Animal House

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It's an inspiring read of a working-class boy who did really well and lived by the motto that anything was possible. After leaving school with no qualifications it's clear that despite all the fun and the carefree attitude that he attempts to portray throughout the book that he grafted very hard for his success. I think James is a good example of the old adage 'make your hobby your job and never work a day in your life'. You may also opt to downgrade to Standard Digital, a robust journalistic offering that fulfils many user’s needs. Compare Standard and Premium Digital here. You must have received tons of demos from hopeful bands whilst at the NME . What made the best ones stand out? Being told that when you know you’ve got no control over yourself was a real wake-up moment,” he says. It helped that Condé Nast were waving heaps of money at Brown for him to edit the upmarket fashion magazine GQ, believing it had got stuffy and needed an injection of fun. Still, leaving Loaded was like splitting up with someone, and he didn’t open a copy for a while. There was not much fun in media before we came along. Older editors said we did things they wish they could have done, but anyone could have done it Brown notes that he was younger than pretty much all of his staff, and that his mum had died only months before the opportunity to do Loaded arose. “So there was no structure or sense of recuperation. And then – boom! – I create this thing that explodes, and all of the things about me that annoyed people – my ego and my voice and opinions – got fuelled.” I always thought it was like bands when the key member leaves. The songwriter or lead singer. It was my magazine … which everybody else made great

The sense of peace is a far cry from the mania of the 90s, when Brown was the enfant terrible of UK publishing and founding editor of Loaded, the lads’ mag so notorious that Brown became a celebrity in his own right – a mouthy media presence with a trademark head of curls, fond of bigging himself and his magazine up, and with a reputation for partying hard. Nobody knew I was having serious emotional pressures ... The Loaded staff might be surprised, because my mood swings then were like a sail in a squall Rewind to the summer of 2008. I’m sat on the top floor of an office suite on Tottenham Court Road with James Brown, where I am employed as a script writer for the film director Guy Ritchie. The walls are lined with DVDs and story boards. There is a fridge in the corner rammed full of vintage champagne and expensive gourmet chocolates. A photo of Madonna rests on one of the desks. Above our heads is a rooftop garden that commands panoramic views of London. On the floor below there is a freshly delivered rail of complimentary polo shirts from Fred Perry. My job is to lounge about here all day coming up with ideas for Hollywood movies. Occasionally, I slip outside to the fleshpots of Soho to attend a premiere or appear as guest on daytime television. It is a world away from Newland Avenue, and without doubt the best, most head-spinning job I have ever had. James has popped in to see me on his way to another appointment. He asks me how it’s all going and casts a bemused eye around the surroundings. Now, I'm not sure if it was the experience as mentioned above or the fact that the book just became a tirade of name dropping and self appreciation but it started to become very dislikeable, to the point where I barely finished it.This strikes me as a somewhat odd statement given that 1) James has had several jobs like this, and 2) it was James that got me this job in the first place. Almost inevitably, he landed a job at the now-deceased music magazine Sounds as a regular writer. Pretty soon, at the age of 22, he was the Features Editor at the legendary NME, which is where I first encountered his work. James’ prose was a kind of turbofuelled psychedelic rant of infectious enthusiasm, like if Hunter S Thompson had been raised in Leeds on a diet of jam sandwiches and amphetamine. As a young devotee of the music press, I hoovered up his every word. I liked it his stuff because it was always enthusiastic, hardly ever snide or self-consciously clever. Any band that James Brown championed was worthy of investigation. From dancing down the front at Redskins gigs to brushing shoulders with royalty - has success changed your political outlook at all?

Fast forward to 2022. I’m sat watching the Pet Shop Boys in Hull Bonus Arena with James. He tells me he’s finished his book, the one about the bloke who started Loaded, who went on tour with U2 and was in a ballet with The Fall, who played football with The Cult, drank liquid acid with the Beastie Boys, and discussed the debatable merits of hot or cold lamb over lunch with Michael Caine.Change the plan you will roll onto at any time during your trial by visiting the “Settings & Account” section. What happens at the end of my trial? A combination of a great photograph, strong cover lines and good colours. If you get all three you are perfectly set.” It depends what time of the day and what drugs. And I guess it depends on the individual taking them. In my experience it’s extremely hard to write on drugs but you can get a good flow going if you’ve had a couple of drinks.” Whilst his time at the NME saw him taking substances with the likes of The Happy Mondays, becoming their youngest features editor at the age of 22, Loaded magazine which is probably seen by many as a top shelf kinda publication, when first published was a lavish new magazine that featured great concise articles on the likes of Paul Weller, some of the best fashion for lads and ladettes, whilst interviewees included Miranda Sawyer and Mary Anne Hobbs, it was a decent magazine that was probably tarnished when Brown ultimately left in 1997 to pursue being an editor of high bro magazine GQ.

Loaded was originally conceived as a magazine that combined music and football. Brown had been interviewed for the NME editor’s job, but ended up being offered the chance to make his own magazine instead. Under the mentorship of IPC’s Alan Lewis, he brought together a small team to create a rough sketch of the mag. It tested appallingly in focus groups, but legend has it that Lewis altered the figures, and so the project was greenlighted. Social media, YouTube and podcasts. Far more interaction across a broader media landscape. Print isn’t dead, but it isn’t the big beast it once was.” I interviewed the playwright Steven Berkoff for Sounds when I was about 19. He decided he didn’t want to do it after my first question, but didn’t have the manners or know-how to end it politely. I genuinely can’t remember I saw anything about him anywhere.” It was at this period where he was offered professional help regarding this addictions, something that was a turning point to cleaner living and most probably saved his life. Having had my own episodes of addictions and early 20’s partying, the book firmly spoke to me, which will do the same to others who might’ve trodden a similar journey or even those that are starting out to be a warn of what to do and maybe what not to do. An often candid and eye opening account, Animal House certainly delivers the wow factor. I was really mercurial,” Brown says. “One minute I would be happy and planning something fun, and the next I’d be chewing somebody out. Quite often that was because something else had happened in my life in between and, instead of being able to understand how to process that, I would take it out on the next person.”

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At first this book seemed like it was right up my street, especially given that I had actually completed some work experience as a late teenager at Loaded magazine.