Do It For Your Mum is a much acclaimed record-industry memoir – a tale of family life and rock music.
‘The year's finest memoir’ – The Guardian, from their coverage of best books of 2011.
The author’s young brothers are in the band British Sea Power. Their biggest fan is their eightysomething father Ronald Wilkinson, a World War Two veteran and, more recently, self-instructed expert on alternative rock, from The Smiths to the Butthole Surfers.
‘The standout of this year in music writing’ – London Evening Standard, best books of 2011.
British Sea Power are intermittently successful suppliers of ‘high-church amplified rock music’ – Top Ten albums, a Mercury Prize nomination, the admiration of both David Bowie and the National Maritime Museum. But the band are also an odd family firm. BSP spring from Natland, a small village on the edge of the English Lake District. Ringing in their ears come the interjections of their family elders. Manager and narrator Roy Wilkinson excitedly invokes both Field Marshal Montgomery and Freddie Mercury. Their dad, meanwhile, won’t shut up. Reborn as octogenarian teenage acolyte, he’s ready to stop strangers in the street and ask them if they’ve bought the album they need – the album by British Sea Power.
Stuart Maconie: ’As different from the usual rock biography as British Sea Power are from the usual rock band. Funny, literate, touching, ambitious and engaging. A quirky, brilliant story – quirkily, brilliantly told.’
This is a story that sets an idyllic rural youth and the eternal imponderables of family life beside the brute mechanics of the music industry. The Libertines, Ronnie Corbett, Pulp, Prince Charles, Nick Cave and the Bishop of Truro all line the route. There is bathos, there is pathos, there is Kate Moss. Behold as Laurie Lee’s Cider with Rosie is introduced to AC/DC’s ‘Whole Lotta Rosie’. Against the odds the two parties get on rather well. Do It For Your Mum was the first publication from Rough Trade Books.
REVIEWS AND COMMENTARY:
’A fantastically vivid account. A dignified and literary portrait of a rock group from the Lake District watched over by a Second World war Veteran father who's increasingly obsessed by everyone from Blur to the Butthole Surfers’ – The Sunday Times, best books of 2011.
Nicky Wire (Manic Street Preachers, via Twitter): ‘Really enjoying roy wilkinson’s book 'do it for your mum' – british sea power + a lot more – funny, sad and very engaging x.’
The Independent On Sunday, best books of 2011: ‘A heartwarming family saga.’
Alan Warner, author of Morvern Callar: ‘One of the best-written rock books ever... so many beautiful sentences.’
Metro, best books of 2011: ’The real interest lies within family relationships... the band's octogenarian father and his bizarre, belated obsession with alt-rock.’
Do It For Your Mum was chosen as best book of 2011 by the Caught By The River website: ‘One of the finest books you will ever read involving the need to transfer the narrative of lives playing rock ‘n’ roll onto the printed page.’
GQ: ‘Brilliant... the funniest rock book in years.’
MOJO: ‘Spirited, comic... unbound imagination over mere reality... a Father's Day gift in waiting.’ 4/5
Record Collector: ‘Exciting, life-affirming stuff... As heart-warming as it is hilarious.’ 4/5
www.louderthanwar.com: ‘An astonishing and thought-provoking book – an effortless, enjoyable and compulsive read.’
Dorian Lynskey, author of 33 Revolutions Per Minute (Faber & Faber): ‘The funniest, fondest rock memoir I've ever read.’
Hamilton of British Sea Power: ‘Great, great, great, bloody great!’
About the Author
Roy Wilkinson was born in Newcastle upon Tyne. He has written for magazines and newspapers including The Guardian, The Independent, MOJO, Q, Sounds, Kerrang!, The Word and The Westmorland Gazette. From the late 1990s until 2005 he managed the band British Sea Power.
‘The year's finest memoir’ – The Guardian, from their coverage of best books of 2011.
The author’s young brothers are in the band British Sea Power. Their biggest fan is their eightysomething father Ronald Wilkinson, a World War Two veteran and, more recently, self-instructed expert on alternative rock, from The Smiths to the Butthole Surfers.
‘The standout of this year in music writing’ – London Evening Standard, best books of 2011.
British Sea Power are intermittently successful suppliers of ‘high-church amplified rock music’ – Top Ten albums, a Mercury Prize nomination, the admiration of both David Bowie and the National Maritime Museum. But the band are also an odd family firm. BSP spring from Natland, a small village on the edge of the English Lake District. Ringing in their ears come the interjections of their family elders. Manager and narrator Roy Wilkinson excitedly invokes both Field Marshal Montgomery and Freddie Mercury. Their dad, meanwhile, won’t shut up. Reborn as octogenarian teenage acolyte, he’s ready to stop strangers in the street and ask them if they’ve bought the album they need – the album by British Sea Power.
Stuart Maconie: ’As different from the usual rock biography as British Sea Power are from the usual rock band. Funny, literate, touching, ambitious and engaging. A quirky, brilliant story – quirkily, brilliantly told.’
This is a story that sets an idyllic rural youth and the eternal imponderables of family life beside the brute mechanics of the music industry. The Libertines, Ronnie Corbett, Pulp, Prince Charles, Nick Cave and the Bishop of Truro all line the route. There is bathos, there is pathos, there is Kate Moss. Behold as Laurie Lee’s Cider with Rosie is introduced to AC/DC’s ‘Whole Lotta Rosie’. Against the odds the two parties get on rather well. Do It For Your Mum was the first publication from Rough Trade Books.
REVIEWS AND COMMENTARY:
’A fantastically vivid account. A dignified and literary portrait of a rock group from the Lake District watched over by a Second World war Veteran father who's increasingly obsessed by everyone from Blur to the Butthole Surfers’ – The Sunday Times, best books of 2011.
Nicky Wire (Manic Street Preachers, via Twitter): ‘Really enjoying roy wilkinson’s book 'do it for your mum' – british sea power + a lot more – funny, sad and very engaging x.’
The Independent On Sunday, best books of 2011: ‘A heartwarming family saga.’
Alan Warner, author of Morvern Callar: ‘One of the best-written rock books ever... so many beautiful sentences.’
Metro, best books of 2011: ’The real interest lies within family relationships... the band's octogenarian father and his bizarre, belated obsession with alt-rock.’
Do It For Your Mum was chosen as best book of 2011 by the Caught By The River website: ‘One of the finest books you will ever read involving the need to transfer the narrative of lives playing rock ‘n’ roll onto the printed page.’
GQ: ‘Brilliant... the funniest rock book in years.’
MOJO: ‘Spirited, comic... unbound imagination over mere reality... a Father's Day gift in waiting.’ 4/5
Record Collector: ‘Exciting, life-affirming stuff... As heart-warming as it is hilarious.’ 4/5
www.louderthanwar.com: ‘An astonishing and thought-provoking book – an effortless, enjoyable and compulsive read.’
Dorian Lynskey, author of 33 Revolutions Per Minute (Faber & Faber): ‘The funniest, fondest rock memoir I've ever read.’
Hamilton of British Sea Power: ‘Great, great, great, bloody great!’
About the Author
Roy Wilkinson was born in Newcastle upon Tyne. He has written for magazines and newspapers including The Guardian, The Independent, MOJO, Q, Sounds, Kerrang!, The Word and The Westmorland Gazette. From the late 1990s until 2005 he managed the band British Sea Power.
