Mike Skinner - The Story of the Streets

Title: The Story of the Streets

Author: Mike Skinner

Type: Non-Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 368

Rating: 10/10

Mike Skinner – The Story of the Streets

Well now, this was never going to get anything less than a ten, was it? Skinner is a bit of a character, you see – it seems like you either love him or you hate him, and if you’re reading this review then the odds are that you love him enough to be considering reading his book. Stop reading this review, and start reading The Story of the Streets instead.

It’s presented as ‘written with Ben Thompson‘, but you can tell that Skinner himself has done his fair share of the work – certainly more so than most ‘celebrity authors‘, and he’s left his personality stamped throughout the book like graffiti. It’s almost like another Streets record, and I’ll admit that when I finished reading the book, I was left with that same ‘end of an era‘ feeling I got at the end of Computers and Blues, or when I went to see them on their final tour.

The thing that a lot of casual music listeners don’t understand is that Mike Skinner is both intelligent and witty, which make for a deadly combination. You have to be pretty damn good to be able to turn your day-to-day existence in to a string of successful records, and he proves it beyond question here – everything that The Streets ever did, he did for a reason. Now you’ll be able to find out what those reasons were.

Mike Skinner

The actual structure of the book is pretty special, too – I’m not going to explain it, but it’s something for you to look out for, as well as the colour photographs that offer glimpses in to the life of the geezer, even if they don’t always necessarily show things that Mike refers to in his manuscript. I don’t think that’s why they’re there, though – they do a great job of putting the rest of the book in to perspective.

Overall, I absolutely loved this book, and I reckon you ought to read it whether you’re a fan of The Streets or not. So go out and buy yourself a copy.