I expected to learn a lot more about Suggs and indeed Madness, I have always been a fan and discovered very few new facts about either. In fact the patchy jumping about became a little annoying.
We heard a great deal about the early days of his own life and then the band but Madness's most successful period was rushed past. The break up of the band was skipped over, the getting back together mentioned in passing.
As much as the early life of anyone that writes a biography has to be covered what we all want is the behind the scenes tales and insight when they reach the big time.
It's not an "Embarrassment" but falls short of being a "House of fun"
We heard a great deal about the early days of his own life and then the band but Madness's most successful period was rushed past. The break up of the band was skipped over, the getting back together mentioned in passing.
As much as the early life of anyone that writes a biography has to be covered what we all want is the behind the scenes tales and insight when they reach the big time.
It's not an "Embarrassment" but falls short of being a "House of fun"
July 12, 2021
Welcome to the House of Fun! As well as the title of one of the Madness hit songs, this could well have been the title of this autobiography for there is certainly plenty of fun in it, certainly for Suggs as he was living it.
I saw Madness perform at Glastonbury Abbey, not the Festival, and they were magnificent with Suggs up front and to the fore as usual and, ordained into the house of fun, since then I have been quite a fan so this autobiography was a must read for me just to get a feel for the man.
A Camden Town boy through and through, Suggs is never happier than when on his home territory but he does tell some stirring tales of continental gigs all over the world ... always ending with being happy to be back in Camden!
As a youngster he had a variety of jobs and tells some hilarious stories of different ventures that he got into, such as plastering with Lee, the sax player of Madness, when they couldn't get the plaster to stick on the walls and had a carpet of it around their feet. They decided to leave it overnight and returned the next morning to try again but it was quickly realised that they were not up to the job and they left - by mutual consent!
He always did a little singing and when he realised that he was half decent he pursued avenues to get involved and, once again, his stories of his early efforts make amusing reading. And when he joined a band, after some early disruptions, he quickly became the acknowledged leader. And he explains how the name Madness came about and what other options the boys considered.
And talking of boys, he admits in his chapter entitled 'Naughty Boys' that he was no real angel as a youngster, and although he did not get into anything too serious he was certainly always mischievous - weren't we all at an early age? Well, perhaps not, but I have to admit that I was!
Marriage and two lovely daughters calmed him down - to a degree - and he and his wife along with his daughters have a lovely relationship, which comes out in the later chapters of this entertaining book. In it he also writes about those special gigs that he has done in his later career, on the roof at Buckingham Palace, at the Olympics, and at the closing of the BBC Centre in London.
'That Close' is an entertaining read and it is always nice to know some background about the people that one admires and I must confess to being a massive Suggs fan. I must go off and play some of my Madness LPs now as I am in the mood for 'Our House' Baggy Trousers', 'Night Boat to Cairo' and, while they are all my favourites, a particular favourite is 'It Must Be Love' ... bring it on!
I saw Madness perform at Glastonbury Abbey, not the Festival, and they were magnificent with Suggs up front and to the fore as usual and, ordained into the house of fun, since then I have been quite a fan so this autobiography was a must read for me just to get a feel for the man.
A Camden Town boy through and through, Suggs is never happier than when on his home territory but he does tell some stirring tales of continental gigs all over the world ... always ending with being happy to be back in Camden!
As a youngster he had a variety of jobs and tells some hilarious stories of different ventures that he got into, such as plastering with Lee, the sax player of Madness, when they couldn't get the plaster to stick on the walls and had a carpet of it around their feet. They decided to leave it overnight and returned the next morning to try again but it was quickly realised that they were not up to the job and they left - by mutual consent!
He always did a little singing and when he realised that he was half decent he pursued avenues to get involved and, once again, his stories of his early efforts make amusing reading. And when he joined a band, after some early disruptions, he quickly became the acknowledged leader. And he explains how the name Madness came about and what other options the boys considered.
And talking of boys, he admits in his chapter entitled 'Naughty Boys' that he was no real angel as a youngster, and although he did not get into anything too serious he was certainly always mischievous - weren't we all at an early age? Well, perhaps not, but I have to admit that I was!
Marriage and two lovely daughters calmed him down - to a degree - and he and his wife along with his daughters have a lovely relationship, which comes out in the later chapters of this entertaining book. In it he also writes about those special gigs that he has done in his later career, on the roof at Buckingham Palace, at the Olympics, and at the closing of the BBC Centre in London.
'That Close' is an entertaining read and it is always nice to know some background about the people that one admires and I must confess to being a massive Suggs fan. I must go off and play some of my Madness LPs now as I am in the mood for 'Our House' Baggy Trousers', 'Night Boat to Cairo' and, while they are all my favourites, a particular favourite is 'It Must Be Love' ... bring it on!
October 7, 2014
A supremely enjoyable biography.
I am a similar age to Suggs and also grew up in north London so there were many aspects of his story that I recognised from growing up in the same place at the same time.
That said, he has plenty of amusing and interesting tales to tell, and this book is peppered with them. He's also an enthusiastic and engaging narrator. So, whatever your background, if you enjoy books that embrace social history, music, travel, humour, growing up, families, and this thing we call life, then you should find plenty to enjoy here.
I am a similar age to Suggs and also grew up in north London so there were many aspects of his story that I recognised from growing up in the same place at the same time.
That said, he has plenty of amusing and interesting tales to tell, and this book is peppered with them. He's also an enthusiastic and engaging narrator. So, whatever your background, if you enjoy books that embrace social history, music, travel, humour, growing up, families, and this thing we call life, then you should find plenty to enjoy here.
March 23, 2023
Well written and interesting. Focuses on the band and how it came about, not so much about thoughts and feelings. A decent read, brings back memories of the 70s/80s.
September 22, 2023
The biography jumps about a bit but is still enjoyable, scary that it was written over 10 years ago
July 8, 2024
Not quite what I was expecting. I can’t speak for everyone but I would have preferred more stories regarding the band and less about bike treks and the like. All in all, very well written and very humorous especially the adolescent Suggs years.
January 31, 2024
Not the most in depth autobiography I've ever read, but Suggs sure knows how to tell a story. I loved listening to all his tales, and I don't think the smile left my face the whole time I was listening.
4.5 stars
4.5 stars
November 29, 2013
Before anything else I may be about to commit to print, let me say this: That Close was an enjoyable, brisk read and I don't regret reading it.
American readers are likely unaware of a strange love in Europe for celebrity memoirs and biographies. Walk into any bookshop this side of the Atlantic, and you're likely to find first and foremost a large display of books on and by celebrities of various stripe. That tendency has no match in the US. This may be the first autobiography I've read since high school (something like 25 years ago), so my expectations were set pretty low. I have been a fan of Madness for only slightly longer than that, and had heard mention of their lead singer Graham 'Suggs' McPherson's rough childhood before so was curious to hear what he had to say about his life.
As it turns out, the title he's chosen for his memoir is more apropos than he may have thought, because That Close is always just so short of being any one thing, but never quite makes it. Suggs gives us titbits about his upbringing in London (and, briefly, Wales), but seems more interested in showing local colour than delving into the impact it made on him. He touches on the disappearance and dissolution of his father, but in such a way as to prove tantalising for closure that never comes. Likewise, he gives a rough run-through of the birth of the band, but without giving much more background than it seemed like fun at the time. He even manages to do a bit of travelogue on his more recent years, but again...that close. Two chapters spent recounting football-fandom escapades is not what I'd call interesting reading, and yet not enough to make this a book about football fandom.
Perhaps at this stage in his life, his earlier memories are lost in the 'thick fug of tobacco smoke' he repeatedly mentions (in exactly those words, several times in the same chapter) and the best he could offer was this rambling, but no less entertaining, collection of vague reminiscences. However, I choose to blame the book's editor for most of its flaws. Little things like the recurring 'thick fug,' as well as the almost total lack of chronology and the misplacing of subjects' introductions AFTER they've been referred to all suggest there was a fairly lax editorial view toward this book. Any editor worth their mettle would have noticed the length Suggs dedicates to Madness' weakest album, Mad Not Mad (the only one without the entire band), especially compared with the almost total absence of anything about their debut album! Surely, the leap from some kids playing in a pub to a band with a top-selling album made some impact, but you wouldn't know it from this book.
Clearly, this is meant to be the story of Suggs' life, and not the story of Madness, but even that is only halfway here. This book could have been twice as long, still have been just as readable, and then perhaps given us some actual insight into who this man is and how he got here. Instead, it is an entertaining, interesting and quite often funny clutch of anecdotes that might just as easily have been recounted by someone else.
This edition includes two sections and endsheet spreads of colour photos, with black and white photos and illustrations (most of which are from Suggs' own collection) throughout.
American readers are likely unaware of a strange love in Europe for celebrity memoirs and biographies. Walk into any bookshop this side of the Atlantic, and you're likely to find first and foremost a large display of books on and by celebrities of various stripe. That tendency has no match in the US. This may be the first autobiography I've read since high school (something like 25 years ago), so my expectations were set pretty low. I have been a fan of Madness for only slightly longer than that, and had heard mention of their lead singer Graham 'Suggs' McPherson's rough childhood before so was curious to hear what he had to say about his life.
As it turns out, the title he's chosen for his memoir is more apropos than he may have thought, because That Close is always just so short of being any one thing, but never quite makes it. Suggs gives us titbits about his upbringing in London (and, briefly, Wales), but seems more interested in showing local colour than delving into the impact it made on him. He touches on the disappearance and dissolution of his father, but in such a way as to prove tantalising for closure that never comes. Likewise, he gives a rough run-through of the birth of the band, but without giving much more background than it seemed like fun at the time. He even manages to do a bit of travelogue on his more recent years, but again...that close. Two chapters spent recounting football-fandom escapades is not what I'd call interesting reading, and yet not enough to make this a book about football fandom.
Perhaps at this stage in his life, his earlier memories are lost in the 'thick fug of tobacco smoke' he repeatedly mentions (in exactly those words, several times in the same chapter) and the best he could offer was this rambling, but no less entertaining, collection of vague reminiscences. However, I choose to blame the book's editor for most of its flaws. Little things like the recurring 'thick fug,' as well as the almost total lack of chronology and the misplacing of subjects' introductions AFTER they've been referred to all suggest there was a fairly lax editorial view toward this book. Any editor worth their mettle would have noticed the length Suggs dedicates to Madness' weakest album, Mad Not Mad (the only one without the entire band), especially compared with the almost total absence of anything about their debut album! Surely, the leap from some kids playing in a pub to a band with a top-selling album made some impact, but you wouldn't know it from this book.
Clearly, this is meant to be the story of Suggs' life, and not the story of Madness, but even that is only halfway here. This book could have been twice as long, still have been just as readable, and then perhaps given us some actual insight into who this man is and how he got here. Instead, it is an entertaining, interesting and quite often funny clutch of anecdotes that might just as easily have been recounted by someone else.
This edition includes two sections and endsheet spreads of colour photos, with black and white photos and illustrations (most of which are from Suggs' own collection) throughout.
February 6, 2014
I always enjoy an informative autobiography and this was another one of those I enjoyed.
Suggs takes us through his life and that of his band Madness. My only gripe with the book is that it jumps around from now to then and in between. However I understand why because each chapter covers certain aspects of his life and I found what he had to say very entertaining and I laughed a fair bit. Of course I went and looked at goodreads and of course just saw negativity. It's a great read, he's written it himself, it's honest, it's true,what more do you want.
I didn't give it 5 stars simply because I found the bouncing around disconcerting
Suggs takes us through his life and that of his band Madness. My only gripe with the book is that it jumps around from now to then and in between. However I understand why because each chapter covers certain aspects of his life and I found what he had to say very entertaining and I laughed a fair bit. Of course I went and looked at goodreads and of course just saw negativity. It's a great read, he's written it himself, it's honest, it's true,what more do you want.
I didn't give it 5 stars simply because I found the bouncing around disconcerting
May 23, 2014
I love autobiographies, so when I had to download a title to test the e-audio app we use at work, this seemed like a good one to pick.
I wouldn't say I'm a huge Madness fan, but I like quite a few of their songs, and their cheeky performances raise a smile. So I began listening with high hopes.
I enjoyed this stroll down memory lane, narrated by Suggs himself. I laughed out loud a few times. But I'm afraid that overall I found it very disjointed. It hopped about back and forth throughout his life and times with no clear sense of direction. At times there were repetitions. Sadly, these things detracted from my enjoyment, meaning I don't feel I can rate it above a 3 star.
I wouldn't say I'm a huge Madness fan, but I like quite a few of their songs, and their cheeky performances raise a smile. So I began listening with high hopes.
I enjoyed this stroll down memory lane, narrated by Suggs himself. I laughed out loud a few times. But I'm afraid that overall I found it very disjointed. It hopped about back and forth throughout his life and times with no clear sense of direction. At times there were repetitions. Sadly, these things detracted from my enjoyment, meaning I don't feel I can rate it above a 3 star.
August 22, 2015
Suggs was, & is, the lead singer of Madness whose string of effervescent pop tunes (Baggy Trousers, House Of Fun, Embarrassment, It Must Be Love, Driving In My Car & quite a few others!) were among the most enjoyable hits of the 80s. His auto-biog is an equally enjoyable read, particularly the early years, growing up in London & passionately supporting Chelsea, sometimes at the risk of serious physical harm. Well recommended.
January 10, 2014
I enjoyed this book and found out a few new bits about Suggs and the boys.
The book has its fair share of funny stories as to be expected and if you are a madness fan or someone who has come across suggs on tv you will enjoy the book.
As other readers have said its hard not to read the book with suggs voice in your head telling the stories and exploits.
The book has its fair share of funny stories as to be expected and if you are a madness fan or someone who has come across suggs on tv you will enjoy the book.
As other readers have said its hard not to read the book with suggs voice in your head telling the stories and exploits.
April 24, 2014
Hmmmm I think you would need to be British or at least have grown up in the UK, be a Madness fan and a Suggs fan to appreciate this book. I am all three and found it interesting, amusing and enjoyable.
February 9, 2014
loved it. i love madness & wat i got from this book was humour, normality, a sense of fun & a joy of life. i love madness & this just added 2 my joy of life madness & a realisation that even my dull little life has moments of joy which makes life worth living.
March 28, 2014
I really enjoyed this very easy to read memoir from Suggs, lead singer and front-man of Madness. It's a very funny memoir with lots of stories about growing up in London in the 60s/70s and forming the band, continuing right up to the present day. If you like Madness you'll love it.
June 1, 2014
I love Madness. Simple as that, love the band and their music. I also now have a deep appreciation for Suggs. An excellent read, I enjoyed every page and highly recommend for fans and fans of autobiographies.
December 20, 2013
I always enjoy Suggs writings, they bring back memories of my times in London. I met many of the characters he writes about and fondly remember most of them.
January 5, 2014
Very enjoyable light read 'not a heavy, heavy monster show!' Brought back some great memories I'd forgotten how big and how many hits Madness had
February 15, 2014
As a life long fan of Madness I enjoyed the story of Suggs early life and it showed the inspiration for many of their early songs.
June 22, 2015
An interesting book for any Madness fan, and especially satisfying to find that the seven of them really are as nutty as they appear.
December 3, 2016
Shame he dies in the end.
October 4, 2020
I enjoyed this memoir by Suggs, especially the first part, focussing on his childhood, the lead up to forming the band and the early days of Madness. How extraordinary that his mum was a jazz singer at the Colony Club!
Suggs’ warmth and charisma brings his anecdotes to life. The book does jump about a bit, chronologically, but I didn’t mind that too much, as the stories are fun and interesting. He is an engaging narrator and comes across as genial, self-effacing, grounded and loyal.
The author’s deep affection for his home city is a strong thread throughout and I enjoyed time travelling back to the London of the late 1970s, as at the time I was living not far from there and Two Tone music was a big part of the soundtrack of my teenage years. I loved that first Madness album especially!
The stories relating to the pub music scene, the lead up to the first album and the Two Tone tour were fascinating. Also the bits about the fashions and the various teenage music and style ‘tribes’ that existed back then. It made me feel sad and nostalgic, as there doesn’t seem to be anything comparable for teenagers now.
I think Suggs could have expanded on the early years, as the latter part of the book seemed to meander into some random areas. However, I still enjoyed the bits about football and cycling, due to the humour and infectious enthusiasm.
A delightfully fun and nostalgic read. What a lovely man.
Suggs’ warmth and charisma brings his anecdotes to life. The book does jump about a bit, chronologically, but I didn’t mind that too much, as the stories are fun and interesting. He is an engaging narrator and comes across as genial, self-effacing, grounded and loyal.
The author’s deep affection for his home city is a strong thread throughout and I enjoyed time travelling back to the London of the late 1970s, as at the time I was living not far from there and Two Tone music was a big part of the soundtrack of my teenage years. I loved that first Madness album especially!
The stories relating to the pub music scene, the lead up to the first album and the Two Tone tour were fascinating. Also the bits about the fashions and the various teenage music and style ‘tribes’ that existed back then. It made me feel sad and nostalgic, as there doesn’t seem to be anything comparable for teenagers now.
I think Suggs could have expanded on the early years, as the latter part of the book seemed to meander into some random areas. However, I still enjoyed the bits about football and cycling, due to the humour and infectious enthusiasm.
A delightfully fun and nostalgic read. What a lovely man.
October 29, 2020
Does Suggs care? Certainly on this evidence he doesn't care for grammatical structure and what his school teachers would recognise as good English. He certainly doesn't care who knows that his professional name was first chosen at random so he had a snappy graffiti tag, and he certainly doesn't give a monkeys that he sounds like a most unrepentant football hooligan, thankfully retired. And what he doesn't really care about too much here is his musical career – this 340pp book takes a hundred pages to get to the start of his band's life, his solo success is reduced to one paragraph, and that mostly the anecdote about his single Cecilia presented, while at #6 in the charts, by a twat with a lisp.
So there is very little to be learnt here about the days of Madness, but even if we take this as a personal look back by one man about one man it's still very random. The opening chapters seem to jump from month to month and year to year, only to drag us back to the day after we started. An extended vignette about going to Anfield is only revenge from the football gods; a skippable chapter about the birth of his beloved ska reads like a straight transcript from the Radio 4 documentary he led about it. When we do close with some more pages about the bandmates that have given him (and of course us) so much over the years, it is as episodic and devoid of anything hard-hitting as the rest. It must be duff, it seems.
So there is very little to be learnt here about the days of Madness, but even if we take this as a personal look back by one man about one man it's still very random. The opening chapters seem to jump from month to month and year to year, only to drag us back to the day after we started. An extended vignette about going to Anfield is only revenge from the football gods; a skippable chapter about the birth of his beloved ska reads like a straight transcript from the Radio 4 documentary he led about it. When we do close with some more pages about the bandmates that have given him (and of course us) so much over the years, it is as episodic and devoid of anything hard-hitting as the rest. It must be duff, it seems.
September 1, 2018
I don't usually read show biz autobiographies and for quite a while I wasn't sure what to make of this one. I'm a very similar age to Suggs and I liked their singles in the early 80s (who didn't?) but that's as far as my knowledge of him and the band went, other than knowing they're still working: I saw their Glastonbury appearance on tv last (?) year. I used to read a lot of ghostwritten cricket 'autobiographies' and I remember one, Graham Dilley's, I think that said he'd instructed his ghost to ditch all the 'soppy stuff' (growing up, school, junior teams) and just get on with what he thought people would be interested in - his first class career in the public eye. If you cut the 'soppy stuff' out of this one, you'd be left with a couple of anecdotes you might hear him tell on a panel show. If you aren't familiar with the band's career, you won't add much to that file with this book. He's quite clear at the beginning that his ideas differed from the publisher's ghost and that they parted ways early on and there's little in the structure to make you disbelieve that. (Although them long words like eschew do surface occasionally.) Overall though, I ended up liking it more than not. And if he ever wants to, there's another book he could write with the same material with almost no duplication.
April 4, 2021
As Suggs mentions a ghost writer was refused in preference to a DIY biography approach.
The story itself is a somewhat random meandering and possibly wouldn't miss the first 4 chapters being removed, your not going to find the candid revelations of over indulgence or sexual conquests here, but all is not lost as I started to recognise parallel lines of a misplaced youth and shared experiences.
There's even a chapter where our paths cross, for me the insignificant 8th and 9th of August 1992, another working weekend for me on the festival schedule and unknown to me the long awaited reunion of Maddness of which I lazed alone on a sunny grassy knoll in Finsbury Park not 15 feet centre stage of the lengthy sound check the day before showtime, I remember a interaction of whitty jibber with some of the band members as they ran through their set which sounded fab.
Overhaul I couldn't help warming to Suggs and there is no doubt a very warm and jolly good fellow of the firmament he is, if your of a certain age, when his music was a soundtrack to your youthful mischief.
yes, not a jaw dropping read but a warm and comfortable trip down memory lane with no regrets,
The story itself is a somewhat random meandering and possibly wouldn't miss the first 4 chapters being removed, your not going to find the candid revelations of over indulgence or sexual conquests here, but all is not lost as I started to recognise parallel lines of a misplaced youth and shared experiences.
There's even a chapter where our paths cross, for me the insignificant 8th and 9th of August 1992, another working weekend for me on the festival schedule and unknown to me the long awaited reunion of Maddness of which I lazed alone on a sunny grassy knoll in Finsbury Park not 15 feet centre stage of the lengthy sound check the day before showtime, I remember a interaction of whitty jibber with some of the band members as they ran through their set which sounded fab.
Overhaul I couldn't help warming to Suggs and there is no doubt a very warm and jolly good fellow of the firmament he is, if your of a certain age, when his music was a soundtrack to your youthful mischief.
yes, not a jaw dropping read but a warm and comfortable trip down memory lane with no regrets,
July 11, 2022
I didn't mind Suggs' story, but it kind of jumped around a bit.
Raised by his mum for the most part, Suggs skims the surface of his childhood and talks about his time in Wales, the various jobs he had as a kid, and visiting the clubs his mum worked at.
He is a massive football fan and we are told about the shenanigans involving going to the matches and the scuffles that took place. A large part of Suggs' story is football related.
School and education get a mention as well. The teachers who said Graham McPherson would amount to nothing would now be eating their words.
Naturally Madness was a big focus, but I felt like there could have been much more in depth disclosure. Although talking about the band and their success, I thought the book would have been dedicated to more things Madness overall.
Suggs talks about his wife and daughters, however doesn't delve into the relationships, like when he first met his wife, was it love at first sight? The reader isn't privvy to anything too private.
The whole story, while entertaining, felt like it just skimmed over his life and at times it felt like Suggs was ticking the boxes and covering off a whole lot of things without going too deep.
Despite that, I did enjoy reading Suggs' story.
Raised by his mum for the most part, Suggs skims the surface of his childhood and talks about his time in Wales, the various jobs he had as a kid, and visiting the clubs his mum worked at.
He is a massive football fan and we are told about the shenanigans involving going to the matches and the scuffles that took place. A large part of Suggs' story is football related.
School and education get a mention as well. The teachers who said Graham McPherson would amount to nothing would now be eating their words.
Naturally Madness was a big focus, but I felt like there could have been much more in depth disclosure. Although talking about the band and their success, I thought the book would have been dedicated to more things Madness overall.
Suggs talks about his wife and daughters, however doesn't delve into the relationships, like when he first met his wife, was it love at first sight? The reader isn't privvy to anything too private.
The whole story, while entertaining, felt like it just skimmed over his life and at times it felt like Suggs was ticking the boxes and covering off a whole lot of things without going too deep.
Despite that, I did enjoy reading Suggs' story.
April 1, 2018
I loved Madness, Im totally inlove with Suggs n now Im totally inlove with this book of his; so glad that he narrated it himself cos no one could do it like Suggs wanted, needed.
This is not about Madness, this is about Suggs himself; his autobiography. Ok! Madness is in here aswel, but that is cos if there were no Suggs there wouldn't of been Madness!its that simple really cos
a few reviewers in Amazon thought this to be dissappointing as they thought it would be all about Madness; but look at his Gorgeous face n captivating eyes. This is a brilliant read n Suggs (Graham McPherson) performs it to perfection.
Well worthy for the price paid on Audible n will listen to it again. A fab collection for a Suggs/Madness fan.
This is not about Madness, this is about Suggs himself; his autobiography. Ok! Madness is in here aswel, but that is cos if there were no Suggs there wouldn't of been Madness!its that simple really cos
a few reviewers in Amazon thought this to be dissappointing as they thought it would be all about Madness; but look at his Gorgeous face n captivating eyes. This is a brilliant read n Suggs (Graham McPherson) performs it to perfection.
Well worthy for the price paid on Audible n will listen to it again. A fab collection for a Suggs/Madness fan.
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