This very funny coming-of-age story is something like Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas – with chips.
The parents of fourteen-year-old Peter are worried. It’s not just his mumbling and the cloud of melancholy that seems to hover permanently over him, nor even the oversized trousers or the numerous metal chains that hang off them. It’s the fact that their son wants to be a rock star, or anything that involves a guitar, bags of money, free CDs and access to unlimited, scantily clad girls. And it’s no coincidence that, ever since the advent of this new ambition, Peter’s school grades have plummeted from very good to somewhere below mediocre. What’s to be done?
In the spirit of intellectual enquiry, Peter and music-critic Tom Cox set off on a journey to the dark heart of Britain’s musical heritage to get the inside track on whether being a musician really is a sensible career choice for a teenager. Driving around in Tom’s Ford Focus, they explore the wilder shores of prog rock, and get up close and personal in an elevator with Brian Wilson. Tom gives a masterclass in second-hand-record-shop etiquette and finds that Peter is something of a child prodigy. Most of all they drive around, talk about stuff and Peter eats crisps–chips.
Part coming-of-age story, part urban travelogue, this brilliantly funny book is a must for anyone who has ever been baffled by a teenage boy.
The parents of fourteen-year-old Peter are worried. It’s not just his mumbling and the cloud of melancholy that seems to hover permanently over him, nor even the oversized trousers or the numerous metal chains that hang off them. It’s the fact that their son wants to be a rock star, or anything that involves a guitar, bags of money, free CDs and access to unlimited, scantily clad girls. And it’s no coincidence that, ever since the advent of this new ambition, Peter’s school grades have plummeted from very good to somewhere below mediocre. What’s to be done?
In the spirit of intellectual enquiry, Peter and music-critic Tom Cox set off on a journey to the dark heart of Britain’s musical heritage to get the inside track on whether being a musician really is a sensible career choice for a teenager. Driving around in Tom’s Ford Focus, they explore the wilder shores of prog rock, and get up close and personal in an elevator with Brian Wilson. Tom gives a masterclass in second-hand-record-shop etiquette and finds that Peter is something of a child prodigy. Most of all they drive around, talk about stuff and Peter eats crisps–chips.
Part coming-of-age story, part urban travelogue, this brilliantly funny book is a must for anyone who has ever been baffled by a teenage boy.
