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Kill Your Friends
 
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Kill Your Friends (Paperback)

by John Niven (Author)
3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (34 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Paperback: 336 pages
  • Publisher: William Heinemann Ltd (7 Feb 2008)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 043401799X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0434017997
  • Product Dimensions: 21.4 x 13.4 x 2.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 109,658 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Product Description

Niall Griffiths
`Kill Your Friends gladly hammers the final and needed nail into the coffin of self-serving and undignified spin that was "Cool Britannia". It exposes a world that seethes alongside us and in which we all collude but whose nasty little machinery is rarely glimpsed. The novel is furiously, filthily funny, and, I imagine, tragically true.'

James Brown
`Anyone working in or trying to get into the music industry should read this book. Niven grotesquely portrays the short term disposability of this world with a great eye for detail and a stockpile of hilarious insults. Throw in some murder and major brand obsession and you have an indie American Psycho.'

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Customer Reviews

34 Reviews
5 star:
 (16)
4 star:
 (10)
3 star:
 (1)
2 star:
 (3)
1 star:
 (4)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.9 out of 5 stars (34 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Exactly what it says on the tin!!!, 18 Feb 2008
By J. Mitchell (Largs, Ayrshire) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Heard about this on 'The Book Cafe' on Radio Scotland a couple of weeks ago and took the chance...An excellent read - two nights only! A book NOT for the faint-hearted. If you like biographical and hard-hitting and are not a prude then read this. You could say it is an 'expose' of the music business but to be frank it is written with such a great sense of irony that you can't help yourself getting into it. Passed it on to a pal of mine who is a bit particular when it comes to books but as he said, the first two chapters hooked him, and I'm pretty sure he will have finished it by now. I look forward to his review when I see him in a couple of days. Go on - make John Niven a bestselling author - even if I am biased and he originates from my neck of the woods.
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars "You can,t spell star without A & R ", 15 April 2009
By russell clarke "stipesdoppleganger" (halifax, west yorks) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)      
This review is from: Kill Your Friends (Paperback)
I'd say that on any given day roughly about 25% of the thoughts that run through my head are about a tenth as un P.C. or as gratuitously offensive as what goes through the mind of the lead character in Kill Your Friends" .But then my thoughts wouldn't make for a very good book.
David Stelfox ( mis-spelt "Stalefox" ,"Stellfax", "Stellarfix" amongst others) works in the A&R department for a major record company and is an A grade reprobate , seething with neurosis, insecurities and mind bogglingly odious opinions. He is racist, foul-mouthed , dishonest , ignorant , bigoted and sexist. He has a voracious drink and drug habit( fuelled mainly by expenses) a voracious sexual appetite( fuelled mainly by pornography and prostitutes) and for someone in the music business knows absolutely zilch about music. He is probably entirely representative of most of the chancers who work in the music business. For all his myriad faults I found myself quite warming to him in many ways. He is laceratingly honest and he is funny . Could do without the homicidal tendencies though......and his love of Oasis come to that.
Though the book mainly highlights how ridiculous ,arbitrary and shallow the music business is it also occasionally hones in with laser like precision at a social and cultural point ( the book starts in 1997) so there are pertinent points about Tony Blair and the death of Princess Diana .A bit more of this and less of the relentless partying and sleazy cavorting would have been welcome , but then the book is a reflection of it's main character who is a unyielding partaker of exotic substances so I suppose it's to be expected. The correlations about the character of Stelfox and Patrick Bateman from American Psycho are there but where Bateman is clearly deranged Stelfox is just a ruthlessly ambitious amoral chancer. Kill Your Friends lacks the satirical elements of Brett Easton Ellis's novel though in it's own way it is just as disgusting .
So be warned , if you are easily offended steer well clear of this book. In fact do not come within fifty yards unless armed with holy water and a copy of "Heat" to remind you how wonderful and talented all those celebrities truly are. I found the book hugely entertaining and at times laugh out loud funny. The plots thin but then it's not meant to be Inspector Morse or Agatha Christie.
Having worked in the business I suspect John Niven really does view it the same way as his character .Having done some very low level booking and promoting of gigs in the late eighties/early nineties I can certainly see where he is coming from as well. As the quote from Hunter S Thompson at the beginning of the book says "The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free and good men die like dogs . There is also a negative side". That's a joke I,m sure ...the last bit .As the book also says "We should take off and nuke the site from orbit" ( with reference to a nightclub in the book -nicked from Aliens [1986] [DVD] that line I think) Sounds a good idea where most record companies are concerned. Ohh and I rather liked Black Star Liner .



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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Cried with laughter, 11 Oct 2008
By Craven Morehead (london United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
Having worked in A & R in the relevant period, I was looking forward to this book. I didn't know the author, but certainly recognize many of the real-life people that the characters in the book are supposedly based. Niven has added about 15% of excess and a couple of homicides...that is all!

One of the real pleasures of the book is how well written and plotted it is. The prose flies off the page, the pace is superb, and the twists and turns plenty. However, it is the sheer hilarity of 'Kill Your Friends' that takes the trophy. I laughed out loud more than in any other book. One afternoon, when in a restaurant full of Chelsea type retirees, I read of our hero in a hotel room spotting a certain piece of sweetcorn across the room. I'm afraid I had to leave the restaurant in tears.

If you like it high octane, politically incorrect to the max, absolutely revolting, completely hilarious and have a vague idea about chang, beak, bugle, gak, krell, powder, chisel, nonsense, bounce, blow, toot, chang and posh, then this could be for you.

Laugh, I nearly died. Disgusting.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars Rubbish.
I HATED this book. Although the music industry subject matter was at times fascinating it was just so badly written and so absolutely full of unpleasantness that it detracted from... Read more
Published 6 days ago by DeejayGee

5.0 out of 5 stars HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
A wonderful novel quite literally packed full of sex, drugs and rock n roll! Very tough to put down and an incredible belly laugh from the first page to the last. Read more
Published 9 days ago by J. S. Fenton

5.0 out of 5 stars LOL Funny
I currently live in Prague and this book was recommended to me.
I looked at it and thought 'Nah'. It took a while to get going but it had me in fits of laughter at 3am! Read more
Published 1 month ago by x29ssr

2.0 out of 5 stars after its point has been made, this book gets boring
Right in its beginning "Kill your friends" explains the workings of the British popmusic-industry: a pretty random guessing which popact will get big in the near future... Read more
Published 1 month ago by W R Visser

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't even think about disagreeing with me.
Laugh out loud? Whilst reading this i've become the most irritating man on the planet. I won't hear a wrong word against this book, it is one of the funniest books ever written... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Mr. G. K. Davison

4.0 out of 5 stars American Psycho Junior
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery..

At first I was quite offended with how so many scenes were shamelessly lifted from my favourite fiction novel American... Read more
Published 2 months ago by J.P

5.0 out of 5 stars Comic Genius
What a hilarious book, reccommended to me by a friend.. Have passed it on - Amateurs is hilarious too, what an awesome writer! Read more
Published 2 months ago by Beckster

4.0 out of 5 stars Hilarious, trashy fun
It's been a long time since a book made me laugh this much. It is probably the most un-PC book I've ever read. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Happy girl

5.0 out of 5 stars Nearly but not quite...
as good as my book - Sin Cities: Adventures of a Sex Reporter. Hats off though for a fine effort.
Published 3 months ago by Ashley Hames

4.0 out of 5 stars Sordid, Sick and Satisfyingly Good Read
Approached this with cynicism - but it's a fast, brutal, 'angular' hyperbolic and howl with laughter romp. Loved it. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Dr Doolittle

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