Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Book Review: Dilligaf The life and rhymes of Kevin Bloody Wilson by Kevin Bloody Wilson and Gavin Miller

ISBN: 9781742375205

Australian Pub.: December 2010

Edition: 1

Publisher: ALLEN & UNWIN

Imprint: ALLEN & UNWIN

Subject: Autobiography: general

Edition Number: 1



A raucous, earthy, in-depth look at one of the funniest and most controversial Australian entertainers of all time - a comedian who has refused to bow to the pressures of prim political correctness.

Description

'The world's funniest Australian.' - Billy Connolly

'I love Kev. My favourite is "Livin' Next Door To Alan".' - Paul Hogan

'"Hello John" is the funniest song I've ever heard in my entire radio career.' - John Laws

A long time ago, a long way from anywhere, in a West Australian mining town called Kalgoorlie, the legend of Kevin Bloody Wilson was born. It all started innocently enough - just a guy with too much time on his hands changing the words to other people's songs, and writing a few of his own, purely for the fun of it.

Twenty-five years, countless live gigs and millions of album sales down the track, Kevin Bloody Wilson has not only found his niche, he's grabbed a beer cooler and a deckchair and made himself really bloody comfortable in it! These days his recordings can be found everywhere from Outback Australia to Antarctica, from big-rig road trains to the console of Prince Charles' Aston Martin. And, remarkably, many albums have achieved platinum status with absolutely no traditional media support.

DILLIGAF (Do I Look Like I Give a F***) will catapult you on a remarkable, side-splitting roller-coaster ride alongside a unique Australian icon. If you buckle up and enjoy the journey, you won’t ever want it to stop. But when it’s finally over, you almost certainly will be changed forever with the positive, inspirational and pretension-hating spirit of the DILLIGAF philosophy coursing through your veins.

About Kevin Bloody Wilson and Gavin Miller

Kevin Bloody Wilson has been listed in Who's Who, his entire body of work has been preserved for future generations with the National Film and Sound Archive in Canberra and he is now a highly sought after speaker and motivator for sporting and corporate Australia. It seems ironic that twenty-five years ago, Kevin Bloody Wilson was being arrested for performing his songs in public, yet on Australia Day 2010 he was officially nominated for Australian of the Year for doing exactly the same thing.



Review

DILLIGAF is the autobiography of one of Australia’s longest performing comedians, and a good yarn. Like Rodney Rude, Kevin Bloody Wilson was ostracised for his rude and crude performances back in a more civilized times when you were still arrested for using most four letter words in public. Reading through this biography, it is very interesting to see the sort of things that Kevin sang and was arrested for two decades back. Today, these sorts of lyrics and words are commonplace and no longer censored on public television.

Wilson’s autobiography is both humorous, and a lesson in the history of censorship in Australia over the last twenty five years. It is amazing to see how someone can be ostracised for their entertaining style, and then become a motivational speaker and even Australian of the Year.

This biography is worth reading not just for fans of Wilson, but also those interested in the declining standards of acceptability over the last twenty years.

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