Days and Days: A Story About Sunderland’s Leatherface and the Ties That Bind

MacDonald’s strong second memoir (following 2022’s The Things I Came Here With) examines his relationship with the UK punk band Leatherface and how they helped shape his life, starting when he first experienced them as a teenager. MacDonald intertwines a backpacking trip he took through England, Scotland, and Ireland and a biography of the punk band. Formed in Sunderland, Leatherface performed in the late 1980s to mid-1990s and again in the late 1990s to early 2010s. MacDonald recounts how he and his friend Jason endured storms and near knifing, were driven out of Belfast, and drank their way through the UK. Luckily, they ended up at a Leatherface rehearsal. Interspersed in the travelogue, MacDonald introduces readers to Leatherface, with background into the band’s members and their influence on the music scene, which he gathers from interviews with band members, music industry participants, fans, and his relationship to the band and their influences on his life.