That Close

By: Suggs

Narrated by: Suggs

Length: 7 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's summary

Suggs is one of pop music's most enduring and likeable figures. Read by the author himself 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 grow up in sixties Soho, go globetrotting with your best mates, to make a dead pigeon fly and cause an earthquake in Finsbury Park.

©2013 Graham McPherson (P)2013 WF Howes Ltd

Suggs Rules

HEY YOU! DON'T LISTEN TO THAT, LISTEN TO THIS! If you love Madness you will love the book. Nutty stories, great narration.

pure genius..written and read by a genius

the cool and calm melodical voice of suggs makes listening to this book an absolute pleasure.filled with fun laughter chaos and macness this book takes you back to times of youth and teenage bungling..thank you suggs your a gem

Hey you! Don't read that! Listen to this!

This lively memoir of Graham McPherson, a.k.a. Suggs of British pop legends Madness, is a must-listen for all fans of the band. It's brimming with picaresque anecdotes and against-all-odds success stories engagingly told in Suggs' own distinctive voice. He's a born storyteller, and indeed several of the tales in this book are quite familiar from his interviews and stage chatter over the years. Hearing him spin his yarns in his London accent, peppered with self-deprecating chuckles and groans, is far superior to reading his words in cold print.

Following the opening chapters on his childhood, Suggs gets down to business with the formation of Madness and their wild career as the U.K.'s top singles band of the 1980s. Here it gets a bit disconcerting as Suggs seems to skip past key events of Madness history, but then it turns out he's not going in strict chronological order. He hops back and forth in a stream of consciousness manner, which after all is more like it would be to hear him chatting about the old days over a pint at the pub, instead of proceeding in a strictly organized documentary fashion. Just be patient and eventually he'll hit all the old familiar bits of Madness mythology. He also recounts a number of lesser known experiences, such as a ramshackle bicycle tour of Italy, and a spiritual odyssey up a banyan tree in Jamaica, which is unexpectedly poetic and beautiful.

If you're not aware of or interested in Madness and its lead singer, this is not an audiobook for you. Go listen to One Step Beyond or The Liberty of Norton Folgate first, then come back here if the music catches your fancy. Any fan of Madness "Absolutely" needs to listen to this. I selected That Close with my first free introductory credit on Audible, and I imagine I will re-listen to this many, many times. Cheers to the great man Suggsy!

Surprising details

It ends rather abruptly and it's entertaining. What a voice. I want more books from Lord Suggs and read by him like this one is should he choose to share more with us.

Welcome to the house of fun

If you've seen Suggs' one man show "My Life Story" then you'll already have a lot of the information he imparts here, with a few exceptions. However, it's still well worth the price of admission because, whether you're a fan of Madness or not or even if you have no idea who they are, Suggs has a fun and humorous style to his narration and his experiences are related in an equally enjoyable manner. You don't have to like him, or know him, to gain a smile from this book.