Avail Yourself The Story Of The Streets Illustrated By Mike Skinner Delivered In Digital Edition

you love or hate The Streets, this book is still an entertaining look at what it's like to become famous and then hoe to cope with losing fame.
There are a few too many sections about trainers and clothes but it was otherwise a very enjoyable read,.Really enjoyed this a lot more than I thought I would, Learnt lots about Mike Skinner and the Streets, Loved it, absolutely loved it Really disappointing! I was hoping the book would be all about "The Streets" Where the inspiration for the songs came from, stories about recording, producing, funny stories from tours and festivals, etc.
It had very little of that,

Instead it was Mike Skinner massively over evaluating life, It was way too philosophical and what he had learned about how the mind and subconscious work,

Really gutted! I was looking forward to the "chaviness" of the streets, the garage, rave era etc, Sadly there was none of that,

If you want a book on "How our thoughts work" then go for it, I bought this at the same time as "Looking For Calvin and Hobbes" which I just reviewed here, and I liked this much better.
It's the story of one of my favorite musical acts of the last decade, The Streets, The group was in actuality just one person, Mike Skinner, and he spends this memoir describing his childhood, his obsession with music, his epilepsy, his obsession with fashion, his rise to fame, his obsession with drugs and alcohol, and other things.


Interlaced between the episodes of his life which he presents chronologically in sections based on the five albums he made as The Streets, coinciding with the "Robert McKee classic" stages of a narrative The Inciting Event, Progressive Complications, Crisis, Climax, Resolution though, purposefully, Skinner rearranges their order, Skinner inserts some keen insight on music and philosophy and life.
I think if those segments of philosophizing were cut out of the book and put together in a small selfhelp book it would be about the cheesiest thing ever.
But asis, it works surprisingly well,

It helps if you have more than a passing interest in hiphop American or UK, British culture, or music in general to get into this book.
If you're not interested in any of those things, you'll probably be pretty lost, But if you at least like music and if you know the names of a couple of rappers even if you don't like rap, you can still get much out of the book.
Because at its core it's a sort of ragstoriches tale and it goes into a lot of depth on the music industry, on musicians, on fame, and on how many people participate and respond to those things.


For fans of all those things music, hip hop, British culture, this is an essential read, For fans of The Streets there's no denying that this is a mustread guide to the music, Especially for American fans, it's a great insight into just how popular Skinner got and how that worked out in the UK, Highly recommended. This book covers the life and work of Mike Skinner, It's a candid look at his entire life, the events that led to his first albums and the subsequent positive and negative consequences,

My only criticism is that the book has frequent emboldened quotes every three or four paragraphs, I can imagine this is a format inherited from a blog format, but it's become distracting and annoying in longform book reading,

How has this book changed me

This book has given me a greater understanding of Mike Skinner as a person.
After reading, it is hard not to

like him, The text is full of vulnerable stories that give you great insights into the motivations behind his music, These new pieces of information will help you appreciate his work more, even The Streets later albums,

Top three quotes
"Youve just got to do the stuff thats good and trust that your unconscious is sixteen million times more powerful than your conscious mind.
In other words, dont think about it, just do it, "
"I think everyone who does something creative has got some kind of flaw or insecurity that helps drive them to do what they do.
As a general rule, artists value themselves quite low thats why they want to add value by doing things, Weaknesses often become your biggest strengths, People with no insecurities dont tend to make very good art"
"Youve just got to do the stuff thats good and trust that your unconscious is sixteen million times more powerful than your conscious mind.
In other words, dont think about it, just do it, " The first two Street albums were the soundtrack to my university days, as I'm sure they were to many of the people who are considering this book.
There are very few albums I've spun more than these two in the subsequentor so years,

Again, probably similar to many others, I didn't really get on with the third album and didn't bother buying the subsequent two due to my dissatisfaction with 'the hardest way.
. . '

I picked this book up due to my fondness for 'original pirate material' and 'a grand don't come for free' and I was not disappointed.
This is a great auto bio from the one man band himself, So many of my own experiences were mirrored in his own, which made this a very easy book to devour in one sitting,

I was surprised that many of my fave bands and artists were mentioned, even though none have any relation to garage, Paul Oakenfold. Pantera. Sepultura. Napalm Death. Black Sabbath. Guns n Roses. Aphex Twin in a less than flattering light, I loved all of these references,

I listened to the full Streets discography whilst reading this and I still see that the quality of the first two albums simply doesn't transpire to the other records, but I enjoyed the matter of fact way with which Mike reflects on these shortcomings.


Highly recommended for people born betweenwho have fond recollections of quoting "if I want to sit around and drink super tenants in the day I will, no ones going to f'ing tell me jack.
. ! A excellent account into one of my favourite musicians of all time, although Id of liked to of heard more about the music and its writing process still a good read WINNER OF THE NME BEST BOOK AWARD

'This book is going to try and get as close as possible to the full story of what informed the noise of The Streets.
Obviously that's something I should be fairly wellqualified to know about, and I'm going to be as honest as the publisher's lawyers will allow.
'


With therelease of The Streets' debut single 'Has It Come To This' the landscape of British popular music changed forever.
No longer did homegrown rappers have to anxiously defer to transatlantic influences, Mike Skinner's witty, selfdeprecating sagas of latenight kebab shops and skunkfuelled Playstation sessions showed how much you could achieve simply by speaking in your own voice.


In this thoroughly modern memoir, the man the Guardian once dubbed 'half Dostoevsky, . . half Samuel Pepys' tells a freewheeling, funny and fearlessly honest tale of Birmingham and London, ecstasy and epilepsy, Twitterfear and Spectrum joysticks, spreadbetting and growing up.
He writes of his musical inspirations, role models and rivals, the craft of songwriting and reflects on the successes and failures of the decadelong journey of The Streets.
Mike Skinner's moving memoir covers everything from the history of garage to the creative process, menswear, mental health, and even manages to spill the tea on artists from both sides of the Atlantic.
He is a compelling storyteller with a clear and concise voice, and breathes life into the mundane,.Whether you've liked what he's done or not, Mike Skinner's musical voyage has been as idiosyncratic as pop music has seen, Insightful, selfeffacing, and always honest or at least seemingly so, Skinner's recounting of his decade as The Streets is a good as music books, autobiography, or nonfiction gets.
It was exciting to read in detail Skinner's passion for multiple artforms that had clear influences within The Streets' discography, As a writer, he comes across as extremely confident both lyrically and as an author, However, he's frequent tangents when writing about particular anecdotes or knowledge can be frustrating to read as you want him to just get back to his original point so often.
The confidence in his writing can often appear as very patronising in some cases making him fairly unlikeable in a lot of ways, Amazing A searingly honest and gritty story of The Streets,

As a passing fan of Mike Skinner, I loved this book for how well its written and how honest his voice is rather than a love for the music itself which, the the way, I now have a newfound love for.


One of the best musical autobiographies Ive ever read, From the moment I picked this book up it became myautobiography,

Mike Skinner translates his deftness in music to prose effortlessly, bringing colour and joy, as well as thoughtfulness and sober reflection to the reader.
Every page contains a nugget of relatable insight, making the Story meaningful to each person who reads it, This is a logical progression from Mike's raw, authentic sound and everyman hiphop,

If you're a fan of the Streets, the D, O. T. or any of the other work of Mike Skinner, you'll enjoy this book, His presence is felt throughout and it is a thoroughly enjoyable read, Good, but probably would be better if I was familiar with the albums past A Grand Don't Come For Free, Still, pretty good. Skinner is a good story teller and I enjoyed his take on the creative process, and his attachment to certain ideas of American rap and UK dance music.
Not just Skinner's life story but an interesting look at how the music industry has changed since The Streets first album came out, . . gulp, TWENTY YEARS AGO The continual stand first quotes every second or third page are so incredibly annoying and distracting, Ive never read a book that did this, like some glossy magazine, and it totally doesnt work,

The writing is pedestrian and somehow not really at all revealing, I dont think I learned a single thing about any of the five Streets albums new one due next month and not an immense amount about Mike Skinner really, except he seems a bit of a Tory prat to be honest.


Not a bad book at all, and it would take a lot to shake my massive respect for A Grand Dont Come For Free, which is a masterpiece.


This book though Nah, I just finished reading Mike Skinner'syear autobiography The Story of The Streets which won the NME best book award in, It's the first autobiography that i've read in about five years and I found it engaging, funny, honest and highly inspirational, I usually go for literary fiction, classics and nonfiction but I'm definitely going to be picking up more autobiographies from now on in hope that they will have a similar effect on me as this book did.


On the inside cover a quote from Skinner himself reads, 'This book is going to try and get as close as possible to the full story of what informed the noise of The Streets.
Obviously that's something I should be fairly wellqualified to know about, and I'm going to be as honest as the publisher's lawyers will allow.
'

This modern day account from the man that the Guardian once dubbed "half Dostoevsky, . . half Samuel Pepys" gives a hilarious, witty and illuminating saga of how one talented and obsessive young man from Birmingham rose to fame and subsequently dealt with that across a ten year period.
Skinner spins his tale about living in Bermingham and London, fleeing to Australia when he wasin pursuit of a secretary whom he had a fling with but ended up on a binge for a year and found himself in the process.
Going on to make his first hit single "Has it come to this" which has always been a personal favorite, . . on a laptop. He covers a lot of ground in this book and provides us with some good proverbs and life lessons too, He speaks freely about the hardships of growing up in gritty Birmingham, getting mugged on buses and beaten to a pulp in public parks, making rap beats for Jamaican guys from his neighbourhood, the Peak and fall of the UK Garage scene and the clubs that inspired Original Pirate Material.
He delves deep into the world of music production and goes into great detail about a variety of techniques, but does so in a fashion that would engage even the most unmusical of people.
He recalls the emergence of Grime, making his first album in a cupboard and the impending fear of the millenium bug, Among many things this book provides an excellent, informed account of how the music industry operates from the inside looking out, He speaks about his great admiration of artists like Burial and Daft Punk, his Idols WuTang Clan and Nas and his strong distaste for Aphex Twin.


There are also two photograph sections with never before seen imagery included in the book, The first focuses Skinner as a child with his family and the very beginning of him musical career, with him decked out respectively in Fred Perry and Sovereigns.
The second section is more career highlights, gigs infront of thousands of people with captions like "I have no memory of where or when this is, but it looks dangerous and I don't condone it.
That polo shirt got a massive stain on it which is not in this photo, so it's a bit like looking at a picture of someone who died.
" and "This is what rock n' roll is all about" beside an ariel photograph a massive crop circle shaped like his face in a field next to glastonbury.
And finally a few wedding and family photos, showing what a sensible chap he's grown to become today,

Skinner is quite an emotional person and the book definitely highlights that, He opens up and shares with us his personal accounts of dealing with epilepsy, which manifested when he was a child and progressed to become quite bad in his midteems with occasional relapses in later years.
ie The first time he took an intercontinental flight to Australia while travelling alone, He woke up in first class with a pounding headache and had to be wheelchaired off the plane, Not a great start to a new life! He gives a poignant insight into coping with the loss of his Father, and in more recent years developing ME Chronic Fatigue System from over working himself.
From Drugs to tours, sneaker collections and a sponsorship with Reebok, robbing ice statues from Warner Brothers, bailing on awards shows and plain and simple smashing things for no reason other than finding it funny.
In this book Skinner makes no excuses about succumbing to the cliches of fame and rockstar lifestyle and what it was like being subjected to it on both sides of the Atlantic.


It's told mostly in chronological order with the book is split into five sections, one for each of his five albums and what that particular period in his life was actually like whilst making that album.
I found this format very engaging as a reader, His musical journey over ten years with The Streets was a long meandering one, The Story of The Streets is a highly inspirational page turner, he gets quite philosophical and does tend to ramble at parts but I'd recommend it to anyone looking for a bit of motivation or even just a lightread and a laugh.
On a side note I had no idea that he wrote and produced most of the soundtrack for The Inbetweeners movie, . .

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