The first page of this excellent debut novel shows a map of Birkenhead featuring the Tranmere Rovers football ground, the train line to Wrexham and an arrow pointing to Chester. Not exactly the definition of chic? Well in 1979, it wasn't far off. Awaydays is about "The Pack", a gang of Tranmere Rovers Hooligans who terrorise those northern towns unfortunate enough to have a third division football team. But Awaydays is also about the implications of Margaret Thatcher's first government, the music of Joy Division and the Only Ones, youth unemployment, the explosion of heroin use, the rise of the casual street movement and what young people do when the world gets tough. The protagonist is caught between two worlds. Called Carty by the lads in the Pack and Paul by his family, he has nine O- Levels and acknowledges a tendency to "lay the accent on a bit thick when I'm with the pack, but I modulate it for all sorts of situations. I can go very posh indeed". When his worlds inevitably collide Carty is forced to making a life-changing decision. Should he stay or should he go? Take an Awayday and find out.

Nasty Stuff, Brilliantly told., 02 Jul 2008
The review title is shamelessly lifted from the front cover of this superbly well observed piece, one sadly never replicated by Sampson in his latter works.
Birkenhead in 1979 was just as he describes, the post-punk lethargy and the beginnings of the Heroin influx which led to the Wirrals' Capital Town being re-named euphemistically "Smack City". The internicine wars between the WEBB (Woodchurch Estate Boot Boys") the Noctorum and Ford estate equivalents all set aside when Tranmere played away.
Sampson pulls off a rare trick in this,his first,novel, that of being able to evoke a real sense of the young Paul Cartys need to belong to "The pack" whilst simulaneously wanting to be his own man.Cartys journey is a metaphor for many young mens transition from boy to man only his route is a tad more extreme.
Sampson has also translated his Love for the period very well and the references to the Liverpool underground scene via probe Records and Erics take this reader almost literally back in time.
The Violence he describes is almost Gonzo, but I'll forgive him this because the context is correct, you see Sampson takes you to a point where these smartly dressed and stylish lads..well, you want them to win against their unfashionably dressed opponents with, well, style.

For fans of 80's youth culture this is a must have, for students of modern post industrial history this is a must have and for those who just love a fast moving gory youth piece, this is a must have.

Great Read, 01 Jul 2008
If you like good modern British writers the you can't go far wrong with a Kevin Sampson book. A very easy book to read (like his others) with everyday English language. If you like writers such as 'John King', 'Colin Bateman', 'Colin Butts' or 'Irvine Welsh', you'll like this.

A book for the Wirral, 24 Oct 2006
Yes there'a a million and one books writen by clumsy band-wagon jumpers glorifying 70s hooliganism they probably weren't involved in, but this is not one. Speaking from personal experience, the subtleties of Wirral boroughs and casual couture are absolutely spot on, betraying the author's encyclopaedic knowledge. With a fluent tone throughout, this is a short but fascinating book by a great young author.

locally brilliant, 04 Jan 2005
kevin sampson... well done

this was a great read for me because of all the local refrences which i could relate to. if you love football tranmere or even the wiral this is a good book for you

You'll never take the cowsheds!, 07 Oct 2003
Nostalgia played a huge part in my enjoyment of this book - I grew up less than half a mile from Tranmere's ground, and whilst the main character was 19 in 1979, I was 16.
They say everyone's first novel is at least partly autobiographical, which possibly puts the bold Mr. Sampson in the Cowsheds (Prenton Park's home end at the time)at the same time as me.
Memories aside, the story is highly enjoyable, and offers a cutting and accurate insight into late seventies, lower division football hooliganism.
Sampson has an excellent ear for colloquial speech, and is able to put it on paper fluently (skills later developed to the max in 'Outlaws' and 'Clubland'. I laughed out loud at Paul Carty's outburst after his quickie in Vale Park ('Arr, hey! State of me kecks!').
Unashamedly macho, great fun.

Nasty Stuff, Brilliantly told., 02 Jul 2008
The review title is shamelessly lifted from the front cover of this superbly well observed piece, one sadly never replicated by Sampson in his latter works.
Birkenhead in 1979 was just as he describes, the post-punk lethargy and the beginnings of the Heroin influx which led to the Wirrals' Capital Town being re-named euphemistically "Smack City". The internicine wars between the WEBB (Woodchurch Estate Boot Boys") the Noctorum and Ford estate equivalents all set aside when Tranmere played away.
Sampson pulls off a rare trick in this,his first,novel, that of being able to evoke a real sense of the young Paul Cartys need to belong to "The pack" whilst simulaneously wanting to be his own man.Cartys journey is a metaphor for many young mens transition from boy to man only his route is a tad more extreme.
Sampson has also translated his Love for the period very well and the references to the Liverpool underground scene via probe Records and Erics take this reader almost literally back in time.
The Violence he describes is almost Gonzo, but I'll forgive him this because the context is correct, you see Sampson takes you to a point where these smartly dressed and stylish lads..well, you want them to win against their unfashionably dressed opponents with, well, style.

For fans of 80's youth culture this is a must have, for students of modern post industrial history this is a must have and for those who just love a fast moving gory youth piece, this is a must have.

Great Read, 01 Jul 2008
If you like good modern British writers the you can't go far wrong with a Kevin Sampson book. A very easy book to read (like his others) with everyday English language. If you like writers such as 'John King', 'Colin Bateman', 'Colin Butts' or 'Irvine Welsh', you'll like this.

A book for the Wirral, 24 Oct 2006
Yes there'a a million and one books writen by clumsy band-wagon jumpers glorifying 70s hooliganism they probably weren't involved in, but this is not one. Speaking from personal experience, the subtleties of Wirral boroughs and casual couture are absolutely spot on, betraying the author's encyclopaedic knowledge. With a fluent tone throughout, this is a short but fascinating book by a great young author.

locally brilliant, 04 Jan 2005
kevin sampson... well done

this was a great read for me because of all the local refrences which i could relate to. if you love football tranmere or even the wiral this is a good book for you

You'll never take the cowsheds!, 07 Oct 2003
Nostalgia played a huge part in my enjoyment of this book - I grew up less than half a mile from Tranmere's ground, and whilst the main character was 19 in 1979, I was 16.
They say everyone's first novel is at least partly autobiographical, which possibly puts the bold Mr. Sampson in the Cowsheds (Prenton Park's home end at the time)at the same time as me.
Memories aside, the story is highly enjoyable, and offers a cutting and accurate insight into late seventies, lower division football hooliganism.
Sampson has an excellent ear for colloquial speech, and is able to put it on paper fluently (skills later developed to the max in 'Outlaws' and 'Clubland'. I laughed out loud at Paul Carty's outburst after his quickie in Vale Park ('Arr, hey! State of me kecks!').
Unashamedly macho, great fun.

Swept away, 12 Mar 2008
I love books that capture the sorts of emotions and events that whizz past you when you're young, because you're too busy experiencing them spend time writing them down.

Stars are Stars follows Danny May, a 15 year old from Toxteth who dreams of going to Liverpool Art School. He meets Nicole, a politically active middle class girl and the two of them embark on what they believe to be a bohemian love affair.

Falling in love when you're young, you think that no one's ever felt like this before, and that youthful arrogance is captured perfectly in Danny a d Nicole's conversations and affectations, which are carried out in dive bars and clubs in Liverpool and in the streets of Paris.

Their love story may be the main storyline, but politics and music feature heavily too. Bowie, Psychedelic Furs, The Bunnymen, Devo all feature and unusually for a book that mentions real bands and events (Ian Curtis' suicide) they crop up very naturally, that doesn't feel like Sampson is trying too hard to be cool.

Then comes the politics...from hope to despair in five years, here comes Mrs Thatcher smashing and grabbing, all whilst keeping her hair in that unworldly helmet. In 1980, Danny receives the devastating news that the Art School's funding has been withdrawn by the new Tory government, and stops painting, starts taking drugs and robbing from the people he loves.

Danny's descent allays with the massively violent Toxteth riots, which are described in vivid detail, just like his paintings which bookend this story.

This story swept me up; due to the colour and texture that Sampson gives his characters and the situations they are born into and fail to get out of.

My only criticism would be that whilst Nicole is out of the story, and Danny gets involved in photographing the riots, it still feels real, but the way they meet up again in Wales, did feel a little contrived, but it's something that can be overlooked as this is a stunning book, which is well written, exciting, thought provoking and crystallises a very strange and turbulent time in British history, that is made human with the story of Danny May.


An arresting portrayal of 'old' Liverpool, 16 Jan 2008
Inflated by an orgy of EU money, drugs proceeds and Premier League salaries, the days when Liverpool was a byword for urban and moral degradation now seem long part of our past. Stars are Stars is an ambitious depiction of life in the city in the late-1970s and early 1980s, when, to the outside world it appeared to be on its knees, crippled as it was by unemployment and the Toxteth Riots. Kevin Sampson captures some of this decline, but shows the counterpoint: while the rest of the World thought Liverpool was dying, it was actually undergoing a cultural and sporting renaissance. Although football takes a backseat, the book hums along to a soundtrack of Eric's nightclub, Echo and the Bunnymen and Teardrop Explodes; while Sampson captures the frenetic energy that reverberated from the streets.

Indeed the book fizzes with an energy which is in one sense is its driving force, in another is its main weakness. Sampson's prose does capture something of the fecklessness and energy of youth, but there are times when this becomes too much, when you want to switch off and for the author to take a more languid pace. Non-Scousers may struggle with his placing of local slang into his prose and it was something that I found particularly irritating -- and I am a son of the city. There's plenty of sex in Stars are Stars, told in gleeful, gratuitous, almost chauvinistic tones. In fact, Sampson could probably fill the Literary Review's infamous Bad Sex in Fiction Award several times over with Stars Are Stars.

While Sampson has a good ear for conversation, Nicole, the book's heroine doesn't half come across as an irritating `wool' (although, maybe that's his intention); while Danny May, its protagonist, can seem over-the-top, like some sort of dreadful Scouse stereotype. I found myself disliking both at various places in the book.

These, however, are generally minor gripes in what must be considered a triumph. Certainly I cannot think of a more evocative depiction of Liverpool in fiction; while Sampson's writing about the city in general is amongst the finest I have read in any form. Nowhere have I read finer passages on the Toxteth Riots, a misunderstood and oft-neglected part of modern British history.

At its heart is a love story, which is every bit as powerful as those told by more revered `literary types' like Ian McEwan and Sebastian Faulks. Indeed despite all my reservations it's a good read and highly recommended for anyone with even the vaguest interest or connection to Liverpool.

Teenage Kicks, 07 Apr 2007
I've read five of Sampson's novels, and this is his most heartfelt to date. Set in Liverpool from 1976-81, the story follows Danny, an energetic working-class boy with a talent for sketching and painting. We meet him as a youth hustling a pound here and there doing portraits in dockside bars and whorehouses, intent on saving up for the latest records, tasty clothes, and the Liverpool School of Art. Living in Toxteth with his hard working mother and harpy sisters, he eschews the football and thievery that most of his contemporaries are into. Instead, he's trying desperately to make himself into an Artist with a capital A, even though he's not really sure what that means.

One day Danny meets and falls instantly in love with Nicole, a middle-class girl from the countryside who's in town at university doing the radical left-wing student thing. She is likewise smitten, and the book is about their relationship, which swings from the highest of highs, to the lowest of lows, and on to a truly fitting ending (which is well foreshadowed in the opening chapter). Through the couple, Sampson captures the state of perpetual possibility and excitement that teenagers live in. Although at times Danny's description of his feelings and their relationship veer into overripe sentimentality and mushiness, it's exactly the right tone. The happy fire of one's first relationship -- before one's been burned or betrayed -- is precisely captured. However, as the story progresses, Danny spends more and more time dwelling on the bad parts of the relationship, and the reader can see the iceberg looming ahead.

At the same time, Sampson provides a rich backdrop to the intense love story. Liverpool was a central part of the post-punk scene, and with a title borrowed from the Echo and the Bunnymen song, one shouldn't be surprised to find music playing a large role. Danny and Nicole's first "date" involves seeing Wire play at legendary club Eric's, their first major argument revolves around going to the also legendary 1978 Rock Against Racism concert, and a somewhat less legendary Joy Division show in Paris becomes the catalyst for their breakup. Indeed, Joy Division looms rather large in the book, as they immediately become Danny's favorite band, and readers familiar with "Love Will Tear Us Apart" and Ian Curtis' suicide will doubtless read the ominous foreshadowing on the wall.

Hand in hand with the musical backdrop is the volatile political scene, as Nicole rails against the ascendancy of Margaret Thatcher to Danny's general disinterest. Sampson does a nice job of using Nicole to show the overearnestness of the left-wing and Danny to show the dangers of political apathy. For the political does indeed become personal for Danny, as the new government shuts down the art school, and the failing economy and rise of the right wing culminate in a night of rioting in his neighborhood. All of this combines to make the novel an ode to both to a specific time and place and the messy intensity of teenage love.

A Gritty Pop Culture Love Story , 02 Oct 2006
Sampson is definitely back in the groove with Stars are Stars.

What he does particularly well here is weave the sounds and political context of 70's inner-city Liverpool with the optimism (and subsequent crushing cynicism) of young love.

One of the sub-themes is the real story of Eric's - a Liverpool club which has had enduring influence on contemporary music in the UK and elsewhere - this is welcome given the comparative lack of coverage that Eric's has had when compared, for example, with Manchester's Hacienda.

Overall a very enjoyable book.





Sordide Sentimental - , 23 Aug 2006
Stars are Stars marks a return to form for Liverpool's Kevin Sampson, descriptions of him as a scouse Irvine Welsh are lazy and somewhat disingenuious.

Indeed we are 'Lucky' to be reading the completed book - In 2005 Sampson nearly became one of the Dead Souls when a freak DIY accident put him up against an full blast electrical current which should have been in Isolation.

Thankfully an Atrocity Exhibition was avoided but Sampson was seriously hurt and and as a New dawn fades we get his latest work. I don't know whether there was something in the transmission of the electricity but this book would be a candidate for his best work, were it not for the fact that "Powder" won my heart and Soul and These Days he would have to write something with real Insight for me to Pass Over it as the definitive Sampson article.

Writing may be a means to an end for the ex manager of The Farm but the novelty has not worn off. 'Stars' has everything, great musical references, strong characters and a great storyline. Young working class Danny - a gifted artist dreams of escaping to Art School, he has talent beyond words, but art college is for the middle class wools and wierdo's so its going to be an effort. He falls in love, and Sampson desribes beautifully that young love were everything is one long shagathon discussion star gazing beauty pain torture soundtrack. She is a middle class left winger. Its liverpool in the bitter decades, the rise of Thatcher and the destruction of a beautiful city to smack, unemployment, poverty and despair. Its a wilderness, Toxteth burns as the oppressed of L8 defy the state and run the bizzies back into town.

Danny takes his girl to Paris to see his beloved Joy Division - and you know something must break, as love will tear us apart bleeds from the speakers and Ian Curtis hotfoots it home to an appointment with a rope, danny is betrayed by the one thing he cherishes and adores. Its a love Excercise One will never forget. She's Lost Control and he's lost the one thing of worth in his life.

But in the Shadowplay of smacked up youth unemployment danny jetisons all his reference points - music, clothes, art and joins the legion chasing the dragon, robbing, chancing.

Sampson has obviously been re-reading the original 'skinhead / suedehead books of the 70's or maybe some Stewart Home. the violence and the sex are more knowing than before.

This is a great read, pacy, compassionate, articulate.

I should say more but i will give it twenty four hours and see what the response is. this is one of the new order not to be mistaken for the other two - its some factory.

Keva McCluskey, lead singer of Liverpool band The Grams, is convulsed with jealousy when their inferior rivals Sensira hit the headlines. But a fortuitous meeting with society Trustafarian Guy de Burret boots the unsuspecting Grams straight into the harsh limelight. The band's camaraderie is rent asunder, as a bewildering host of journalists, music moguls and parasites works its sinister magic. The Grams have to fight to save their minds, their bodies and their friendship. They win, lose and ultimately, win again in this bacchanalian tale of sex, drugs. And rock'n'roll.

Powder describes a world riddled with falsehoods in an entirely truthful voice. Sampson knows the business inside out, and the book teems with the sort of detail few music lovers could conceive of. Ordinary lads turned rock gods acquire some laughable foibles, and Sampson draws his characters, and their picaresque adventures, with laugh-out-loud wit and often moving warmth. (Keva's worst fear is turning 30, while drummer Beano only wants a nice girl to cook him stew). This is a breathless, adrenaline-fired tale-- whether you are a vinyl junkie or watch the pop world in fascinated horror, you will find Powder as bewitching as the world it depicts. --Matthew Baylis

Nasty Stuff, Brilliantly told., 02 Jul 2008
The review title is shamelessly lifted from the front cover of this superbly well observed piece, one sadly never replicated by Sampson in his latter works.
Birkenhead in 1979 was just as he describes, the post-punk lethargy and the beginnings of the Heroin influx which led to the Wirrals' Capital Town being re-named euphemistically "Smack City". The internicine wars between the WEBB (Woodchurch Estate Boot Boys") the Noctorum and Ford estate equivalents all set aside when Tranmere played away.
Sampson pulls off a rare trick in this,his first,novel, that of being able to evoke a real sense of the young Paul Cartys need to belong to "The pack" whilst simulaneously wanting to be his own man.Cartys journey is a metaphor for many young mens transition from boy to man only his route is a tad more extreme.
Sampson has also translated his Love for the period very well and the references to the Liverpool underground scene via probe Records and Erics take this reader almost literally back in time.
The Violence he describes is almost Gonzo, but I'll forgive him this because the context is correct, you see Sampson takes you to a point where these smartly dressed and stylish lads..well, you want them to win against their unfashionably dressed opponents with, well, style.

For fans of 80's youth culture this is a must have, for students of modern post industrial history this is a must have and for those who just love a fast moving gory youth piece, this is a must have.

Great Read, 01 Jul 2008
If you like good modern British writers the you can't go far wrong with a Kevin Sampson book. A very easy book to read (like his others) with everyday English language. If you like writers such as 'John King', 'Colin Bateman', 'Colin Butts' or 'Irvine Welsh', you'll like this.

A book for the Wirral, 24 Oct 2006
Yes there'a a million and one books writen by clumsy band-wagon jumpers glorifying 70s hooliganism they probably weren't involved in, but this is not one. Speaking from personal experience, the subtleties of Wirral boroughs and casual couture are absolutely spot on, betraying the author's encyclopaedic knowledge. With a fluent tone throughout, this is a short but fascinating book by a great young author.

locally brilliant, 04 Jan 2005
kevin sampson... well done

this was a great read for me because of all the local refrences which i could relate to. if you love football tranmere or even the wiral this is a good book for you

You'll never take the cowsheds!, 07 Oct 2003
Nostalgia played a huge part in my enjoyment of this book - I grew up less than half a mile from Tranmere's ground, and whilst the main character was 19 in 1979, I was 16.
They say everyone's first novel is at least partly autobiographical, which possibly puts the bold Mr. Sampson in the Cowsheds (Prenton Park's home end at the time)at the same time as me.
Memories aside, the story is highly enjoyable, and offers a cutting and accurate insight into late seventies, lower division football hooliganism.
Sampson has an excellent ear for colloquial speech, and is able to put it on paper fluently (skills later developed to the max in 'Outlaws' and 'Clubland'. I laughed out loud at Paul Carty's outburst after his quickie in Vale Park ('Arr, hey! State of me kecks!').
Unashamedly macho, great fun.

Swept away, 12 Mar 2008
I love books that capture the sorts of emotions and events that whizz past you when you're young, because you're too busy experiencing them spend time writing them down.

Stars are Stars follows Danny May, a 15 year old from Toxteth who dreams of going to Liverpool Art School. He meets Nicole, a politically active middle class girl and the two of them embark on what they believe to be a bohemian love affair.

Falling in love when you're young, you think that no one's ever felt like this before, and that youthful arrogance is captured perfectly in Danny a d Nicole's conversations and affectations, which are carried out in dive bars and clubs in Liverpool and in the streets of Paris.

Their love story may be the main storyline, but politics and music feature heavily too. Bowie, Psychedelic Furs, The Bunnymen, Devo all feature and unusually for a book that mentions real bands and events (Ian Curtis' suicide) they crop up very naturally, that doesn't feel like Sampson is trying too hard to be cool.

Then comes the politics...from hope to despair in five years, here comes Mrs Thatcher smashing and grabbing, all whilst keeping her hair in that unworldly helmet. In 1980, Danny receives the devastating news that the Art School's funding has been withdrawn by the new Tory government, and stops painting, starts taking drugs and robbing from the people he loves.

Danny's descent allays with the massively violent Toxteth riots, which are described in vivid detail, just like his paintings which bookend this story.

This story swept me up; due to the colour and texture that Sampson gives his characters and the situations they are born into and fail to get out of.

My only criticism would be that whilst Nicole is out of the story, and Danny gets involved in photographing the riots, it still feels real, but the way they meet up again in Wales, did feel a little contrived, but it's something that can be overlooked as this is a stunning book, which is well written, exciting, thought provoking and crystallises a very strange and turbulent time in British history, that is made human with the story of Danny May.


An arresting portrayal of 'old' Liverpool, 16 Jan 2008
Inflated by an orgy of EU money, drugs proceeds and Premier League salaries, the days when Liverpool was a byword for urban and moral degradation now seem long part of our past. Stars are Stars is an ambitious depiction of life in the city in the late-1970s and early 1980s, when, to the outside world it appeared to be on its knees, crippled as it was by unemployment and the Toxteth Riots. Kevin Sampson captures some of this decline, but shows the counterpoint: while the rest of the World thought Liverpool was dying, it was actually undergoing a cultural and sporting renaissance. Although football takes a backseat, the book hums along to a soundtrack of Eric's nightclub, Echo and the Bunnymen and Teardrop Explodes; while Sampson captures the frenetic energy that reverberated from the streets.

Indeed the book fizzes with an energy which is in one sense is its driving force, in another is its main weakness. Sampson's prose does capture something of the fecklessness and energy of youth, but there are times when this becomes too much, when you want to switch off and for the author to take a more languid pace. Non-Scousers may struggle with his placing of local slang into his prose and it was something that I found particularly irritating -- and I am a son of the city. There's plenty of sex in Stars are Stars, told in gleeful, gratuitous, almost chauvinistic tones. In fact, Sampson could probably fill the Literary Review's infamous Bad Sex in Fiction Award several times over with Stars Are Stars.

While Sampson has a good ear for conversation, Nicole, the book's heroine doesn't half come across as an irritating `wool' (although, maybe that's his intention); while Danny May, its protagonist, can seem over-the-top, like some sort of dreadful Scouse stereotype. I found myself disliking both at various places in the book.

These, however, are generally minor gripes in what must be considered a triumph. Certainly I cannot think of a more evocative depiction of Liverpool in fiction; while Sampson's writing about the city in general is amongst the finest I have read in any form. Nowhere have I read finer passages on the Toxteth Riots, a misunderstood and oft-neglected part of modern British history.

At its heart is a love story, which is every bit as powerful as those told by more revered `literary types' like Ian McEwan and Sebastian Faulks. Indeed despite all my reservations it's a good read and highly recommended for anyone with even the vaguest interest or connection to Liverpool.

Teenage Kicks, 07 Apr 2007
I've read five of Sampson's novels, and this is his most heartfelt to date. Set in Liverpool from 1976-81, the story follows Danny, an energetic working-class boy with a talent for sketching and painting. We meet him as a youth hustling a pound here and there doing portraits in dockside bars and whorehouses, intent on saving up for the latest records, tasty clothes, and the Liverpool School of Art. Living in Toxteth with his hard working mother and harpy sisters, he eschews the football and thievery that most of his contemporaries are into. Instead, he's trying desperately to make himself into an Artist with a capital A, even though he's not really sure what that means.

One day Danny meets and falls instantly in love with Nicole, a middle-class girl from the countryside who's in town at university doing the radical left-wing student thing. She is likewise smitten, and the book is about their relationship, which swings from the highest of highs, to the lowest of lows, and on to a truly fitting ending (which is well foreshadowed in the opening chapter). Through the couple, Sampson captures the state of perpetual possibility and excitement that teenagers live in. Although at times Danny's description of his feelings and their relationship veer into overripe sentimentality and mushiness, it's exactly the right tone. The happy fire of one's first relationship -- before one's been burned or betrayed -- is precisely captured. However, as the story progresses, Danny spends more and more time dwelling on the bad parts of the relationship, and the reader can see the iceberg looming ahead.

At the same time, Sampson provides a rich backdrop to the intense love story. Liverpool was a central part of the post-punk scene, and with a title borrowed from the Echo and the Bunnymen song, one shouldn't be surprised to find music playing a large role. Danny and Nicole's first "date" involves seeing Wire play at legendary club Eric's, their first major argument revolves around going to the also legendary 1978 Rock Against Racism concert, and a somewhat less legendary Joy Division show in Paris becomes the catalyst for their breakup. Indeed, Joy Division looms rather large in the book, as they immediately become Danny's favorite band, and readers familiar with "Love Will Tear Us Apart" and Ian Curtis' suicide will doubtless read the ominous foreshadowing on the wall.

Hand in hand with the musical backdrop is the volatile political scene, as Nicole rails against the ascendancy of Margaret Thatcher to Danny's general disinterest. Sampson does a nice job of using Nicole to show the overearnestness of the left-wing and Danny to show the dangers of political apathy. For the political does indeed become personal for Danny, as the new government shuts down the art school, and the failing economy and rise of the right wing culminate in a night of rioting in his neighborhood. All of this combines to make the novel an ode to both to a specific time and place and the messy intensity of teenage love.

A Gritty Pop Culture Love Story , 02 Oct 2006
Sampson is definitely back in the groove with Stars are Stars.

What he does particularly well here is weave the sounds and political context of 70's inner-city Liverpool with the optimism (and subsequent crushing cynicism) of young love.

One of the sub-themes is the real story of Eric's - a Liverpool club which has had enduring influence on contemporary music in the UK and elsewhere - this is welcome given the comparative lack of coverage that Eric's has had when compared, for example, with Manchester's Hacienda.

Overall a very enjoyable book.





Sordide Sentimental - , 23 Aug 2006
Stars are Stars marks a return to form for Liverpool's Kevin Sampson, descriptions of him as a scouse Irvine Welsh are lazy and somewhat disingenuious.

Indeed we are 'Lucky' to be reading the completed book - In 2005 Sampson nearly became one of the Dead Souls when a freak DIY accident put him up against an full blast electrical current which should have been in Isolation.

Thankfully an Atrocity Exhibition was avoided but Sampson was seriously hurt and and as a New dawn fades we get his latest work. I don't know whether there was something in the transmission of the electricity but this book would be a candidate for his best work, were it not for the fact that "Powder" won my heart and Soul and These Days he would have to write something with real Insight for me to Pass Over it as the definitive Sampson article.

Writing may be a means to an end for the ex manager of The Farm but the novelty has not worn off. 'Stars' has everything, great musical references, strong characters and a great storyline. Young working class Danny - a gifted artist dreams of escaping to Art School, he has talent beyond words, but art college is for the middle class wools and wierdo's so its going to be an effort. He falls in love, and Sampson desribes beautifully that young love were everything is one long shagathon discussion star gazing beauty pain torture soundtrack. She is a middle class left winger. Its liverpool in the bitter decades, the rise of Thatcher and the destruction of a beautiful city to smack, unemployment, poverty and despair. Its a wilderness, Toxteth burns as the oppressed of L8 defy the state and run the bizzies back into town.

Danny takes his girl to Paris to see his beloved Joy Division - and you know something must break, as love will tear us apart bleeds from the speakers and Ian Curtis hotfoots it home to an appointment with a rope, danny is betrayed by the one thing he cherishes and adores. Its a love Excercise One will never forget. She's Lost Control and he's lost the one thing of worth in his life.

But in the Shadowplay of smacked up youth unemployment danny jetisons all his reference points - music, clothes, art and joins the legion chasing the dragon, robbing, chancing.

Sampson has obviously been re-reading the original 'skinhead / suedehead books of the 70's or maybe some Stewart Home. the violence and the sex are more knowing than before.

This is a great read, pacy, compassionate, articulate.

I should say more but i will give it twenty four hours and see what the response is. this is one of the new order not to be mistaken for the other two - its some factory.

Rubbish, 03 Apr 2006
I did get recommended this book in the first place by 2 people, i was attracted by the cover, (i always like to judge books by their covers,) so was relatively enthusiastic about reading this book.

I started reading it last summer & only just finished it - having read about 4 other books in between.

I returned to it to make a concerted effort to get it finished thinking it must get better, but having read the final page i just thought what a load of rubbish!

Don't get me wrong it does have its funny moments - but you do get the feeling that the authors trying to be controversial for the sake of being controversial.

There are no chapters, i pesonally hate books without chapters, which provide convenient places to stop. The book is divided into 2 sections leading you to believe that the 1st section is the band making it & the 2nd section is the band losing it.......the band are still making it by the 2nd to last page; yes a few bad things do happen but they're not really elaborated upon when you're expecting the band to lose it big style.

A waste of trees, 02 May 2004
This is a very bad book.

The characterisation is tissue-thin, the events arbitary and the themes non-existent.

The plot, such as it is, is a teenage masturbatory fantasy with page after page of utterly irrelevant details about the operations of the music industry, while the only mention of the actual music this fictional band makes is in the hackneyed, sub-NME style of the worst musical journalists.

There's no resolution for any of the characters; the book simply stops. The author attempts a revelation concerning the childhood of one of the characters, but presents it in such a ham-fisted uninvolving way that all the reader can do is shrug and struggle on.

It's not hard to see why I found it in a remaindered bookshop, but I still feel it was a waste of money.

Avoid.

If you want a read a good novel about the music industry, I recommend "Espedair Street" by Iain Banks.

The worst book I've read, 06 May 2003
I chose this as a dumb, airport kind of book.
What I found was an extraordinary book.
Extraordinarily terrible.

If it was a drink it'd be a really over-diluted orange squash.

I can't think of a worse book I've ever read.
Even the warnings on bathroom cleaners are more exciting.

A great read!, 29 Jun 2002
This is a great book that I couldn't put down until I'd devoured every Rock 'n' Roll page. The style is enjoyable and this is easily Kevin Sampson's best book. Charcters you like to like and like to loathe with a plot that - whilst covering all the ground you'd expect - contains masses of glorious laugh out loud funny moments. I could easily read more like this - unfortunately Sampson's works since, whilst, good, aren't up to the same standard, but Awaydays (his first one) deserves a read too because it's almost as good as this book.

Quite Simply Gorgeous, 15 Mar 2002
Fell in love with the enchanting tale very early on. Steeped with emotion, tragedy and melancholy this book will grab you where it hurts.

Keva is a captivating star, and we follow him and his band on his immense journey to fame with him and his sometimes hapless band members. Sensitive, brooding and full of promise, readers may fall just a little bit in love with Keva, certainly I had doubts of his lovers suitability in the book; would they be good for him long term and did they understand his fragility? Sampson has the ability to involve readers in this way through his fanstatic portrayal of the main characters, be prepared to share the full spectrum of emotions with characters - hard men may weep!

Keva is immense. Guy, on the otherhand, caused me some concern as I progressed through the book. He was absenbt for large parts of the book and even though we were up to speed on Guy's background and problems I could not quite get to grips with the way that Guy evolved and it did not really gel with me.

Quirky Wheezer was another joy, fascinating to see the development of him as well as the rest of the cast. I did feel that things came to a speedy conclusion with Wheezer, and his treatment towards the end did not sit very well with me although I very much appreciated the realism.

I felt the main characters in the book were great; very real and entertaining, and I enjoyed understanding what made them tick and having their faults highlighted so often. Gritty stuff. None of the women made a substantial impression, they came and went and none of them quite made the grade. Plenty of others grace the pages, there's a lot of laugh out loud moments with the Scallys... The sex scenes in the book were awesome, sensitive, matched to the character perfectly and sometimes hilarious, they were very pleasurable indeed, be prepared to blush!

I loved the way this book unfolded and it really got a grip of me. Watch of for James Love 'an that', he is a genius comic creation, but he also represents a very dark aspect of the band, although this is often disguised flimsily in gratuitious pleasure seeking.

My one greatest regret is that readers will never hear the music. What does 'Beautiful' sound like, I think it would be absolutly epic, Vervem Spiritualised, Strokes who knows where to stop?? It got under my skin and it is only on paper. That's an indication of the quality of this book. It is magnificant and everyone should devour it at the first opportunity! Word of advice though - DO NOT LEND IT!

Nasty Stuff, Brilliantly told., 02 Jul 2008
The review title is shamelessly lifted from the front cover of this superbly well observed piece, one sadly never replicated by Sampson in his latter works.
Birkenhead in 1979 was just as he describes, the post-punk lethargy and the beginnings of the Heroin influx which led to the Wirrals' Capital Town being re-named euphemistically "Smack City". The internicine wars between the WEBB (Woodchurch Estate Boot Boys") the Noctorum and Ford estate equivalents all set aside when Tranmere played away.
Sampson pulls off a rare trick in this,his first,novel, that of being able to evoke a real sense of the young Paul Cartys need to belong to "The pack" whilst simulaneously wanting to be his own man.Cartys journey is a metaphor for many young mens transition from boy to man only his route is a tad more extreme.
Sampson has also translated his Love for the period very well and the references to the Liverpool underground scene via probe Records and Erics take this reader almost literally back in time.
The Violence he describes is almost Gonzo, but I'll forgive him this because the context is correct, you see Sampson takes you to a point where these smartly dressed and stylish lads..well, you want them to win against their unfashionably dressed opponents with, well, style.

For fans of 80's youth culture this is a must have, for students of modern post industrial history this is a must have and for those who just love a fast moving gory youth piece, this is a must have.

Great Read, 01 Jul 2008
If you like good modern British writers the you can't go far wrong with a Kevin Sampson book. A very easy book to read (like his others) with everyday English language. If you like writers such as 'John King', 'Colin Bateman', 'Colin Butts' or 'Irvine Welsh', you'll like this.

A book for the Wirral, 24 Oct 2006
Yes there'a a million and one books writen by clumsy band-wagon jumpers glorifying 70s hooliganism they probably weren't involved in, but this is not one. Speaking from personal experience, the subtleties of Wirral boroughs and casual couture are absolutely spot on, betraying the author's encyclopaedic knowledge. With a fluent tone throughout, this is a short but fascinating book by a great young author.

locally brilliant, 04 Jan 2005
kevin sampson... well done

this was a great read for me because of all the local refrences which i could relate to. if you love football tranmere or even the wiral this is a good book for you

You'll never take the cowsheds!, 07 Oct 2003
Nostalgia played a huge part in my enjoyment of this book - I grew up less than half a mile from Tranmere's ground, and whilst the main character was 19 in 1979, I was 16.
They say everyone's first novel is at least partly autobiographical, which possibly puts the bold Mr. Sampson in the Cowsheds (Prenton Park's home end at the time)at the same time as me.
Memories aside, the story is highly enjoyable, and offers a cutting and accurate insight into late seventies, lower division football hooliganism.
Sampson has an excellent ear for colloquial speech, and is able to put it on paper fluently (skills later developed to the max in 'Outlaws' and 'Clubland'. I laughed out loud at Paul Carty's outburst after his quickie in Vale Park ('Arr, hey! State of me kecks!').
Unashamedly macho, great fun.

Swept away, 12 Mar 2008
I love books that capture the sorts of emotions and events that whizz past you when you're young, because you're too busy experiencing them spend time writing them down.

Stars are Stars follows Danny May, a 15 year old from Toxteth who dreams of going to Liverpool Art School. He meets Nicole, a politically active middle class girl and the two of them embark on what they believe to be a bohemian love affair.

Falling in love when you're young, you think that no one's ever felt like this before, and that youthful arrogance is captured perfectly in Danny a d Nicole's conversations and affectations, which are carried out in dive bars and clubs in Liverpool and in the streets of Paris.

Their love story may be the main storyline, but politics and music feature heavily too. Bowie, Psychedelic Furs, The Bunnymen, Devo all feature and unusually for a book that mentions real bands and events (Ian Curtis' suicide) they crop up very naturally, that doesn't feel like Sampson is trying too hard to be cool.

Then comes the politics...from hope to despair in five years, here comes Mrs Thatcher smashing and grabbing, all whilst keeping her hair in that unworldly helmet. In 1980, Danny receives the devastating news that the Art School's funding has been withdrawn by the new Tory government, and stops painting, starts taking drugs and robbing from the people he loves.

Danny's descent allays with the massively violent Toxteth riots, which are described in vivid detail, just like his paintings which bookend this story.

This story swept me up; due to the colour and texture that Sampson gives his characters and the situations they are born into and fail to get out of.

My only criticism would be that whilst Nicole is out of the story, and Danny gets involved in photographing the riots, it still feels real, but the way they meet up again in Wales, did feel a little contrived, but it's something that can be overlooked as this is a stunning book, which is well written, exciting, thought provoking and crystallises a very strange and turbulent time in British history, that is made human with the story of Danny May.


An arresting portrayal of 'old' Liverpool, 16 Jan 2008
Inflated by an orgy of EU money, drugs proceeds and Premier League salaries, the days when Liverpool was a byword for urban and moral degradation now seem long part of our past. Stars are Stars is an ambitious depiction of life in the city in the late-1970s and early 1980s, when, to the outside world it appeared to be on its knees, crippled as it was by unemployment and the Toxteth Riots. Kevin Sampson captures some of this decline, but shows the counterpoint: while the rest of the World thought Liverpool was dying, it was actually undergoing a cultural and sporting renaissance. Although football takes a backseat, the book hums along to a soundtrack of Eric's nightclub, Echo and the Bunnymen and Teardrop Explodes; while Sampson captures the frenetic energy that reverberated from the streets.

Indeed the book fizzes with an energy which is in one sense is its driving force, in another is its main weakness. Sampson's prose does capture something of the fecklessness and energy of youth, but there are times when this becomes too much, when you want to switch off and for the author to take a more languid pace. Non-Scousers may struggle with his placing of local slang into his prose and it was something that I found particularly irritating -- and I am a son of the city. There's plenty of sex in Stars are Stars, told in gleeful, gratuitous, almost chauvinistic tones. In fact, Sampson could probably fill the Literary Review's infamous Bad Sex in Fiction Award several times over with Stars Are Stars.

While Sampson has a good ear for conversation, Nicole, the book's heroine doesn't half come across as an irritating `wool' (although, maybe that's his intention); while Danny May, its protagonist, can seem over-the-top, like some sort of dreadful Scouse stereotype. I found myself disliking both at various places in the book.

These, however, are generally minor gripes in what must be considered a triumph. Certainly I cannot think of a more evocative depiction of Liverpool in fiction; while Sampson's writing about the city in general is amongst the finest I have read in any form. Nowhere have I read finer passages on the Toxteth Riots, a misunderstood and oft-neglected part of modern British history.

At its heart is a love story, which is every bit as powerful as those told by more revered `literary types' like Ian McEwan and Sebastian Faulks. Indeed despite all my reservations it's a good read and highly recommended for anyone with even the vaguest interest or connection to Liverpool.

Teenage Kicks, 07 Apr 2007
I've read five of Sampson's novels, and this is his most heartfelt to date. Set in Liverpool from 1976-81, the story follows Danny, an energetic working-class boy with a talent for sketching and painting. We meet him as a youth hustling a pound here and there doing portraits in dockside bars and whorehouses, intent on saving up for the latest records, tasty clothes, and the Liverpool School of Art. Living in Toxteth with his hard working mother and harpy sisters, he eschews the football and thievery that most of his contemporaries are into. Instead, he's trying desperately to make himself into an Artist with a capital A, even though he's not really sure what that means.

One day Danny meets and falls instantly in love with Nicole, a middle-class girl from the countryside who's in town at university doing the radical left-wing student thing. She is likewise smitten, and the book is about their relationship, which swings from the highest of highs, to the lowest of lows, and on to a truly fitting ending (which is well foreshadowed in the opening chapter). Through the couple, Sampson captures the state of perpetual possibility and excitement that teenagers live in. Although at times Danny's description of his feelings and their relationship veer into overripe sentimentality and mushiness, it's exactly the right tone. The happy fire of one's first relationship -- before one's been burned or betrayed -- is precisely captured. However, as the story progresses, Danny spends more and more time dwelling on the bad parts of the relationship, and the reader can see the iceberg looming ahead.

At the same time, Sampson provides a rich backdrop to the intense love story. Liverpool was a central part of the post-punk scene, and with a title borrowed from the Echo and the Bunnymen song, one shouldn't be surprised to find music playing a large role. Danny and Nicole's first "date" involves seeing Wire play at legendary club Eric's, their first major argument revolves around going to the also legendary 1978 Rock Against Racism concert, and a somewhat less legendary Joy Division show in Paris becomes the catalyst for their breakup. Indeed, Joy Division looms rather large in the book, as they immediately become Danny's favorite band, and readers familiar with "Love Will Tear Us Apart" and Ian Curtis' suicide will doubtless read the ominous foreshadowing on the wall.

Hand in hand with the musical backdrop is the volatile political scene, as Nicole rails against the ascendancy of Margaret Thatcher to Danny's general disinterest. Sampson does a nice job of using Nicole to show the overearnestness of the left-wing and Danny to show the dangers of political apathy. For the political does indeed become personal for Danny, as the new government shuts down the art school, and the failing economy and rise of the right wing culminate in a night of rioting in his neighborhood. All of this combines to make the novel an ode to both to a specific time and place and the messy intensity of teenage love.

A Gritty Pop Culture Love Story , 02 Oct 2006
Sampson is definitely back in the groove with Stars are Stars.

What he does particularly well here is weave the sounds and political context of 70's inner-city Liverpool with the optimism (and subsequent crushing cynicism) of young love.

One of the sub-themes is the real story of Eric's - a Liverpool club which has had enduring influence on contemporary music in the UK and elsewhere - this is welcome given the comparative lack of coverage that Eric's has had when compared, for example, with Manchester's Hacienda.

Overall a very enjoyable book.





Sordide Sentimental - , 23 Aug 2006
Stars are Stars marks a return to form for Liverpool's Kevin Sampson, descriptions of him as a scouse Irvine Welsh are lazy and somewhat disingenuious.

Indeed we are 'Lucky' to be reading the completed book - In 2005 Sampson nearly became one of the Dead Souls when a freak DIY accident put him up against an full blast electrical current which should have been in Isolation.

Thankfully an Atrocity Exhibition was avoided but Sampson was seriously hurt and and as a New dawn fades we get his latest work. I don't know whether there was something in the transmission of the electricity but this book would be a candidate for his best work, were it not for the fact that "Powder" won my heart and Soul and These Days he would have to write something with real Insight for me to Pass Over it as the definitive Sampson article.

Writing may be a means to an end for the ex manager of The Farm but the novelty has not worn off. 'Stars' has everything, great musical references, strong characters and a great storyline. Young working class Danny - a gifted artist dreams of escaping to Art School, he has talent beyond words, but art college is for the middle class wools and wierdo's so its going to be an effort. He falls in love, and Sampson desribes beautifully that young love were everything is one long shagathon discussion star gazing beauty pain torture soundtrack. She is a middle class left winger. Its liverpool in the bitter decades, the rise of Thatcher and the destruction of a beautiful city to smack, unemployment, poverty and despair. Its a wilderness, Toxteth burns as the oppressed of L8 defy the state and run the bizzies back into town.

Danny takes his girl to Paris to see his beloved Joy Division - and you know something must break, as love will tear us apart bleeds from the speakers and Ian Curtis hotfoots it home to an appointment with a rope, danny is betrayed by the one thing he cherishes and adores. Its a love Excercise One will never forget. She's Lost Control and he's lost the one thing of worth in his life.

But in the Shadowplay of smacked up youth unemployment danny jetisons all his reference points - music, clothes, art and joins the legion chasing the dragon, robbing, chancing.

Sampson has obviously been re-reading the original 'skinhead / suedehead books of the 70's or maybe some Stewart Home. the violence and the sex are more knowing than before.

This is a great read, pacy, compassionate, articulate.

I should say more but i will give it twenty four hours and see what the response is. this is one of the new order not to be mistaken for the other two - its some factory.

Rubbish, 03 Apr 2006
I did get recommended this book in the first place by 2 people, i was attracted by the cover, (i always like to judge books by their covers,) so was relatively enthusiastic about reading this book.

I started reading it last summer & only just finished it - having read about 4 other books in between.

I returned to it to make a concerted effort to get it finished thinking it must get better, but having read the final page i just thought what a load of rubbish!

Don't get me wrong it does have its funny moments - but you do get the feeling that the authors trying to be controversial for the sake of being controversial.

There are no chapters, i pesonally hate books without chapters, which provide convenient places to stop. The book is divided into 2 sections leading you to believe that the 1st section is the band making it & the 2nd section is the band losing it.......the band are still making it by the 2nd to last page; yes a few bad things do happen but they're not really elaborated upon when you're expecting the band to lose it big style.

A waste of trees, 02 May 2004
This is a very bad book.

The characterisation is tissue-thin, the events arbitary and the themes non-existent.

The plot, such as it is, is a teenage masturbatory fantasy with page after page of utterly irrelevant details about the operations of the music industry, while the only mention of the actual music this fictional band makes is in the hackneyed, sub-NME style of the worst musical journalists.

There's no resolution for any of the characters; the book simply stops. The author attempts a revelation concerning the childhood of one of the characters, but presents it in such a ham-fisted uninvolving way that all the reader can do is shrug and struggle on.

It's not hard to see why I found it in a remaindered bookshop, but I still feel it was a waste of money.

Avoid.

If you want a read a good novel about the music industry, I recommend "Espedair Street" by Iain Banks.

The worst book I've read, 06 May 2003
I chose this as a dumb, airport kind of book.
What I found was an extraordinary book.
Extraordinarily terrible.

If it was a drink it'd be a really over-diluted orange squash.

I can't think of a worse book I've ever read.
Even the warnings on bathroom cleaners are more exciting.

A great read!, 29 Jun 2002
This is a great book that I couldn't put down until I'd devoured every Rock 'n' Roll page. The style is enjoyable and this is easily Kevin Sampson's best book. Charcters you like to like and like to loathe with a plot that - whilst covering all the ground you'd expect - contains masses of glorious laugh out loud funny moments. I could easily read more like this - unfortunately Sampson's works since, whilst, good, aren't up to the same standard, but Awaydays (his first one) deserves a read too because it's almost as good as this book.

Quite Simply Gorgeous, 15 Mar 2002
Fell in love with the enchanting tale very early on. Steeped with emotion, tragedy and melancholy this book will grab you where it hurts.

Keva is a captivating star, and we follow him and his band on his immense journey to fame with him and his sometimes hapless band members. Sensitive, brooding and full of promise, readers may fall just a little bit in love with Keva, certainly I had doubts of his lovers suitability in the book; would they be good for him long term and did they understand his fragility? Sampson has the ability to involve readers in this way through his fanstatic portrayal of the main characters, be prepared to share the full spectrum of emotions with characters - hard men may weep!

Keva is immense. Guy, on the otherhand, caused me some concern as I progressed through the book. He was absenbt for large parts of the book and even though we were up to speed on Guy's background and problems I could not quite get to grips with the way that Guy evolved and it did not really gel with me.

Quirky Wheezer was another joy, fascinating to see the development of him as well as the rest of the cast. I did feel that things came to a speedy conclusion with Wheezer, and his treatment towards the end did not sit very well with me although I very much appreciated the realism.

I felt the main characters in the book were great; very real and entertaining, and I enjoyed understanding what made them tick and having their faults highlighted so often. Gritty stuff. None of the women made a substantial impression, they came and went and none of them quite made the grade. Plenty of others grace the pages, there's a lot of laugh out loud moments with the Scallys... The sex scenes in the book were awesome, sensitive, matched to the character perfectly and sometimes hilarious, they were very pleasurable indeed, be prepared to blush!

I loved the way this book unfolded and it really got a grip of me. Watch of for James Love 'an that', he is a genius comic creation, but he also represents a very dark aspect of the band, although this is often disguised flimsily in gratuitious pleasure seeking.

My one greatest regret is that readers will never hear the music. What does 'Beautiful' sound like, I think it would be absolutly epic, Vervem Spiritualised, Strokes who knows where to stop?? It got under my skin and it is only on paper. That's an indication of the quality of this book. It is magnificant and everyone should devour it at the first opportunity! Word of advice though - DO NOT LEND IT!

Freshers Fortnight, 24 Jan 2005
After covering football hooligans (Awaydays), pop music (Powder), package tours (Leisure) and Liverpool criminals (Outlaws and Clubland) in previous books, Sampson turns his attention to the terrifying time of life known in the UK as "Freshers Fortnight." In the US, this is called "First Year Orientation"-but whatever the name, it's a time of mighty highs and lows as hordes of teenagers leave home for their first year of college. The novel does a nice job of portraying the haphazard struggle to make friendships, forge identities, and survive homesickness that characterizes those first few months.

Set in Sheffield, the story is told through Kit Hannah, a cooler-than thou indie music maven who, behind a thin veil of cynicism and misanthropy, is not as different from his classmates as he thinks. He's quite the teen Holden Caufield, finding everyone phony, and distrusting friendliness. But it doesn't take much convincing for him to be sucked into the vortex of pubs, clubbing, dorm room spliffs, and deep meaningful talks that are the staple of college life everywhere. Soon, he's amassed a little circle of friends that will sustain and define his first year. The people that make up this supporting cast are all quite easy to imagine (the public school athletic type, the sexy older woman student, the sassy but undesirable galpal, the poseur tall-tale teller, the American uberfeminist, etc.), but a touch too melodramatic. Each one has some kind of hidden secret or quality that defines them, and eventually each will be revealed to Kit and the reader. Of course Kit has his own deep dark secret, and it's a pretty startling one that explains much of his problem with people.

The story is set entirely outside the classroom, taking place mostly after hours, as Kit struggles to make sense of his new life and what all these new people mean to him. As the story cascades through pubs, parties, restaurants, and dorm rooms, it's studded with plenty of comic moments, along with a number of those wince-inducing embarrassing scenes that are the staple of that first year of college. It's a never-pretentious, but occasionally soap-operaish trip back to that time when we all struggled desperately to stay true to ourselves and fit in enough to make friends and live happily. Admittedly, it very nearly goes over the top at times, but the incisive dissection of Kit's insecurities make it a memorable read.

Converted to Sampson, 22 Jan 2005
Fearing he made be a writer strictly for the lads i was very pleased with 'Freshers'. Exhilirating, fresh and achingly relevant to student life, you'll feel like you're living the crazy experiences of the narrator, Kit Hannah.

FRESHERS, 21 Oct 2004
I liked the sound of this book so I gave it a go. I read it in 5 hours and it's 250 pages long.

Kit Hannah is someone we can all relate to or maybe we can all inspire to be like. He is smart, funny and good looking but he still has many floors and he was someone I admired yet sympathised with.

It's a tale of a troubled youth who seemed OK on the outside but was definatley not. It is something that everyone is like to an extent! He fell for a girl who he thought he had no chance but knew that he did if you can understand what I mean. Adrian Dangerous was an addictive charachter yet I did like him and I was longing to get to know Jinty more.

Read it, you won't regret it.

A great great read!, 13 Sep 2004
I am not really a great reader of contemporary fiction but every so often I fancy something a bit different...
With it coming up to the start of the semester and with me no longer being a student, I was feeling a reflective on my time at University and came across this book.
At first I did not take to it (mainly due to the seemingly unlike able lead character)... but after a couple of "chapters" it started flowing nicely.
I did bring back a lot of memories about how I felt during my first year at University and I also recognised a lot of character types and situations that the lead Kit Hannah goes through.
As I said a great book... might not have the same effect for people who never experienced Uni but never the less a well written and enjoyable book!

A good insight into a probably typical student, 26 Feb 2004
I liked the sound of this one and wanted to give it a go, and i'm glad i did. I'm not a student myself and to be totally honest i find a lot of students very annoying, but not Kit, the main character. He is a 17 year old leaving home for the first time to go to a Uni in Sheffield, after much support from his dear old mum! The book follows his progress and everything else that goes with student life, and yes, there is lots of drinking involved! Kit has one particular "issue" which hounds him throughout, and i'm sure which is common to lots of new found students.

Overall i did like this, one little gripe is the character "Alex", a typical example of the type of student i was voicing my annoyance at earlier - someone who has to turn just about everything into a debate. Nevermind........

A good ending aswell. Worth the buy.

In Outlaws, Moby and his brothers-in-arms, Ged and Ratter revel in the glory of being "Faces", respected kingpins of the Mersey underworld. As Moby, a fast-living, wisecracking Scouse entrepreneur with a flexible attitude to the law, and a crippling fondness for lap-dancers, says, "I do not half mind being a Somebody in Liverpool."But as the season of goodwill approaches, and the need to make fast cash looms like an old enemy, the Outlaws see that their world is changing. A new breed of somebodies is clamouring at the gates of their little kingdom--a growing army of ruthless young wannabes, trigger-happy upstarts for whom words such as Honour and Loyalty are best consigned to the history books. Retirement and respectability suddenly seem like enticing prospects for the Outlaws, but can they get out alive before their own petty rivalries tear them apart? The "noble thief" is a cliché, and so is the formula of villains killing themselves in their bid to become pillars of the local Golf Club. But Sampson's fourth novel offers a thoroughly fresh take on a timeless story. Outlaws transcends the dreary preoccupations of gangsta fiction through two things: its vividly drawn characters and its ceaselessly witty use of language. Its trio of narrators are not "Goodfellas" with Brookside accents, but complex men struggling to conquer a thoroughly real world. They do so with a mixture of charm, cunning and unforgivable viciousness--and the result, for the reader, is an exhilarating battle between sympathy and revulsion. Fans of Awaydays and Powder will relish a further excursion into the mysteries of modern-day Merseyside, and everyone looking for a comic, intelligent gangster yarn can stop searching. Ged, Ratter and Moby might be struggling to pull off the Big One, but Kevin Sampson has done it in spades. --Matthew Baylis

Nasty Stuff, Brilliantly told., 02 Jul 2008
The review title is shamelessly lifted from the front cover of this superbly well observed piece, one sadly never replicated by Sampson in his latter works.
Birkenhead in 1979 was just as he describes, the post-punk lethargy and the beginnings of the Heroin influx which led to the Wirrals' Capital Town being re-named euphemistically "Smack City". The internicine wars between the WEBB (Woodchurch Estate Boot Boys") the Noctorum and Ford estate equivalents all set aside when Tranmere played away.
Sampson pulls off a rare trick in this,his first,novel, that of being able to evoke a real sense of the young Paul Cartys need to belong to "The pack" whilst simulaneously wanting to be his own man.Cartys journey is a metaphor for many young mens transition from boy to man only his route is a tad more extreme.
Sampson has also translated his Love for the period very well and the references to the Liverpool underground scene via probe Records and Erics take this reader almost literally back in time.
The Violence he describes is almost Gonzo, but I'll forgive him this because the context is correct, you see Sampson takes you to a point where these smartly dressed and stylish lads..well, you want them to win against their unfashionably dressed opponents with, well, style.

For fans of 80's youth culture this is a must have, for students of modern post industrial history this is a must have and for those who just love a fast moving gory youth piece, this is a must have.

Great Read, 01 Jul 2008
If you like good modern British writers the you can't go far wrong with a Kevin Sampson book. A very easy book to read (like his others) with everyday English language. If you like writers such as 'John King', 'Colin Bateman', 'Colin Butts' or 'Irvine Welsh', you'll like this.

A book for the Wirral, 24 Oct 2006
Yes there'a a million and one books writen by clumsy band-wagon jumpers glorifying 70s hooliganism they probably weren't involved in, but this is not one. Speaking from personal experience, the subtleties of Wirral boroughs and casual couture are absolutely spot on, betraying the author's encyclopaedic knowledge. With a fluent tone throughout, this is a short but fascinating book by a great young author.

locally brilliant, 04 Jan 2005
kevin sampson... well done

this was a great read for me because of all the local refrences which i could relate to. if you love football tranmere or even the wiral this is a good book for you

You'll never take the cowsheds!, 07 Oct 2003
Nostalgia played a huge part in my enjoyment of this book - I grew up less than half a mile from Tranmere's ground, and whilst the main character was 19 in 1979, I was 16.
They say everyone's first novel is at least partly autobiographical, which possibly puts the bold Mr. Sampson in the Cowsheds (Prenton Park's home end at the time)at the same time as me.
Memories aside, the story is highly enjoyable, and offers a cutting and accurate insight into late seventies, lower division football hooliganism.
Sampson has an excellent ear for colloquial speech, and is able to put it on paper fluently (skills later developed to the max in 'Outlaws' and 'Clubland'. I laughed out loud at Paul Carty's outburst after his quickie in Vale Park ('Arr, hey! State of me kecks!').
Unashamedly macho, great fun.

Swept away, 12 Mar 2008
I love books that capture the sorts of emotions and events that whizz past you when you're young, because you're too busy experiencing them spend time writing them down.

Stars are Stars follows Danny May, a 15 year old from Toxteth who dreams of going to Liverpool Art School. He meets Nicole, a politically active middle class girl and the two of them embark on what they believe to be a bohemian love affair.

Falling in love when you're young, you think that no one's ever felt like this before, and that youthful arrogance is captured perfectly in Danny a d Nicole's conversations and affectations, which are carried out in dive bars and clubs in Liverpool and in the streets of Paris.

Their love story may be the main storyline, but politics and music feature heavily too. Bowie, Psychedelic Furs, The Bunnymen, Devo all feature and unusually for a book that mentions real bands and events (Ian Curtis' suicide) they crop up very naturally, that doesn't feel like Sampson is trying too hard to be cool.

Then comes the politics...from hope to despair in five years, here comes Mrs Thatcher smashing and grabbing, all whilst keeping her hair in that unworldly helmet. In 1980, Danny receives the devastating news that the Art School's funding has been withdrawn by the new Tory government, and stops painting, starts taking drugs and robbing from the people he loves.

Danny's descent allays with the massively violent Toxteth riots, which are described in vivid detail, just like his paintings which bookend this story.

This story swept me up; due to the colour and texture that Sampson gives his characters and the situations they are born into and fail to get out of.

My only criticism would be that whilst Nicole is out of the story, and Danny gets involved in photographing the riots, it still feels real, but the way they meet up again in Wales, did feel a little contrived, but it's something that can be overlooked as this is a stunning book, which is well written, exciting, thought provoking and crystallises a very strange and turbulent time in British history, that is made human with the story of Danny May.


An arresting portrayal of 'old' Liverpool, 16 Jan 2008
Inflated by an orgy of EU money, drugs proceeds and Premier League salaries, the days when Liverpool was a byword for urban and moral degradation now seem long part of our past. Stars are Stars is an ambitious depiction of life in the city in the late-1970s and early 1980s, when, to the outside world it appeared to be on its knees, crippled as it was by unemployment and the Toxteth Riots. Kevin Sampson captures some of this decline, but shows the counterpoint: while the rest of the World thought Liverpool was dying, it was actually undergoing a cultural and sporting renaissance. Although football takes a backseat, the book hums along to a soundtrack of Eric's nightclub, Echo and the Bunnymen and Teardrop Explodes; while Sampson captures the frenetic energy that reverberated from the streets.

Indeed the book fizzes with an energy which is in one sense is its driving force, in another is its main weakness. Sampson's prose does capture something of the fecklessness and energy of youth, but there are times when this becomes too much, when you want to switch off and for the author to take a more languid pace. Non-Scousers may struggle with his placing of local slang into his prose and it was something that I found particularly irritating -- and I am a son of the city. There's plenty of sex in Stars are Stars, told in gleeful, gratuitous, almost chauvinistic tones. In fact, Sampson could probably fill the Literary Review's infamous Bad Sex in Fiction Award several times over with Stars Are Stars.

While Sampson has a good ear for conversation, Nicole, the book's heroine doesn't half come across as an irritating `wool' (although, maybe that's his intention); while Danny May, its protagonist, can seem over-the-top, like some sort of dreadful Scouse stereotype. I found myself disliking both at various places in the book.

These, however, are generally minor gripes in what must be considered a triumph. Certainly I cannot think of a more evocative depiction of Liverpool in fiction; while Sampson's writing about the city in general is amongst the finest I have read in any form. Nowhere have I read finer passages on the Toxteth Riots, a misunderstood and oft-neglected part of modern British history.

At its heart is a love story, which is every bit as powerful as those told by more revered `literary types' like Ian McEwan and Sebastian Faulks. Indeed despite all my reservations it's a good read and highly recommended for anyone with even the vaguest interest or connection to Liverpool.

Teenage Kicks, 07 Apr 2007
I've read five of Sampson's novels, and this is his most heartfelt to date. Set in Liverpool from 1976-81, the story follows Danny, an energetic working-class boy with a talent for sketching and painting. We meet him as a youth hustling a pound here and there doing portraits in dockside bars and whorehouses, intent on saving up for the latest records, tasty clothes, and the Liverpool School of Art. Living in Toxteth with his hard working mother and harpy sisters, he eschews the football and thievery that most of his contemporaries are into. Instead, he's trying desperately to make himself into an Artist with a capital A, even though he's not really sure what that means.

One day Danny meets and falls instantly in love with Nicole, a middle-class girl from the countryside who's in town at university doing the radical left-wing student thing. She is likewise smitten, and the book is about their relationship, which swings from the highest of highs, to the lowest of lows, and on to a truly fitting ending (which is well foreshadowed in the opening chapter). Through the couple, Sampson captures the state of perpetual possibility and excitement that teenagers live in. Although at times Danny's description of his feelings and their relationship veer into overripe sentimentality and mushiness, it's exactly the right tone. The happy fire of one's first relationship -- before one's been burned or betrayed -- is precisely captured. However, as the story progresses, Danny spends more and more time dwelling on the bad parts of the relationship, and the reader can see the iceberg looming ahead.

At the same time, Sampson provides a rich backdrop to the intense love story. Liverpool was a central part of the post-punk scene, and with a title borrowed from the Echo and the Bunnymen song, one shouldn't be surprised to find music playing a large role. Danny and Nicole's first "date" involves seeing Wire play at legendary club Eric's, their first major argument revolves around going to the also legendary 1978 Rock Against Racism concert, and a somewhat less legendary Joy Division show in Paris becomes the catalyst for their breakup. Indeed, Joy Division looms rather large in the book, as they immediately become Danny's favorite band, and readers familiar with "Love Will Tear Us Apart" and Ian Curtis' suicide will doubtless read the ominous foreshadowing on the wall.

Hand in hand with the musical backdrop is the volatile political scene, as Nicole rails against the ascendancy of Margaret Thatcher to Danny's general disinterest. Sampson does a nice job of using Nicole to show the overearnestness of the left-wing and Danny to show the dangers of political apathy. For the political does indeed become personal for Danny, as the new government shuts down the art school, and the failing economy and rise of the right wing culminate in a night of rioting in his neighborhood. All of this combines to make the novel an ode to both to a specific time and place and the messy intensity of teenage love.

A Gritty Pop Culture Love Story , 02 Oct 2006
Sampson is definitely back in the groove with Stars are Stars.

What he does particularly well here is weave the sounds and political context of 70's inner-city Liverpool with the optimism (and subsequent crushing cynicism) of young love.

One of the sub-themes is the real story of Eric's - a Liverpool club which has had enduring influence on contemporary music in the UK and elsewhere - this is welcome given the comparative lack of coverage that Eric's has had when compared, for example, with Manchester's Hacienda.

Overall a very enjoyable book.





Sordide Sentimental - , 23 Aug 2006
Stars are Stars marks a return to form for Liverpool's Kevin Sampson, descriptions of him as a scouse Irvine Welsh are lazy and somewhat disingenuious.

Indeed we are 'Lucky' to be reading the completed book - In 2005 Sampson nearly became one of the Dead Souls when a freak DIY accident put him up against an full blast electrical current which should have been in Isolation.

Thankfully an Atrocity Exhibition was avoided but Sampson was seriously hurt and and as a New dawn fades we get his latest work. I don't know whether there was something in the transmission of the electricity but this book would be a candidate for his best work, were it not for the fact that "Powder" won my heart and Soul and These Days he would have to write something with real Insight for me to Pass Over it as the definitive Sampson article.

Writing may be a means to an end for the ex manager of The Farm but the novelty has not worn off. 'Stars' has everything, great musical references, strong characters and a great storyline. Young working class Danny - a gifted artist dreams of escaping to Art School, he has talent beyond words, but art college is for the middle class wools and wierdo's so its going to be an effort. He falls in love, and Sampson desribes beautifully that young love were everything is one long shagathon discussion star gazing beauty pain torture soundtrack. She is a middle class left winger. Its liverpool in the bitter decades, the rise of Thatcher and the destruction of a beautiful city to smack, unemployment, poverty and despair. Its a wilderness, Toxteth burns as the oppressed of L8 defy the state and run the bizzies back into town.

Danny takes his girl to Paris to see his beloved Joy Division - and you know something must break, as love will tear us apart bleeds from the speakers and Ian Curtis hotfoots it home to an appointment with a rope, danny is betrayed by the one thing he cherishes and adores. Its a love Excercise One will never forget. She's Lost Control and he's lost the one thing of worth in his life.

But in the Shadowplay of smacked up youth unemployment danny jetisons all his reference points - music, clothes, art and joins the legion chasing the dragon, robbing, chancing.

Sampson has obviously been re-reading the original 'skinhead / suedehead books of the 70's or maybe some Stewart Home. the violence and the sex are more knowing than before.

This is a great read, pacy, compassionate, articulate.

I should say more but i will give it twenty four hours and see what the response is. this is one of the new order not to be mistaken for the other two - its some factory.

Rubbish, 03 Apr 2006
I did get recommended this book in the first place by 2 people, i was attracted by the cover, (i always like to judge books by their covers,) so was relatively enthusiastic about reading this book.

I started reading it last summer & only just finished it - having read about 4 other books in between.

I returned to it to make a concerted effort to get it finished thinking it must get better, but having read the final page i just thought what a load of rubbish!

Don't get me wrong it does have its funny moments - but you do get the feeling that the authors trying to be controversial for the sake of being controversial.

There are no chapters, i pesonally hate books without chapters, which provide convenient places to stop. The book is divided into 2 sections leading you to believe that the 1st section is the band making it & the 2nd section is the band losing it.......the band are still making it by the 2nd to last page; yes a few bad things do happen but they're not really elaborated upon when you're expecting the band to lose it big style.

A waste of trees, 02 May 2004
This is a very bad book.

The characterisation is tissue-thin, the events arbitary and the themes non-existent.

The plot, such as it is, is a teenage masturbatory fantasy with page after page of utterly irrelevant details about the operations of the music industry, while the only mention of the actual music this fictional band makes is in the hackneyed, sub-NME style of the worst musical journalists.

There's no resolution for any of the characters; the book simply stops. The author attempts a revelation concerning the childhood of one of the characters, but presents it in such a ham-fisted uninvolving way that all the reader can do is shrug and struggle on.

It's not hard to see why I found it in a remaindered bookshop, but I still feel it was a waste of money.

Avoid.

If you want a read a good novel about the music industry, I recommend "Espedair Street" by Iain Banks.

The worst book I've read, 06 May 2003
I chose this as a dumb, airport kind of book.
What I found was an extraordinary book.
Extraordinarily terrible.

If it was a drink it'd be a really over-diluted orange squash.

I can't think of a worse book I've ever read.
Even the warnings on bathroom cleaners are more exciting.

A great read!, 29 Jun 2002
This is a great book that I couldn't put down until I'd devoured every Rock 'n' Roll page. The style is enjoyable and this is easily Kevin Sampson's best book. Charcters you like to like and like to loathe with a plot that - whilst covering all the ground you'd expect - contains masses of glorious laugh out loud funny moments. I could easily read more like this - unfortunately Sampson's works since, whilst, good, aren't up to the same standard, but Awaydays (his first one) deserves a read too because it's almost as good as this book.

Quite Simply Gorgeous, 15 Mar 2002
Fell in love with the enchanting tale very early on. Steeped with emotion, tragedy and melancholy this book will grab you where it hurts.

Keva is a captivating star, and we follow him and his band on his immense journey to fame with him and his sometimes hapless band members. Sensitive, brooding and full of promise, readers may fall just a little bit in love with Keva, certainly I had doubts of his lovers suitability in the book; would they be good for him long term and did they understand his fragility? Sampson has the ability to involve readers in this way through his fanstatic portrayal of the main characters, be prepared to share the full spectrum of emotions with characters - hard men may weep!

Keva is immense. Guy, on the otherhand, caused me some concern as I progressed through the book. He was absenbt for large parts of the book and even though we were up to speed on Guy's background and problems I could not quite get to grips with the way that Guy evolved and it did not really gel with me.

Quirky Wheezer was another joy, fascinating to see the development of him as well as the rest of the cast. I did feel that things came to a speedy conclusion with Wheezer, and his treatment towards the end did not sit very well with me although I very much appreciated the realism.

I felt the main characters in the book were great; very real and entertaining, and I enjoyed understanding what made them tick and having their faults highlighted so often. Gritty stuff. None of the women made a substantial impression, they came and went and none of them quite made the grade. Plenty of others grace the pages, there's a lot of laugh out loud moments with the Scallys... The sex scenes in the book were awesome, sensitive, matched to the character perfectly and sometimes hilarious, they were very pleasurable indeed, be prepared to blush!

I loved the way this book unfolded and it really got a grip of me. Watch of for James Love 'an that', he is a genius comic creation, but he also represents a very dark aspect of the band, although this is often disguised flimsily in gratuitious pleasure seeking.

My one greatest regret is that readers will never hear the music. What does 'Beautiful' sound like, I think it would be absolutly epic, Vervem Spiritualised, Strokes who knows where to stop?? It got under my skin and it is only on paper. That's an indication of the quality of this book. It is magnificant and everyone should devour it at the first opportunity! Word of advice though - DO NOT LEND IT!

Freshers Fortnight, 24 Jan 2005
After covering football hooligans (Awaydays), pop music (Powder), package tours (Leisure) and Liverpool criminals (Outlaws and Clubland) in previous books, Sampson turns his attention to the terrifying time of life known in the UK as "Freshers Fortnight." In the US, this is called "First Year Orientation"-but whatever the name, it's a time of mighty highs and lows as hordes of teenagers leave home for their first year of college. The novel does a nice job of portraying the haphazard struggle to make friendships, forge identities, and survive homesickness that characterizes those first few months.

Set in Sheffield, the story is told through Kit Hannah, a cooler-than thou indie music maven who, behind a thin veil of cynicism and misanthropy, is not as different from his classmates as he thinks. He's quite the teen Holden Caufield, finding everyone phony, and distrusting friendliness. But it doesn't take much convincing for him to be sucked into the vortex of pubs, clubbing, dorm room spliffs, and deep meaningful talks that are the staple of college life everywhere. Soon, he's amassed a little circle of friends that will sustain and define his first year. The people that make up this supporting cast are all quite easy to imagine (the public school athletic type, the sexy older woman student, the sassy but undesirable galpal, the poseur tall-tale teller, the American uberfeminist, etc.), but a touch too melodramatic. Each one has some kind of hidden secret or quality that defines them, and eventually each will be revealed to Kit and the reader. Of course Kit has his own deep dark secret, and it's a pretty startling one that explains much of his problem with people.

The story is set entirely outside the classroom, taking place mostly after hours, as Kit struggles to make sense of his new life and what all these new people mean to him. As the story cascades through pubs, parties, restaurants, and dorm rooms, it's studded with plenty of comic moments, along with a number of those wince-inducing embarrassing scenes that are the staple of that first year of college. It's a never-pretentious, but occasionally soap-operaish trip back to that time when we all struggled desperately to stay true to ourselves and fit in enough to make friends and live happily. Admittedly, it very nearly goes over the top at times, but the incisive dissection of Kit's insecurities make it a memorable read.

Converted to Sampson, 22 Jan 2005
Fearing he made be a writer strictly for the lads i was very pleased with 'Freshers'. Exhilirating, fresh and achingly relevant to student life, you'll feel like you're living the crazy experiences of the narrator, Kit Hannah.

FRESHERS, 21 Oct 2004
I liked the sound of this book so I gave it a go. I read it in 5 hours and it's 250 pages long.

Kit Hannah is someone we can all relate to or maybe we can all inspire to be like. He is smart, funny and good looking but he still has many floors and he was someone I admired yet sympathised with.

It's a tale of a troubled youth who seemed OK on the outside but was definatley not. It is something that everyone is like to an extent! He fell for a girl who he thought he had no chance but knew that he did if you can understand what I mean. Adrian Dangerous was an addictive charachter yet I did like him and I was longing to get to know Jinty more.

Read it, you won't regret it.

A great great read!, 13 Sep 2004
I am not really a great reader of contemporary fiction but every so often I fancy something a bit different...
With it coming up to the start of the semester and with me no longer being a student, I was feeling a reflective on my time at University and came across this book.
At first I did not take to it (mainly due to the seemingly unlike able lead character)... but after a couple of "chapters" it started flowing nicely.
I did bring back a lot of memories about how I felt during my first year at University and I also recognised a lot of character types and situations that the lead Kit Hannah goes through.
As I said a great book... might not have the same effect for people who never experienced Uni but never the less a well written and enjoyable book!

A good insight into a probably typical student, 26 Feb 2004
I liked the sound of this one and wanted to give it a go, and i'm glad i did. I'm not a student myself and to be totally honest i find a lot of students very annoying, but not Kit, the main character. He is a 17 year old leaving home for the first time to go to a Uni in Sheffield, after much support from his dear old mum! The book follows his progress and everything else that goes with student life, and yes, there is lots of drinking involved! Kit has one particular "issue" which hounds him throughout, and i'm sure which is common to lots of new found students.

Overall i did like this, one little gripe is the character "Alex", a typical example of the type of student i was voicing my annoyance at earlier - someone who has to turn just about everything into a debate. Nevermind........

A good ending aswell. Worth the buy.

pure brilliant. That is a fact, 04 Sep 2005
Encountered this book after reading 'Awaydays,' by the way, and its a great read to be fair. know where I'm going. No two ways about it this book is pure brilliant.That is a fact. The way it evokes working class life in Liverpool by the way, the crime, it's characters, their verbal tics makes it seem real rather than mere caricature in fairness, knowmean. Others in line with the blurb on the book have described it as Goodfellas on the Mersey, Scorcese with a scouse ascent, know where I'm going, and while I can see what they're saying in fairness, its more Roddy Doyle with a scouse ascent and violent tendencies, and thats the God's honest truth. That is a fact. End of.

OK, but Nothing Special, 20 Apr 2003
Liverpool's underworld comes alive in this Mean Streets/Goodfellas style tale of three South Liverpool friends who've grown up to be "respected" gangsters. The catalyst in the story is a plan by their leader, Ged, to set up one more easy score before bowing out of the game after twenty years. Of course, when in all gangster fiction and film, has that last score gone according to plan? The history of the threesome and various supporting characters unfolds in their alternating first-person accounts of the weeks leading up to Christmastime heist. The real story, however, is about how Ged is trying to be a "good" honorable gangster, and how Ratter has big big plans that Ged knows nothing about. This theme of betrayal is one of the most elementary in storytelling, and Sampson offers no new or interesting variations on it. There's never any doubt as to how it's all going to play out, and the only surprise is how abrupt and rushed the ending is. The real treat for most readers is going to be the first-person language, which is thick with Liverpool slang—which may be heavy going for some. And even though the threesome each have characteristic little turns of phrase, their voices tended to run together in my head.

There's a heavy dose of nostalgia running through it all, as the "faces" realize that the times are changing. For Ged and Moby (the third main character, an amiable thug who more or less follows Ged's lead, when he isn't having sex with strippers or forking over cash to his shrill wife), notions of "respect" and "honor" are dying off, as kids are running around strapped and willing to shoot at the slightest provocation. For Ratter, the past is an ugly place, and he's all to glad to be wheeling and dealing in properties and health clubs with greedy crooked politicians in the new era of crime. The book is really about the collision between these two belief systems, and while it's relatively engaging to watch it all play out, it's probably best enjoyed by those who have a strong Liverpool connection. A much better book about the one last heist is JJ Connolly's Layer Cake.

sampson manages another unputdownable read, 12 Aug 2002
Initially a little harder to get into, the slang a little tough to get around on occasions although nothing like trainspotting. And the story being told by the characters as it progresses is a little tough until the characters and their relationships is established.
Once the book gets going though it is true to form with Sampsons excellent characterisation, never painting characters black or white just describing things through their eyes, in this respect Ratter is bad put his double dealing twisted tales propel the story along with the most force.
The story build nicely towards the ending and its not at all obvious how things are going to transpire, as paranoia, double crossing and lots of drugs can lead to things taking unexpected turns.
The ending after being built for so long, was all over and done too quickly, would have liked a little more resolution at the end.
Prefered Awaydays and Leisure but still a boss novel.

Liverpool Noir at its finest, 29 Jun 2002
This is a truly stunning book. If you're a fan of hard boiled lo-life fiction then this is one you must not miss. Sampson is the Scally Scorsese and this is his Mean Streets. OUTLAWS is an utterly compelling tale of three South Liverpool hardmen who've been left behind by the new wave of sophisticated drug crime. They're old-skool stick up men with all the archaic morality that comes with it. When they run into lumber with a slick new firm over an incident in a lap-dance bar, all hell lets loose. And does it! The action is tautly scripted, the plotting masterfully handled. OUTLAWS would make a wonderful film and, from me (a gangsta film snob) there can be no higher compliment. This is definitely my book of the year so far.

Disappointing, 14 Mar 2002
Another book from Sampson and the usual failings. No likeable characters in the book at all. I presume that we were meant to warm to "Ged" as he had "honour", but he came across as just another run-of-the-mill no-mark.

As with "Powder", he seems incapable of following through a story to its conclusion and it almost appears as if he was bored with it by the end.

And, as for the depictions and characterisations of women in his books, dear Lord.............

There's been a plethora of British gangster films and books in recent years. This dresses it up in a Scouse accent, but there's nothing new to see here.

The Mersey might still be one of the world's muddiest rivers, but the Liverpool depicted in Kevin Sampson's Clubland is keen to leave its murky past behind. Brussels-bound bureaucrats toast the success of the post-Toxteth regeneration; young people are flocking to its universities and money men are clambering over each other for a slice of the lucrative club trade.

Veteran gangster - and hero of Sampson's earlier thriller Outlaws--Ged Brennan wouldn't normally turn down an opportunity to earn more money. He's got a wife and kids with decidedly upmarket tastes, after all. But he's also got strong principles. The idea of a decriminalised zone in the heart of clubland--where prostitution and drug use would be tolerated--appals him. Unfortunately, he's not in the best position to fight a crusade. The council are head-hunting him as the figurehead for their latest scheme. He's just handed over a string of strip clubs to his wayward--and distinctly warped--cousin Moby. And there's Marguerite, hot-shot lawyer and Haitian ice-queen. Who, in addition to being the widow of Ged's dead brother, has very much her own ideas about the future of clubland.

This is a highly original tale of tangled loyalties, set against a backdrop of shifting values. Ged Brennan is a protagonist to rival TV's Tony Soprano: gentlemanly and coarse, principled yet disarmingly ruthless. His journey through the mean streets of Merseyside is sometimes shocking, sometimes disturbing, always tinged with wit. Read it--and be grateful you're not living it.--Matthew Baylis