The Rise and Fall of the Miraculous Vespas
4/5
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About this ebook
***Now adapted for the stage by Scotland's Borderline Theatre Co. and the Ayr Gaiety theatre***
'This band would definitely bring on Stockholm Syndrome' Boy George
'An astonishing tour de force' John Niven
'A great white-knuckle read set in the world of hope, dreams and DIY pop' Stuart Cosgrove
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The Rise and Fall of the Miraculous Vespas is the timeless story of the quest for pop immortality. When a young Ayrshire band miraculously hits the big time with the smash hit record of 1984, international stardom beckons. That's despite having a delusional teenage manager propelled by a dark, malign voice in his head...
Can Max Mojo's band of talented social misfits repeat the success and pay back the mounting debts accrued from an increasingly agitated cartel of local gangsters? Or will they have to kidnap Boy George and hope for the best?
Featuring much-loved characters from the international bestseller, The Last Days of Disco, this is an absurdly funny, riotously ambitious and deeply human story of small-town rivalries, music, confused adolescence and, above all, hope, from one of Scotland's finest new voices.
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Praise for David F. Ross
'This is a book that might just make you cry like nobody's watching' Iain MacLeod, Sunday Mail
'Warm, funny and evocative' Chris Brookmyre
'Crucially Ross's novel succeeds in balancing light and dark, in that it can leap smoothly from brutal social realism to laugh-out-loud humour within a few sentences' Press & Journal
'More than just a nostalgic recreation of the author's youth, it's a compassionate, affecting story of a family in crisis at a time of upheaval and transformation, when disco wasn't the only thing whose days were numbered' Herald Scotland
'Ross creates beautifully rounded characters full of humanity and perhaps most of all, hope. It will make you laugh. It will make you cry. It s rude, keenly observed and candidly down to earth' Liam Rudden, Scotsman
'There's a bittersweet poignancy to David F. Ross's debut novel, The Last Days of Disco' Edinburgh Evening News
'Full of comedy, pathos and great tunes' Hardeep Singh Kohli
'Dark, hilarious and heartbreaking' Muriel Gray
'If I saw that in a store I would buy it without even looking at what was inside' Irvine Welsh
'Like the vinyl that crackles off every page ... as warm and authentic as Roddy Doyle at his very best' Nick Quantrill
'A solid-gold hit of a book! The closest you'll ever get to being on Top of the Pops' Colin McCredie
David F. Ross
David F. Ross was born in Glasgow in 1964 and has lived in Kilmarnock for over 30 years. He is a graduate of the Mackintosh School of Architecture at Glasgow School of Art, an architect by day, and a hilarious social media commentator, author and enabler by night. His debut novel The Last Days of Disco was shortlisted for the Authors Club Best First Novel Award, and received exceptional critical acclaim, as did the other two books in the Disco Days Trilogy: The Rise & Fall of the Miraculous Vespas and The Man Who Loved Islands. David lives in Ayrshire.
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The Last Days of Disco Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Rise and Fall of the Miraculous Vespas Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Man Who Loved Islands Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
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Reviews for The Rise and Fall of the Miraculous Vespas
3 ratings1 review
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Rise and Fall of the Miraculous Vespers – A Funny trip round KilmarnockDavid F. Ross returns with The Rise and Fall of the Miraculous Vespers, after the success of his debut The Last Days of Disco, this book is set around the same time, with some characters making the cross over. Once again this is written as a laugh out loud bounce along to 80s tunes that you cannot get out of your head after putting the book down.This time the lesser characters come to the fore as they try to set up a band that will take the world by storm, even if their ‘manager’ Max Mojo is rather nuts. We see the story through the eyes of a narrator looking back to 1983 and with lots of history of that time used as the back drop to the story. The criminal characters are somewhere in the background and along with the band produce quite a few laughs.Like his previous book you will have to read this with a west Scottish accent which really does add to the joy of the book. I also loved the inclusion of Boy George as well as the sounds of those years, but this book shows how hard was to break in to the music business before reality TV and social media.This is a great second part of the trilogy and David F Ross we have an author who is doing for West Scotland what Irving Welsh did for Edinburgh. The book is packed with humour and music and you cannot help but laugh at and with the characters in this book. Yet another winner I cannot recommend this book highly enough. Ross beating Welsh at his own game!