Stuart Bailie is a New Musical Express veteran, a music journalist and author from Belfast. He has had memorable exchanges with Tom Waits and Shane MacGowan. He has encountered Nina Simone, Björk, Sinéad O’Connor and John Lee Hooker. This is his collection of stories and original articles – 40 years of insights and shenanigans, a record of fast times in popular culture.

In his new book, The Song is Nearly Over, he charts the rise of Radiohead and messy exchanges with Oasis. There is road fever with Primal Scream and U2. The Manic Street Preachers suffer pain and achieve transcendence. Stuart documents a passing era of access and friction, critique and acclaim. This is a requiem and an action replay.

Stuart has been a music industry professional since 1985, writing for NME, Mojo, Uncut, Q, Vox, The Irish Times, The Times, Hot Press and Classic Rock. His books include Trouble Songs: Music and Conflict in Northern Ireland (2018), Terri Hooley: Seventy-Five Revolutions (2023), 75 Van Songs (2020) and The Ballad of the Thin Man: The Authorised Biography of Phil Lynott and Thin Lizzy (1997).

He wrote and narrated a BBC TV history of music from Northern Ireland, So Hard to Beat (2007). He is a co-founder the Oh Yeah Music Centre in Belfast and was its CEO from 2008-16. He edits Dig With It, a forum for music, arts and counterculture in the north.