Join Amazon Prime and get unlimited Free One-Day Delivery. Already a member? Sign in.

 

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
   
More Buying Choices
18 used & new from £7.25
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
Gig: The Life and Times of a Rock-star Fantasist
 
 
Share your own customer images
Publisher: learn how customers can search inside this book.

Gig: The Life and Times of a Rock-star Fantasist [Illustrated] (Hardcover)

by Simon Armitage (Author)
4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
RRP: £16.99
Price: £11.04 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
You Save: £5.95 (35%)
In stock.
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk. Gift-wrap available.

Want guaranteed delivery by Tuesday, July 7? Choose Express delivery at checkout. See Details
10 new from £10.00 6 used from £7.25 2 collectible from £21.99

Frequently Bought Together

Customers buy this book with Selected Poems by Simon Armitage

Gig: The Life and Times of a Rock-star Fantasist + Selected Poems
Price For Both: £17.23

Show availability and shipping details

  • This item: Gig: The Life and Times of a Rock-star Fantasist by Simon Armitage

    In stock.
    Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk.
    This item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions

  • Selected Poems by Simon Armitage

    In stock.
    Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk.
    This item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Selected Poems

Selected Poems

by Simon Armitage
5.0 out of 5 stars (2)  £6.19
The Seldom Seen Kid

The Seldom Seen Kid

~ Elbow
4.4 out of 5 stars (169)  £4.98
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

by Simon Armitage
5.0 out of 5 stars (7)  £6.99
Renegade: The Lives and Tales of Mark E. Smith

Renegade: The Lives and Tales of Mark E. Smith

by Mark E. Smith
3.4 out of 5 stars (16)  £6.29
Fleet Foxes

Fleet Foxes

~ Fleet Foxes
3.9 out of 5 stars (140)  £4.98
› Explore similar items

Product details

  • Hardcover: 320 pages
  • Publisher: Viking; illustrated edition edition (3 April 2008)
  • ISBN-10: 0670915807
  • ISBN-13: 978-0670915804
  • Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 15.6 x 3.4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 97,481 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Customers Viewing This Page May Be Interested in These Sponsored Links

  (What is this?)
The Fantasist
   www.lovefilm.com    Rent DVDs from £3.91 a month, free trial, no late fees, free postage! 
  
 

Product Description

Review
'I suspect that promoters of literary events ... nurse a secret desire to be organizing Glastonbury rather than the Ledbury Poetry Festival, or chopping out cocaine on a mirror rather than filling a Tupperware bowl with mini-cheddars, or introducing David Bowie at Wembley Arena rather than Simon Armitage in Marsden Church Hall. Because invariably ... they refer to the contemporay poetry reading as a 'gig'.'

Metro
"Dry, deadpan and pant-wettingly funny...Armitage is not capable of writing anything that is not wry, warm, witty and layered with meaning"

See all Product Description

Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
Check the boxes next to the tags you consider relevant or enter your own tags in the field below
(2)
(2)
(1)
See all 6 tags...

Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

Gig: The Life and Times of a Rock-star Fantasist
59% buy the item featured on this page:
Gig: The Life and Times of a Rock-star Fantasist 4.2 out of 5 stars (6)
£11.04
Gig: The Life and Times of a Rock-star Fantasist
19% buy
Gig: The Life and Times of a Rock-star Fantasist 5.0 out of 5 stars (1)
£5.99
Selected Poems
9% buy
Selected Poems 5.0 out of 5 stars (2)
£6.19
All Points North
7% buy
All Points North 4.5 out of 5 stars (11)
£5.50
Explore similar items
 

Customer Reviews

6 Reviews
5 star:
 (3)
4 star:
 (1)
3 star:
 (2)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.2 out of 5 stars (6 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars A Lot of Laughs ..., 4 May 2008
I am not a rock-star fantasist myself, knowing very little about the bands that Simon Armitage writes about in Gig. I normally read PC magazines and technical books as a way of relaxing. I bought this book for my daughter and decided to read it before giving it to her. I was captivated by it from the first laugh to the last, throughout the book. I like the way Simon opens the door on his early life and his family life in the north of England. I cannot admit to being a dedicated reader of Simon Armitage's poetry but I have very much enjoyed and been moved by hearing him read his work live on the few occasions I have had the chance. Being treated to many laughs, sometimes at Simon's expense, throughout Gig is well worth the four stars in my opinion especially as I get the chance of passing that pleasure on to someone else. I feel I know Simon a little better and I am more able to appreciate his work.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Second volume of witty, superbly written memoirs, 18 Feb 2009
By A. McAuley (Sheffield, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Simon Armitage occupies a fairly unique cultural position. On one hand he is one of the nation's best-known poets; tipped for the Poet Laureate and known to students across the land from their GCSE anthologies (it speaks highly of his work that he is known and liked by said GCSE students, according to some very rough polling by your reviewer). Simultaneously he is something of a counter-cultural icon; many will have first come across his work in the halcyon days of Mark and Lard's Radio 1 show in the early 1990s and he has a passion for post-punk groups such as the Fall and Young Marble Giants.

Gig is Armitage's second collection of memoirs, alongside 1998's equally excellent All Points North, and as with the previous volume this is a varied collection of recollections, poems, anecdotes and gig reviews. These, in part at least, have a common theme in exploring Armitage's forty-something reflections on his career as a poet and frustrated rock-star, including the formation of the band The Scaremongers (I know, but it's better than Fantastic Gammon; Armitage's father wryly suggests Midlife Crisis), through which he lives out some of his adolescent dreams of rock stardom.

The book is infused with his usual self-deprecating humour, as well as Armitage's genuine passion for rock music, poetry and that corner of West Yorkshire that "begins where the goalpost of the M1 meets the crossbar of the M62". At times, it's also a moving account; Armitage reflects thoughtfully on the condition of the forty-something male, and on the events and individuals who have influenced him in a touching, sensitive way. As a (nearly) forty-something frustrated rock-star myself, I enjoyed every page of this; and if you are contemplating a mid-life crisis, buy this before you spend thousands of pounds on a powerful sports car you don't need!
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Tyre Rolling Down A Hill, 17 Jan 2009
By K. Hannay "kh014u5746" (yorkshire, England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This is not a bad read at all and often funny although I get the feeling that I have read a lot of it before. This might just be beacause I tend to keep an eye out for stuff of his in the papers as I generally like his articles and, definitely, his poems. The tyre rolling down the hill is the one that keeps coming back to haunt me, wasn't it in All Points North as well as in the poem about the tyre rolling down the hill? Also, as an old cynic, I find the nicknames for his wife and daughter a bit, not soppy, not sentimental but just a little 'precious'. Otherwise, I enjoyed it.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Less Is More
Strangely enough Simon Armitage and his band The Scaremongers, described within, have made one of the best 'records' of recent times 'Less Is More'. Read more
Published 8 months ago by jackiewilsonsaid

5.0 out of 5 stars Low-key genius...
I bought this book on the strength of a great fondness for Simon's work and the desire to hear the shared experience of someone, like me, who is a frustrated musician. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Neil

3.0 out of 5 stars Patchy but the odd flash of comedy
Gig - The Life and Times of a Rock-star Fantasist


Simon Armitage

My interest in poetry is fairly low level, but I had heard of Simon Armitage,... Read more
Published 10 months ago by Peter Wade

Only search this product's reviews


Customer Discussions

 Beta (What's this?)
This product's forum (0 discussions)
  Discussion Replies Latest Post
  No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
  [Cancel]


Active discussions in related forums
   
Related forums

Listmania!

Create a Listmania! list

Look for similar items by category

Look for similar items by subject







i.e., each product must be in subject 1 AND subject 2 AND ...

Feedback

Fun for Everyone

Christmas Gifts
Achieve over 15,000 RPM with our great range of Powerballs.

›Shop the Powerball store

  

More From Simon Armitage

Homer's Odyssey

Homer's Odyssey by Simon Armitage

Originally commissioned for BBC Radio, this work recasts Homer's epic... Read more
£12.99 £8.44

 

We've Got Converse

Converse
Stock up on your favourite styles with great deals on Converse shoes.

›Shop Converse

  

Treat Someone

Amazon.co.uk Gift Certificates--available in any amount from £5 to £500 With an Amazon.co.uk Gift Certificate, you can get them what they want (even if you don't know what that is).

›Learn more about Gift Certificates

  
Ad

Where's My Stuff?

Delivery and Returns

Need Help?

Your Recent History

  (What's this?)
You have no recently viewed items or searches.

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.

Look to the right column to find helpful suggestions for your shopping session.
Continue Shopping: Top Sellers

amazon.co.uk Amazon Home
International Sites:  United States  |  Germany  |  France  |  Japan  |  Canada  |  China
Business Programs: Sell on Amazon  |  Fulfilment by Amazon  |  Join Associates  |  Join Advantage
Customer Service  |  Help  |  View Basket  |  Your Account
About Amazon.co.uk  |  Careers at Amazon
Conditions of Use & Sale |  Privacy Notice  © 1996-2009, Amazon.com, Inc. and its affiliates