Take Ten Thousand Apologies (Fat White Family and the Miracle of Failure) with a pinch of salt or, more appropriately, a line of something stronger, and revel in its well written mythologies. Questions about truth or otherwise are totally beside the point, as the very first sentence suggests, “This is a fictional biography and an alternative version of historic events”. How do you even figure out the truth when the Fat White’s head honcho, Lias Saoudi, a bloke with a dad from Algeria, a mum from Huddersfield, who’s lived in Scotland, Ireland and ‘that London’, and has taken more drugs than most people have had hot dinners? The truth? It’s as truthful as any other rock biog or music book. Just forget the audit and take Ten Thousand Apologies as a ride, a beautiful, insane ride, immaculately organised and written by Adelle Stripe and Lias Saoudi, which tells the story of both the Fat White and Saoudi Families. And what a story it is, a story that had me in a stranglehold from page one, and don’t tell anyone, I don’t even particularly like the Fat Whites (“…a drug band with a rock problem….”). With never a dull word, sentence or paragraph, I loved every tender, tendentious, fun, filthy and raucous page of it. From Algeria to London and everywhere in between, Ten Thousand Apologies makes most books about the artist as a young man, the music biz and being in a band just a little bit pallid. Music book of the year? Already? Don’t bet against it.

Ten Thousand Apologies (Fat White Family and the Miracle of Failure) – Adelle Stripe and Lias Saoudi – publ. White Rabbit - £20.00

Steven Long