Cider with Roadies is the story of a boy's obsessive relationship with pop. A life lived through music from Stuart's audience with the Beatles (aged 3); his confessions as a pubescent prog rocker; a youthful gymnastic dalliance with northern soul; the radical effects of punk on his politics, homework and trouser dimensions; playing in crap bands and failing to impress girls; writing for the NME by accident; living the sex, drugs (chiefly lager in a plastic glass) and rock and roll lifestyle; discovering the tawdry truth behind the glamour and knowing when to ditch it all for what really matters.

From Stuart's four minutes in a leisure centre with MC Hammer to four days in a small van with Napalm Death it's a life-affirming journey through the land where ordinary life and pop come together to make music.

"The English Bill Bryson" - Tony Wilson

"The perfect pop fan's life ... effortlessly articulate" - Times

"Stuart Maconie is the best thing to come out of Wigan since the A58 to Bolton" - Peter Kay

"An heir to Alan Bennett ... stirring and rather wonderful" - Antony Quinn, Sunday Times

"A working class boy who now, on air, challenges Stephen Fry's spry wit, Maconie celebrates his younger self modestly and fluently, pausing only for regular rib-ticklers" - Mojo