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The Song is Nearly Over: Music Stories 1985-2025
Veteran NME music journalist Stuart Bailie reveals 40 years of insights, interviews & shenanigans, a record of fast times in popular culture. Stuart Bailie is a music journalist and author from Belfast. He has rolled with Tom Waits and Shane MacGowan. He has encountered Nina Simone, Björk, Sinéad O’Connor and Dave Grohl. This is his collection of stories and original articles – 40 years of insights and shenanigans, a record of fast times in popular culture.
He charts the rise of Radiohead and messy times with Oasis. There is road fever with Primal Scream and U2. The Manic Street Preachers suffer pain and achieve transcendence. Stuart documents a passing era of access and friction, critique and acclaim. The Song is Nearly Over is a requiem and an action replay.
He charts the rise of Radiohead and messy times with Oasis. There is road fever with Primal Scream and U2. The Manic Street Preachers suffer pain and achieve transcendence. Stuart documents a passing era of access and friction, critique and acclaim. The Song is Nearly Over is a requiem and an action replay.
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Published November 6, 2025
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About the author
Stuart Bailie
7 books5 followersJournalist and author. Books: Terri Hooley: Seventy-Five Revolutions (2023), Trouble Songs: Music and Conflict in Northern Ireland (2018) and 75 Van Songs (2020). Also author of the 2017 exhibition book for the British Music Experience – We Hope You Will Enjoy The Show: British Music Since 1945.
Editor of Dig With It, music, arts and counterculture in the north of Ireland.
A media professional with 40 years of experience in music journalism, broadcasting and television.
Co-founder and original CEO of the Oh Yeah Music Centre, Belfast’s dedicated music hub – a 10 year focus to establish a resource for musicians, entrepreneurs, music tourism and outreach (2006-16).
Freelance writer, reviewer and columnist for NME, Mojo, Q, Uncut, Vox, The Times, The Sunday Times, The Mirror, Irish Independent, Irish Times, Hot Press, Belfast Telegraph, The Irish Voice, Classic Rock.
A BBC Radio Ulster presenter, 1999-2019. Scriptwriter and voiceover for BBC TV and radio documentaries.
Writer and narrator, ‘Still In Love With You: The Gary Moore Story’. BBC TV (2011).
Author, originator and narrator, ‘So Hard To Beat’. BBC TV. A two part documentary on the story of music from Northern Ireland (2007).
Script writer for BBC Radio 2 documentaries on U2, Glen Campbell, Thin Lizzy and Elvis Costello. Narrator, ‘Belfast Songlines’, RTE Lyric FM, 2014.
Sleevenotes for U2, Clannad, Steve Earle, Nanci Griffith, Thin Lizzy, Waterboys.
Curator of the NI Music Exhibition, 2009-16. Scriptwriter and originator of the Belfast Music Bus Tour in 2009.
Chief Coordinator of the Oh Yeah team that coordinated Belfast Music Week, 2011-13, followed by the Sound of Belfast programme 2014-15.
Music projects, events and collaborations with the BPI, UK Music, Musicians’ Union, PRS, PRS for Music Foundation, PledgeMusic, Help Musicians UK, Music Canada, IFPI, Creative & Cultural Skills, The British Council.
Lecturer, Periodical Journalism, Belfast Institute of Further and Higher Education, Belfast, 1996 – 1998.
Industry Fellow of the Institute of Collaborative Research in the Humanities at Queen's University Belfast, 2014-16.
National Skills Academy – Advisory Committee Member for NI, 2014-16.
Editor of Dig With It, music, arts and counterculture in the north of Ireland.
A media professional with 40 years of experience in music journalism, broadcasting and television.
Co-founder and original CEO of the Oh Yeah Music Centre, Belfast’s dedicated music hub – a 10 year focus to establish a resource for musicians, entrepreneurs, music tourism and outreach (2006-16).
Freelance writer, reviewer and columnist for NME, Mojo, Q, Uncut, Vox, The Times, The Sunday Times, The Mirror, Irish Independent, Irish Times, Hot Press, Belfast Telegraph, The Irish Voice, Classic Rock.
A BBC Radio Ulster presenter, 1999-2019. Scriptwriter and voiceover for BBC TV and radio documentaries.
Writer and narrator, ‘Still In Love With You: The Gary Moore Story’. BBC TV (2011).
Author, originator and narrator, ‘So Hard To Beat’. BBC TV. A two part documentary on the story of music from Northern Ireland (2007).
Script writer for BBC Radio 2 documentaries on U2, Glen Campbell, Thin Lizzy and Elvis Costello. Narrator, ‘Belfast Songlines’, RTE Lyric FM, 2014.
Sleevenotes for U2, Clannad, Steve Earle, Nanci Griffith, Thin Lizzy, Waterboys.
Curator of the NI Music Exhibition, 2009-16. Scriptwriter and originator of the Belfast Music Bus Tour in 2009.
Chief Coordinator of the Oh Yeah team that coordinated Belfast Music Week, 2011-13, followed by the Sound of Belfast programme 2014-15.
Music projects, events and collaborations with the BPI, UK Music, Musicians’ Union, PRS, PRS for Music Foundation, PledgeMusic, Help Musicians UK, Music Canada, IFPI, Creative & Cultural Skills, The British Council.
Lecturer, Periodical Journalism, Belfast Institute of Further and Higher Education, Belfast, 1996 – 1998.
Industry Fellow of the Institute of Collaborative Research in the Humanities at Queen's University Belfast, 2014-16.
National Skills Academy – Advisory Committee Member for NI, 2014-16.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
November 8, 2025
Stu's books are excellent but this is the one I was waiting for - knowing if the insight he's had hanging out with the likes of Oasis, Radiohead and Nirvana at absolutely crucial points in their career. Those stories are insightful and often hilarious - but the chapters on the Manics and Sinead O'Connor - again written at arguably the most poignant moments in their lifetime - are spellbinding. Two sittings for me - incredible stuff
Displaying 1 of 1 review