Rock Stars Stole my Life!

Full of engaging asides and deft, sometimes unsparing pen-portraits, this autobiographical souffle ends with three passages of unexpectedly disturbing power, in which Ellen glimpses the fate of a form of entertainment that has lost the sense of purpose and proportion it possessed during the years when his own tastes were being formed…It is a tribute to Ellen’s resilience that not even this sensory assault can erode the powers of humour and observation that make his book so enjoyable. - The Guardian

Award-winning writer and broadcaster Mark Ellen was born at the wrong time. Five years older and he would have seen The Beatles and The Byrds; five years younger and he’d have been plunged into punk rock. He spent his teenage years sitting at the feet of bands like Hookfoot, Wishbone Ash and Brewers Droop – the half-baked rear guard of underground rock – and he knew no better than to admire them.

Mark went on to write for Record Mirror and New Musical Express, and edited Smash Hits, Q and Select, and helped to launch MOJO. He stood in for John Peel on Radio One and then joined the Old Grey Whistle Test, becoming one of the TV presenters of Live Aid in 1985.

For ten years from 2002, he edited the much-missed music publication, The Word.

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