Latest news with #Niven
Spectator
10 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Spectator
An explosion of toxic masculinity: The Fathers, by John Niven, reviewed
'Fucking men,' spits a woman towards the end of John Niven's brilliant tenth novel, The Fathers. 'Why do they always think it's about fixing everything?' It's a classic hit of deadpan humour from a novelist best known for sending up the most appalling blood, spunk'n'booze-spattered excesses of modern men. A former A&R man with a reputation for partying harder than any rock star, Niven made his name satirising the Britpop scene in his 2008 novel Kill Your Friends. Influenced by Vladimir Nabokov, Martin Amis and Irvine Welsh, he excelled at condensing his characters' most brutal, misanthropic thoughts into kick-in-the-balls prose. The hectic, testosterone-spiked plotting and shock humour force conspiratorial laughs from readers before their spinning moral compasses knows what's hit them. But Niven, now 66, has grown increasingly interested in the more tender feelings squirming within the puffed-out chests of even his most venal characters. His previous book, O Brother, was non-fiction – a painful, piercing examination of the life of his younger sibling Gary, a petty criminal who died by suicide in 2010. In it, Niven compared his own life as a wealthy and successful arts graduate with the hardscrabble existence of Gary, whose debts he could have paid with a wave of his wallet. The complex emotional truths he squared up to for that book have clearly helped broaden the psychological scope of the fictional characters who appear in The Fathers. Like Niven and his brother, this is a story of lives on different tracks. But unlike them, the titular fathers – two men in their late forties who meet outside a Glasgow hospital on the night their sons are born – come from very different backgrounds. Dan is an arts graduate who's made a fortune writing and producing a long-running detective series set in the Scottish highlands. He drives a Tesla, only eats environmentally friendly salmon and dotes on his clever wife. He's caught off guard when Jada, a small-time crook and now the father of a sixth child by a sixth woman, appears beside him in the darkness to pass judgment on the bodies of various expectant mothers passing by: 'Ye'd ride that until the fucking wean pushed ye oot, eh?' Gentle, thoughtful Dan is left fumbling for words while his writerly magpie mind snatches up Jada's slang for future dialogue. Dan's son will come home to a lovingly baby-proofed nursery, his name already down for the local private school. Jada's will soon be chugging energy drinks from his bottle while passively smoking weed. But the plot quickly tangles the two fathers' lives into a frantic scramble to 'fix' issues that spiral out of their control. Without preaching on social issues, Niven uses a catastrophic domino-topple of events to ask what power either man has to control the violent turns their lives take. We must consider the roles class and education play as both continue to regard one another as mugs. The horrors they endure expose heartbreaking, levelling vulnerabilities. The book's most shocking scene rips Dan from his middle-class cocoon; its most tender moment finds Jada (high on class As) lovingly atuned to the beat of his son's 'rabbit heart'. Without losing any of the propulsive, sweary energy or outrageous comedy of his early work, Niven has added real, lingering depth to his fiction. It's this new richness of heart that makes The Fathers such a blockbusting explosion of toxic masculinity. A week after finishing it, I still feel my ears ringing as I wait for the smoke to clear.
Scotsman
21-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
John Niven at the Bookface Sip & Swap
Bestselling author John Niven will be the guest author at Bookface's next Sip & Swap event on Saturday, September 27 at Saints of Ingram in Glasgow from 3–6pm. Sign up to our Arts and Culture newsletter, get the latest news and reviews from our specialist arts writers Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Niven, who previously visited Bookface with his bestselling memoir O Brother, returns to talk about his new novel The Fathers. The book is a sharp, darkly funny look at fatherhood, masculinity and class, told through the story of two men who meet outside a Glasgow maternity ward – one a successful screenwriter, the other a small-time criminal. It's a return to fiction for Niven, and a reminder of his talent for writing stories that are unpredictable, biting, and impossible to categorise. Originally from Irvine, Ayrshire, Niven studied English Literature at the University of Glasgow and graduated with first-class honours. He spent a decade working in the music industry before becoming a full-time writer. His breakout novel Kill Your Friends – a savage satire of his time in A&R – became a cult hit and bestseller in 2008. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad His other novels include The Amateurs, Cold Hands, Straight White Male and The Sunshine Cruise Company. He is also an accomplished screenwriter and prolific journalist, with a sharp, fearless voice that's earned him a loyal following across film, print and broadcast. John Niven Bookface's Sip & Swap events offer an afternoon of relaxed book chat, an author Q&A, and the opportunity to meet other readers. Guests are invited to bring up to four books to swap from a selection of over 300 titles. Taking part in the swap is optional – many attendees prefer Kindle or audiobooks. Bookface is a private online community of 5,000 book lovers. Previous guest authors at the monthly sell-out events include Lisa Jewell, Val McDermid, Chris Brookmyre, Alan Parks, Davinia Taylor, Susannah Constantine, Fran Littlewood, Heather Morris and more. Bookface Sip & Swap with John Niven on Saturday, September 27, 3pm–6pm at Saints of Ingram, Glasgow.
NZ Herald
14-07-2025
- Entertainment
- NZ Herald
Ex-Kiwi manager Alan Niven details ‘nightmare' Guns N' Roses era in new memoir
Niven alleged he was approached by the group three times before finally accepting their managerial job offer in 1986 in an interview with the Daily Mail. Alan Niven managed Guns N' Roses during their rise to fame in the late 1980s. Photo / Supplied 'No one wanted Guns N' Roses. They'd been through at least two other management situations,' Niven said. 'They couldn't get rid of them fast enough. No one wanted to deal with them. They were a nightmare.' But the Kiwi, who also produces and songwrites, struck up a friendship with Slash - an English member of the band who he found to be surprisingly intelligent and alluring. Niven eventually became drawn into the band. Guns N' Roses' debut album, Appetite for Destruction, dropped in 1987 to widespread acclaim and remains the band's most successful album to date. While Niven tried to rein in the band and control the public narrative as they navigated the period of explosive growth, he quickly recognised the rockers were not too interested in civility. Guns N' Roses (L-R: Duff McKagan, Slash, Axl Rose, Izzy Stradlin, Steven Adler) in 1987. Photo / Getty Images He recalled a time where he arrived to a band meeting to find only Slash present with Stradlin asleep on the table. To Niven's bewilderment, Slash then allegedly picked up a fluffy white bunny and fed it to a large snake stored in a neighbouring room. Niven said all five members came into the band from 'dysfunctional' backgrounds, which he believes fuelled their compulsive behaviours. 'A part of the motivation of forming a band was not just to make noise, not just to get laid, but to create your perfect family that substitutes that,' Nevin said. 'Now, in terms of how does that relate to recreational drugs use or addiction? I believe people from dysfunctional circumstance are prone to addiction.' Rose had been the most difficult for Niven to deal with. Niven referred to the lead singer as a 'narcissist' whose self-conceitedness was amplified by the attention the band received. Slash and Axl Rose on stage at Guns N' Roses' concert at Western Springs Stadium, Auckland, in 2017. Photo / Steven McNicholl Ultimately, Niven was fired on the spot by Rose in 1991. He received a call from the frontman to say he could no longer work with him. 'I never heard from him again. He did not have the courage, the grace, the appreciation to even sit down and say, this is why.' Guns N' Roses slowly unravelled with the firing of Adler in 1990 and the departure of Stradlin shortly after Niven. By 1997, Slash and McKagan had also departed - leaving Rose as the only original member of the group for nearly two decades. 'I don't think I've ever said this to anybody else before, but in some ways I'm really glad that I got outta [Guns N' Roses] when I did,' Niven said. 'Because sometimes I have the honesty to sit in a tub and think, 'What kind of an a****** do you think you would've been if you'd been multimillions rich?'' Slash and McKagan eventually rejoined Guns N' Roses in 2016 when they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The band's current line-up consists of founding members Rose, Slash and McKagan alongside Richard Fotus (guitar), Isaac Carpenter (drums), Dizzy Reed and Melissa Reese (keyboard). Sign up to The Daily H, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
The Herald Scotland
14-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
How the famous Oasis-Blur chart war became a West End play
But given the Irvine-born author's first life was as a music industry professional in the 1990s, the subject we alight on before too long is not fathers but brothers – two in particular, proudly Mancunian and currently enjoying the full glare of the media spotlight as their epic reunion tour hits the UK's stadiums. Yes, it's Oasis. Niven first encountered the band supporting St Etienne at the Plaza in Glasgow in December 1993, seven months after their historic appearance at King Tut's Wah Wah Hut. At first he didn't see what the fuss was about. 'But then I saw them again a few months later and it was like: 'Oh wow! Okay I get this now. Then I saw them at Glastonbury in the summer of 1994 and I was at Maine Road.' That was the iconic 1996 show at the old home of the Gallaghers' beloved Manchester City FC. 'So I was there for a few of the pivotal moments. They were a very powerful rock and roll group in their time and by all accounts they still are.' As for the why, it's all down to the power of the frontman. 'Liam, even to kids who are 16 or 17 now, is a stone cold legend gangster. He just has this superpower aura of invincibility. He's just the coolest guy.' But Niven has skin in the Oasis reunion tour in more ways than one. As luck would have it, he has just completed a play called The Battle which tells the story of the race to number one between Oasis and Blur in the summer of 1995. 'I started writing it before the Oasis reformation, so I was just stunned when it was announced,' he laughs. Read more from Barry Didcock: The Battle opens at Birmingham Rep in February before transferring to the West End and stars Gavin And Stacey's Matthew Horne as the music industry executive masterminding the hype war. But Niven says he originally turned down the approach from producer Simon Friend. 'I thought he wanted Britpop! The Musical and I said: 'It's not really what I do.' But then, as I thought about it, I thought there might be a really funny sort of David Mamet-type play about men screaming at each other in rooms. About something that, when we pull the lens back a little, is just ridiculous – which record's number one. Who cares? But it was such an interesting cultural time to shine the light back on because you forget the centrality of pop records to the culture, that it went from the pages of the NME to the 10 O'Clock News. The whole country up to the age of about 35 was very invested in this story. It's difficult to imagine pop music with that level of centrality today.' As for Oasis themselves, he has some words of caution, however. 'I often think with band reformations it's a bit like Samuel Johnson's words on second marriages – a triumph of hope over experience. So we'll see if they make it to the end of the dates.' The play's the thing Like an angry piranha the ongoing catastrophe in Gaza and the Occupied West Bank is already nibbling at the tender bits of the upcoming Edinburgh Festival. So where transgender and environmental issues have dominated the debate in previous years it seems likely the shouting and complaining and protesting in 2025 will have a hard geopolitical focus. The noise is unavoidable, but it's to be hoped it doesn't obscure the main business of the world's largest arts festival – to present work which addresses issues like this in a considered fashion. One well-regarded play on the subject of Israel's treatment of the Palestinians is My Name Is Rachel Corrie, based on the diaries of the American activist killed by the Israeli army in Rafah in the Gaza Strip in 2003. The play was co-created two decades ago by Alan Rickman and journalist Katharine Viner, now editor of The Guardian. Rickman also directed the first staging, at London's prestigious Royal Court Theatre in 2005. Two decades, little has changed. The play is still stingingly fresh. Sascha Shinder in My Name Is Rachel Corrie (Image: Tom Miller) With that in mind I had been wondering if we would see a revival this year. We are. Zoo Southside is the venue, the play runs for the full month of the festival and stars Sascha Shinder in a production by award-winning Scottish theatre director Susan Worsfold. 'Like many British Jews, I grew up with a narrow, emotionally-charged view of Israel as a place of safety and identity,' says Shinder. 'Over time, I found myself caught between Leftist friends condemning Israel and family defending it. After October 7th, I was flooded with emotion but felt uninformed. I needed to understand more. When I found My Name Is Rachel Corrie, it felt like a lightning bolt. Rachel gave voice to questions and feelings I couldn't articulate. Her journey – from privileged idealism to confronting brutal reality – mirrored my own in many ways. Her humanity, her refusal to see the world in binaries, deeply moved me.' Difficult thing to do, step away from binaries. But history suggests it's ultimately the only way through. And finally The Herald's theatre critic Neil Cooper is out and about and recently visited Theatre 118 in Glasgow's Merchant City to take in two shows. The first was Fools On A Hill, a new work about (possibly misplaced) religious belief by Chris Patrick. The second was Madonna/Whore, another new play – this one by Julie Calderwood – and set in a maximum-security prison. Toxic masculinity and the abuse of women is the sobering subject of that one. Neil also took in The Tommy Burns Story at the King's Theatre, Glasgow. Elsewhere Gayle Anderson watched broadcaster, clergyman and former keyboard player with The Communards Richard Coles turn raconteur at the Assembly Rooms in Edinburgh. 'Memories of Jimmy Somerville hit the mark,' says Gayle. 'Who knew the wee man was such a big fan of French enamel cookware?' And of course there was the small matter of TRNSMT at the weekend and before that an appearance by yon Irish rap trio who have been in the news a lot recently. The Herald's Jody Harrison and Marissa MacWhirter were in attendance at Glasgow Green for headline appearances by Fontaines DC, Wet Leg and The Script while Teddy Jamieson was getting his Brits out at the Kneecap gig.
Express Tribune
13-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Express Tribune
Former Guns N' Roses manager Alan Niven recalls challenges managing band
Former Guns N' Roses manager Alan Niven has shared his experiences working with the band, detailing early challenges and the band's behaviour during the 1980s. Niven, who has managed artists including Great White and Mötley Crüe, discusses his time with Guns N' Roses in his upcoming book, Sound N' Fury: Rock N' Roll Stories, which will be released on August 5. Niven explained how guitarist Slash persuaded him to take on the management role after he initially declined multiple times. 'No one wanted Guns N' Roses. They'd been through at least two other management situations,' Niven told the Daily Mail, describing the group as 'a nightmare.' He credited Slash for eventually convincing him, noting his intelligence and charm during their first meetings. Reflecting on the band's rise to fame, Niven described incidents such as being approached by fans while driving Slash around town, observing, 'Everybody knows you're famous before you do.' He shared memories of an early band meeting where Izzy Stradlin fell asleep at the table, leaving Niven alone with Slash, who then showed him a snake feeding on a rabbit in the bedroom. Niven also spoke about Axl Rose, describing him as a 'narcissist' and noting that fame 'amplified' Rose's personality. He recalled his departure from the band in 1991, which came via an unexpected phone call from Rose, stating, 'I never heard from him again.'
