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One Hit Wonderland
It's 1988 and radios across the land blast out the Top Ten hit "Stutter Rap" by Morris Minor and the Majors. The man behind the fake moustache is Tony Hawks. Fast forward to the 21st century and those heady days of pop stardom are a distant memory. That is, until it is suggested that Tony is just another One Hit Wonder. Really? We'll have to see about that. For two years Tony struggles to have a hit somewhere—anywhere—in the world, changing acts and styles with a bewildering lack of integrity. From Nashville to Amsterdam, from Eastern Europe to Africa, he travels the globe in search of that elusive hit. But it's only after a chance encounter with actor Norman Wisdom that things get really strange. Is it really possible that together they could storm the Albanian charts? In One Hit Wonderland anything can happen.
336 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2002
9 people are currently reading
348 people want to read
About the author
Tony Hawks
31 books227 followersTony Hawks, is a British comedian and author, famous for his Quizotic travel accounts undertaking bizarre wagers with friends. Hawks performs stand-up comedy, and is a regular on TV and radio panel games in the UK, including I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, Just a Minute, The Unbelievable Truth and Have I Got News for You, although he first came to prominence as one of two resident performers — the other was Jo Brand — on semi-successful BBC monologue show The Brain Drain.
He first attempted to break into show business as a serious singer-songwriter, but it was with a novelty record that he had his first brush with fame. As leader of the trio Morris Minor and the Majors, he reached number 4 in the UK charts with the Beastie Boys parody, Stutter Rap (No Sleep Til Bedtime) in 1988. It went on to sell 220,000 copies, and was number one in Australia. The follow-up, a pastiche of Stock Aitken Waterman called This Is the Chorus, fared less well.
The full-length feature film version of his book Round Ireland with a Fridge, starring Tony, Josie Lawrence, Ed Byrne and Sean Hughes, was released in Autumn 2010. Filming on the follow-up, Playing the Moldovans at Tennis, with Steven Frost, Angus Deayton, Morwenna Banks and Laura Solon, has just been completed. In March 2011 Tony travelled to Japan to appear at the Okinawa International Film Festival where Round Ireland with a Fridge was nominated for Best Comedy.
Tony Hawks donated half of the royalties from his book Playing the Moldovans at Tennis to a trust fund for Moldova, which was used to open the Hippocrates Centre, a medical centre that provides rehabilitative therapy for disabled children from socially vulnerable families. Hawks continues to support Hippocrates through fundraising and personal involvement. Hawks is the co-founder and public face of the "Tennis for Free" campaign which aims to make Britain's existing municipal tennis facilities available to all.
He is frequently confused with Tony Hawk, largely because the latter's video game franchise uses the possessive apostrophe ("Tony Hawk's"). Hawks maintains a list of emails intended for the skateboarder and his mischievous responses to them on his website. On 2 January 2008 he appeared on an edition of Celebrity Mastermind, with Tony Hawk as his chosen specialised subject. Hawks noted that his correspondents "might be able to do backside varials but they can't spell to save their lives."
In September he will begin his first National Theatre tour since 2003 with a new one man show called Random Fun.
He first attempted to break into show business as a serious singer-songwriter, but it was with a novelty record that he had his first brush with fame. As leader of the trio Morris Minor and the Majors, he reached number 4 in the UK charts with the Beastie Boys parody, Stutter Rap (No Sleep Til Bedtime) in 1988. It went on to sell 220,000 copies, and was number one in Australia. The follow-up, a pastiche of Stock Aitken Waterman called This Is the Chorus, fared less well.
The full-length feature film version of his book Round Ireland with a Fridge, starring Tony, Josie Lawrence, Ed Byrne and Sean Hughes, was released in Autumn 2010. Filming on the follow-up, Playing the Moldovans at Tennis, with Steven Frost, Angus Deayton, Morwenna Banks and Laura Solon, has just been completed. In March 2011 Tony travelled to Japan to appear at the Okinawa International Film Festival where Round Ireland with a Fridge was nominated for Best Comedy.
Tony Hawks donated half of the royalties from his book Playing the Moldovans at Tennis to a trust fund for Moldova, which was used to open the Hippocrates Centre, a medical centre that provides rehabilitative therapy for disabled children from socially vulnerable families. Hawks continues to support Hippocrates through fundraising and personal involvement. Hawks is the co-founder and public face of the "Tennis for Free" campaign which aims to make Britain's existing municipal tennis facilities available to all.
He is frequently confused with Tony Hawk, largely because the latter's video game franchise uses the possessive apostrophe ("Tony Hawk's"). Hawks maintains a list of emails intended for the skateboarder and his mischievous responses to them on his website. On 2 January 2008 he appeared on an edition of Celebrity Mastermind, with Tony Hawk as his chosen specialised subject. Hawks noted that his correspondents "might be able to do backside varials but they can't spell to save their lives."
In September he will begin his first National Theatre tour since 2003 with a new one man show called Random Fun.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 37 reviews
March 27, 2020
I picked this one up after seeing it in a charity shop and reading and enjoying Round Ireland with a Fridge. Hawks has a quirky sense of humour, but it’s one of the rare instances where someone’s sense of humour comes across really well in the written page and where it doesn’t annoy me.
Here, we basically follow what happens when Hawks decides to head abroad to try to record a follow up to a one hit wonder that he had before I was even born. He meets a colourful supporting cast of characters along the way of course, and overall we end up with a fun little book that you can whizz through in a couple of days.
I actually read this while everyone was locked down because of Coronavirus, and it was the perfect read for that because it helped to take my mind away to a time where the world wasn’t quite in the state that it’s in today. It’s weird, I haven’t seen anyone I know for a week or so, and so just the very idea of going outside and spending time with people feels like something I did half a year away.
All in all then, I was pretty happy with this book and I still plan to eventually read everything that Hawks has published. The list is disappointingly short, and he must be about due something by now, but perhaps he’s no longer taking silly bets and going off on crazy madcap adventures. I don’t know, I haven’t looked him up.
Would I recommend this one? Definitely, and it’s actually one of those where I think you’ll find something no matter what kind of stuff you normally read. It’s just loads of fun.
Here, we basically follow what happens when Hawks decides to head abroad to try to record a follow up to a one hit wonder that he had before I was even born. He meets a colourful supporting cast of characters along the way of course, and overall we end up with a fun little book that you can whizz through in a couple of days.
I actually read this while everyone was locked down because of Coronavirus, and it was the perfect read for that because it helped to take my mind away to a time where the world wasn’t quite in the state that it’s in today. It’s weird, I haven’t seen anyone I know for a week or so, and so just the very idea of going outside and spending time with people feels like something I did half a year away.
All in all then, I was pretty happy with this book and I still plan to eventually read everything that Hawks has published. The list is disappointingly short, and he must be about due something by now, but perhaps he’s no longer taking silly bets and going off on crazy madcap adventures. I don’t know, I haven’t looked him up.
Would I recommend this one? Definitely, and it’s actually one of those where I think you’ll find something no matter what kind of stuff you normally read. It’s just loads of fun.
June 25, 2025
Quirky book - picked it up in a Spanish second hand store. Going to do a deep dive into this guy at some stage, seems like a character.
January 1, 2012
I very much enjoyed A Piano in the Pyrenees but all the other books by Hawks I have read have been a disappointment. One Hit Wonderland was alright but I just didn't find it very funny. I actually ended up skimming through the book...
January 17, 2015
In the life and career of Tony Hawks, a couple of periods stand out as being highlights. In recent times, after a career as a comedian, he accepted a couple of stupid bets, firstly to hitchhike around Ireland with a fridge and later to play the entire Moldovan football team at tennis. It is not so much these events that were to be the highlights, but that he was able to write a book based on each of them. And very funny and well written books they were, too.
However, well before this, there was Morris Minor and the Majors, who had a Top 5 hit with a song called “Stutter Rap”. Drawing on Hawks’ first loves of music and comedy, he had for fifteen years been little but a “One Hit Wonder” – an artist who has one hit record and is never heard from again. Tony Hawks, however, isn’t happy with being a “One Hit Wonder”, as he feels he has the talent, if not as a singer, then as a songwriter, to hit the charts again. So he takes on another bet – to have a hit record, either as a writer or a performer, within 2 years.
As with his previous books, we follow Tony as he aims to win his bet. This takes him to the heart of country in Nashville, to the Sudan, and all over Europe. We also get to meet all the people Tony meets along the way, from Sir Tim Rice to Simon Cowell, who was just an A+R man at that point, and not the evil “Pop Idol” judge he became famous for being.
The story is told in Hawks’ usual style, with what feels like complete honesty and in a chatty style that’s easy to read. However, this is slightly less so than in his previous works, as he’s relying on a lot more people to assist him in winning his bet than before. This means that a lot more of the time is spent setting up meetings and discussing how to win the bet, rather than going out to win it and so a lot more of the telling is conversations with other people rather than Tony’s recounting of what happened.
This has the effect of making the story seem slower paced than his previous books. Whereas every step he took in his earlier adventures was a step towards the goal, this time around he seems to take a lot of steps that don’t take him forward and many times he ends up more or less back where he started. This gives the book less of a flow, as each section of the book where he’s dealing with a different song and trying to crack a different market feels like a separate story, rather than the whole book being just a single story, as in his previous books.
There’s also a slight difference in his writing style here. Whilst he still writes in a chatty and humorous style, it feels as if he’s actually trying to be funny this time. I feel that this is down to the bet he’s trying to win this time. In his two earlier books, he’s been set completely ridiculous challenges. This time, the challenge seems like less of a challenge and the whole idea isn’t as funny as his earlier ones. It feels as if Hawks is trying to over-compensate for this by using his own humour to lighten the situation, rather than being able to rely on the natural silliness of what he’s trying to do. Having made a living as a comedian for many years, Hawks is a funny man, so there are some very funny moments, possibly even more than in “Round Ireland With a Fridge”. Unfortunately, there are also some points where the humour seems a little too forced and there are some predictable jokes, which hasn’t been true before.
However, that doesn’t mean it’s not a good read. For me personally, this was the most interesting of all his books, purely because it’s the easiest to relate to, in that the things he does are a little more realistic than chasing around playing tennis with strangers or carrying a fridge around Ireland. As a sometime lyricist as well, I felt a little kinship with Tony trying to persuade someone to sing a song of his own writing, even though he’s had a Top 5 single and I just have a lyric file and an unfulfilled dream. This time, he’s writing about something I can envisage myself doing, which I didn’t feel from his first two books.
As before, this is marketed as a travel book, although all Hawks does is recount his own travels, without giving any advice to anyone who may wish to travel where he did. For those aspiring songwriters, he doesn’t give much more information as to how to make it in the industry, either as most of the people he ends up working with are friends of friends and often quite big names in the music industry from several years ago. Not generally the kind of people that you’d be able to start a musical or writing career working with.
Although I found this to be the most accessible of Hawks’ books so far and, in parts, the funniest, it is the weakest of his books. In many ways, the humour seems a little forced and it feels more episodic and piecemeal than his earlier tales. However, for anyone who is already a fan of Tony Hawks writing, it’s well worth a look and for anyone with much interest in music in general, it’s also worth a look as some of the names he drops are pretty impressive indeed. It’s well worth picking up if Hawks’ writing or music are subjects that will interest you, but if you’re new to the amusing travelogue style of writing or to Tony Hawks, I’d recommend “Round Ireland With a Fridge” over “one Hit Wonderland”, but advise you to come back to this one once you’ve decided if the genre is to your taste.
This review may also appear under my name at any or all of www.ciao.co.uk, www.thebookbag.co.uk, www.goodreads.com, www.amazon.co.uk and www.dooyoo.co.uk
However, well before this, there was Morris Minor and the Majors, who had a Top 5 hit with a song called “Stutter Rap”. Drawing on Hawks’ first loves of music and comedy, he had for fifteen years been little but a “One Hit Wonder” – an artist who has one hit record and is never heard from again. Tony Hawks, however, isn’t happy with being a “One Hit Wonder”, as he feels he has the talent, if not as a singer, then as a songwriter, to hit the charts again. So he takes on another bet – to have a hit record, either as a writer or a performer, within 2 years.
As with his previous books, we follow Tony as he aims to win his bet. This takes him to the heart of country in Nashville, to the Sudan, and all over Europe. We also get to meet all the people Tony meets along the way, from Sir Tim Rice to Simon Cowell, who was just an A+R man at that point, and not the evil “Pop Idol” judge he became famous for being.
The story is told in Hawks’ usual style, with what feels like complete honesty and in a chatty style that’s easy to read. However, this is slightly less so than in his previous works, as he’s relying on a lot more people to assist him in winning his bet than before. This means that a lot more of the time is spent setting up meetings and discussing how to win the bet, rather than going out to win it and so a lot more of the telling is conversations with other people rather than Tony’s recounting of what happened.
This has the effect of making the story seem slower paced than his previous books. Whereas every step he took in his earlier adventures was a step towards the goal, this time around he seems to take a lot of steps that don’t take him forward and many times he ends up more or less back where he started. This gives the book less of a flow, as each section of the book where he’s dealing with a different song and trying to crack a different market feels like a separate story, rather than the whole book being just a single story, as in his previous books.
There’s also a slight difference in his writing style here. Whilst he still writes in a chatty and humorous style, it feels as if he’s actually trying to be funny this time. I feel that this is down to the bet he’s trying to win this time. In his two earlier books, he’s been set completely ridiculous challenges. This time, the challenge seems like less of a challenge and the whole idea isn’t as funny as his earlier ones. It feels as if Hawks is trying to over-compensate for this by using his own humour to lighten the situation, rather than being able to rely on the natural silliness of what he’s trying to do. Having made a living as a comedian for many years, Hawks is a funny man, so there are some very funny moments, possibly even more than in “Round Ireland With a Fridge”. Unfortunately, there are also some points where the humour seems a little too forced and there are some predictable jokes, which hasn’t been true before.
However, that doesn’t mean it’s not a good read. For me personally, this was the most interesting of all his books, purely because it’s the easiest to relate to, in that the things he does are a little more realistic than chasing around playing tennis with strangers or carrying a fridge around Ireland. As a sometime lyricist as well, I felt a little kinship with Tony trying to persuade someone to sing a song of his own writing, even though he’s had a Top 5 single and I just have a lyric file and an unfulfilled dream. This time, he’s writing about something I can envisage myself doing, which I didn’t feel from his first two books.
As before, this is marketed as a travel book, although all Hawks does is recount his own travels, without giving any advice to anyone who may wish to travel where he did. For those aspiring songwriters, he doesn’t give much more information as to how to make it in the industry, either as most of the people he ends up working with are friends of friends and often quite big names in the music industry from several years ago. Not generally the kind of people that you’d be able to start a musical or writing career working with.
Although I found this to be the most accessible of Hawks’ books so far and, in parts, the funniest, it is the weakest of his books. In many ways, the humour seems a little forced and it feels more episodic and piecemeal than his earlier tales. However, for anyone who is already a fan of Tony Hawks writing, it’s well worth a look and for anyone with much interest in music in general, it’s also worth a look as some of the names he drops are pretty impressive indeed. It’s well worth picking up if Hawks’ writing or music are subjects that will interest you, but if you’re new to the amusing travelogue style of writing or to Tony Hawks, I’d recommend “Round Ireland With a Fridge” over “one Hit Wonderland”, but advise you to come back to this one once you’ve decided if the genre is to your taste.
This review may also appear under my name at any or all of www.ciao.co.uk, www.thebookbag.co.uk, www.goodreads.com, www.amazon.co.uk and www.dooyoo.co.uk
August 5, 2023
Back from playing Tennis with Moldavian's and taking a fridge around Ireland, Tony Hawks successfully impresses a girl (that doesn't really remember him or the bet) That from nothing he can have a hit record in two years. Well not from nothing Tony had a hit in 1988 with a 'Beastie Boys' parody 'Stutter rap' How hard can it be 20yrs on?
August 17, 2019
I had hoped for something as wonderful and entertaining as "A Piano in the Pyrenees", but this just didn't hit the mark for me. Overall, the book is enjoyable enough, and with some really amusing anecdotes.
December 30, 2021
A fun and enjoyable read. How Tony illustrates the places he visits and the vibe of the people adds to the charm and his hilariously absurd attempt to score a number one hit to win a date with girl who bet him he couldn’t.
April 1, 2023
Amusing, witty and a good lesson for getting yourself out there and going for it. Tony always has the line right between self depreciation and positivity. Not as funny as his first 2 but still a really enjoyable read.
October 12, 2017
Great fun! An amusing & entertaining read...what more can I say? The only disappointment is that I can't seem to get on www.onehitwonderland.com to hear the songs...
November 4, 2017
I started off loving it but then it all became a bit too much of the same and a bit too much. Great if you just read the first few chapters.
April 21, 2018
I enjoyed this much more than I thought I would. Will definitely seek out other books by Mr. Hawks!
May 5, 2020
The man who brought us Stutter Rap tries to have another hit. Very funny.
August 16, 2014
If you're a fan of Dave Gorman's books then this is the sort of thing that you will enjoy. I'm sure that someone will point out that Tony Hawks was doing the 'zany bet/travel writing' genre first but I know that Dave Gorman has been popular in the last few years and the comparison stands.
Basically, Tony Hawks had a comedy hit record in 1985 with 'Stutter Rap' and appeared on Top of the Pops performing it. In 2002, he meets an attractive woman at a dinner party and they have a drunken bet that he can't have another hit record, anywhere in the world, within two years. Hawks then travels to Nashville, the Sudan, Romania and Albania in search of an elusive top twenty hit.
It's not laugh out loud funny, but it is amusing enough and certainly interesting. There are also times where Hawks talks seriously about the country that he is visiting and his reflections of the poverty in the Sudan or the red light district of Amsterdam are well conceived and thought provoking.
It's never going to be a world changing piece of literature - but it is enjoyable and well worth reading just for the account of taking Norman Wisdom to Albania and to read about the public response that he received.
Basically, Tony Hawks had a comedy hit record in 1985 with 'Stutter Rap' and appeared on Top of the Pops performing it. In 2002, he meets an attractive woman at a dinner party and they have a drunken bet that he can't have another hit record, anywhere in the world, within two years. Hawks then travels to Nashville, the Sudan, Romania and Albania in search of an elusive top twenty hit.
It's not laugh out loud funny, but it is amusing enough and certainly interesting. There are also times where Hawks talks seriously about the country that he is visiting and his reflections of the poverty in the Sudan or the red light district of Amsterdam are well conceived and thought provoking.
It's never going to be a world changing piece of literature - but it is enjoyable and well worth reading just for the account of taking Norman Wisdom to Albania and to read about the public response that he received.
September 19, 2010
This is, of course, Tony Hawks the British writer/comedian, not the skating icon. If you've ever read "Round Ireland With A Fridge," you know what wonders he's capable of rendering — and like that book and its follow-up "Playing Tennis with the Moldovans," this one features Hawks making a stupidly ambitious bet and then setting out with absolutely no self-consciousness to succeed. In this case, Hawks bets that he can record a Top Ten single. Top Ten... anywhere. Which leads him to Nashville, then Sudan, then... well, all over the place, really, as he attempts to achieve stardom with something that straddles the line between a disarming lack of self-doubt and total arrogance. The result is a mixed bag (this is probably my least favorite of his three books), but a mildly entertaining read nonetheless.
October 2, 2012
My first of several Tony Hawks books and on the account of this one, cannot wait!! Follow his journey to Nashville, the Sudan, Holland, Romania and finally Albania to complete another ridiculous bet. This time, following on from his 80s one hit wonder, he was wagered that it couldn't be repeated and that he couldn't have a song in the charts again.
After jamming with local musicians in Texas, recording children's voices in the Sudan and a chance encounter with knights of the realm, this bet was completed. If you want to know more, you'll just have to get a copy!!
After jamming with local musicians in Texas, recording children's voices in the Sudan and a chance encounter with knights of the realm, this bet was completed. If you want to know more, you'll just have to get a copy!!
August 6, 2013
Witty and funny, you never know where this book will go next. I just love the way Tony Hawk's mind seems to work, taking the impossible and making it possible in the most unbelievable way.
Sometimes its hard to believe that any of this is real. Its not all down-hill sailing but, even during the uphill passages, this book never ceases to provide good reading. The most entertaining part is saved right to the end, but you won't regret reading the rest to get there.
This isn't the best Tony Hawks book in my opinion, but it certainly a great light-hearted read.
April 19, 2009
I'm not sure how I missed this 2002 book by Tony Hawks - I read all his other stuff pretty much as soon as it came out. Another journey trying to win a madcap bet, this one surrounding writing a hit song. Hawks' excellent humor, combined with his penchant for surreal situations make for a really fun read.
January 8, 2008
Yet another bet, this one I only read because it was bought for me. This time our Tony has to have a number one hit single somewhere in the world.
To be honest I didn't care too much if he succeeded or not. Sorry Tony.
To be honest I didn't care too much if he succeeded or not. Sorry Tony.
November 19, 2009
The book is so deliciously Tony. He's that weird friend you have who does crazy things, but taken up a few levels. As usual, this concerns a bet - that he couldn't have a top 20 song in any country in two years. The story of his struggles were funny. I love tony Hawks.
June 9, 2013
I quite like Tony Hawks (I've read 2 now) and his writing style. But I'm not sure that I would go out of my way to get any more of his books than are already in my possession right now.
But I can't put my finger on what's missing.
But I can't put my finger on what's missing.
December 3, 2007
This guy is crazy, we knew it and this 3rd book confirms... :-))
April 1, 2008
Very funny but not as good as his other books.
April 26, 2008
Hawks describes how he tries to get a hit in a country somewhere in the world. Funny book, mostly because of Hawks' self-deprecating sense of humour.
April 20, 2010
Not as good as his book where he hitched hiked around Ireland with a small refrigerator.
Read
July 28, 2011Why did I bother reading 100 pages of this? Barely amusing, a stupid premise, poorly written (and badly proof-read too), a waste of time. And no mention whatsoever of skateboarding. Whatever.
August 9, 2011
Awesome story, where you can learn so much about music. And stupid bets...
February 21, 2012
Quite entertaining, but the premise was a bit contrived. Still, Tony Hawks is an entertaining enough chap.
March 22, 2012
I was bought this as a present and am sure I would never have read it otherwise. It has some hilarious moments ... I love the country hits titles.... a recommended holiday read.
November 12, 2012
OK, a bit more serious than some of his other adventures.
March 8, 2013
Reviewed for my student paper.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 37 reviews