Omnibus Press

Just like Memphis and Rock'n'Roll, Dusseldorf is regarded as the Mecca for electronic music. The capital of North Rhine-Westphalia became the centre of an analog electronic movement from the early 1970s to the mid-1980s. This is the oral account of the city's most influential bands, including Kraftwerk, NEU!, DAF, Die Krupps and many more.

This history uncovers the myths and reality of the bands emerging from the artistic backdrop of a wealthy German post WWII modernistic city and explores the emergence of the electronic scene in Dusseldorf and the conditions that fostered such a creative explosion and became so influential for musicians and artists all over the world.

Interviews include Daniel Miller (Mute Records), Paul Humphreys and Andy McCluskey (OMD), Martyn Ware (Human League), Glenn Gregory (Heaven 17), Rusty Egan (Visage) Ryuichi Sakamoto and producer Giorgio Moroder.

Behind The Locked Door is Graeme Thomson's rich, insightful account of George Harrison's extraordinary life and career.

As a Beatle, Harrison underwent a bewilderingly compressed early adulthood, buffeted by unprecedented levels of fame and success. "Beatlemania" offered remarkable experiences and opportunities but ultimately left him unsettled and unfulfilled. His life became a quest for deeper meaning which travelled far beyond the parameters of his former band and, indeed, music itself.

This elegant, in-depth biography tracks him assiduously through his many changes and conflicts, from schoolboy guitarist to global superstar, God seeker to independent filmmaker, Formula One enthusiast to UNICEF fundraiser, and marks the perennial struggle of a man attempting to walk a spiritual path lined with temptation.

Drawing on scores of new interviews with close friends and collaborators, rigorous research and critical insight, Behind The Locked Door is a fascinating account of the motives and varied achievements of an often misunderstood man. It offers full analysis of Harrison's music, including his earliest songs for The Beatles, his landmark solo album All Things Must Pass, his work with The Traveling Wilburys, and the posthumous Brainwashed, as well as his pioneering forays into Indian and electronic music. It is also an intimate character study, beautifully illustrating the eternal yin and yang of Harrison's nature.

Behind The Locked Door is the definitive account of a compelling, contradictory life.

Listening to the Music the Machines Make is the revolutionary story of electronic pop from 1978 to 1983, a true golden age of music.

This definitive account explores how krautrock, disco, glam rock and punk inspired a new generation to rip up the rulebook and venture toward a new frontier of electronic music – one that laid the foundations for Hip-Hop, house, techno and beyond.

Including an extensive collection of archive images throughout, Richard Evans’s kaleidoscopic narrative draws on years of research, a plethora of archive press materials and the input of key figures, including Vince Clarke (Depeche Mode, Yazoo, Erasure), Martyn Ware (The Human League, B.E.F., Heaven 17) and Daniel Miller (The Normal, Mute Records).

From the gritty and experimental to the camp and theatrical, this book charts the careers and impact of electronic pop’s earliest innovators and luminaries, from Devo, The Normal, Telex and Cabaret Voltaire to Soft Cell, Gary Numan, OMD, Duran Duran, Depeche Mode.

The revered and authorized Queen biography, revised and updated.

The original edition explored every aspect of the legendary group’s career from inception to 1992.

Revised and updated with cooperation and insight from Brian May and Roger Taylor – and drawing on exclusive interviews with the bandmembers – this book completes the story of the Mercury era and the immediate years after his death.

With numerous extra photographs and a new foreword from Brian May, Queen – As It Began is an informative and authoritative portrait of Queen’s most fundamental period.

John McGeoch was the unsung hero of the post-punk era. Blazing a trail with some of Britain’s biggest bands and most revered artists – Magazine, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Armoury Show and Public Image Ltd. – John left an undeniable and indelible mark on music.

The Light Pours Out of Me examines John’s life and legacy, drawing on original interviews with the likes of Siouxsie Sioux, Howard Devoto, Johnny Marr, Billy Idol, John Frusciante, Keith Levene, Jonny Greenwood, Nick Launay, Ed O’Brien, Peter ‘Hooky’ Hook and many others.

Illustrated with unseen photographs, this moving biography – authorised by the family – celebrates the remarkable guitarist who helped provide the soundtrack to a generation.

Based upon work and materials compiled for the acclaimed and now much sought after 2007 Cramps biography A Short History of Rock'n'Roll Psychosis, Journey To The Centre Of The Cramps goes far beyond being a revised and updated edition: Completely overhauled, rewritten and vastly expanded, it now represents the definitive work on the group.

In addition to unseen interview material from Ivy, Lux and other former band members, Journey To The Centre Of The Cramps also sees the Cramps' story through to its conclusion, recounting Lux's unexpected death in 2009, the subsequent dissolution of the group and their enduring legacy. The Cramps' history, influences and the cast of characters in and around the group are likewise explored in far greater depth.

Features unseen first-hand interview material from Lux Interior and Poison Ivy. A wealth of new interview material with former band members and other key players in the band's history and never before seen/rare photographs and ephemera to help illustrate the book.

A revised and updated edition of Stephen Miller's definitive biography of Dolly Parton. 

Going behind the larger-than-life image to discover what makes Dolly tick, Miller gets to the core of a remarkable woman from a poor East Tennessee background who made it in the male-dominated world of Sixties Nashville and went on to build a respectable movie career. 

Talking to Dolly's family members, musicians and producers, the author explores Dolly's private life, including her closely-guarded relationships with her husband of nearly fifty years, Carl Dean, and her lifelong friend Judy Ogle. What emerges is a unique portrait of a strong woman who took control of her life, her music and a successful business career with resolute determination. Dolly loves making jokes at her own expense; perhaps the best joke has been how one of America's great singer-songwriters became a legend by being serious about her music while being frivolous about her image.

Dolly has been a huge star for decades. Her ability to pull in and delight large crowds remains undiminished - as many fans old and new discovered at the world's biggest open air festival in 2014.

When the world's greatest pop band played their final public concert in January 1969, there were no tickets or posters printed. When John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr emerged at lunchtime from the headquarters of their own company, Apple, five stories above London's Savile Row, only a select group of people knew what the hell was happening. The rooftop concert was one of the Beatles' most spontaneous acts.

A powerful biography of Steve Marriott, lead singer of the Small Faces and Humble Pie, whose voice was coveted by Bob Dylan, Robert Plant, Roger Daltrey and David Bowie, amongst many others.

All or Nothing, Simon Spence's oral history biography, is drawn from over 125 interviews with those who knew Marriott intimately: his wives, children, bandmates and closest friends, managers, record producers, record label bosses and his fellow musicians. Included are scores of people who have never told their story before.

From his child star beginnings to his battles with drug addiction and untimely death in a housefire, All or Nothing is a visceral and unflinching account of Steve Marriott's extraordinary and often troubling life.

"A well-written, sympathetic biography of a complicated but important musical figure."—Booklist STARRED

Small Hours is an intimate, unflinching biography of one of the great maverick artists.

Though Martyn never had a hit single, his extraordinary voice, innovative guitar playing and profoundly soulful songs secured his status as a much admired pioneer.

Did any musician in the Seventies fly so free as John Martyn did on Bless The Weather, Solid Air, Inside Out, and One World? Did any fall so far?

Drawing on almost 100 new interviews, Small Hours is a raw and utterly gripping account of sixty years of daredevil creativity, soaring highs, and sometimes unconscionable lows.

The definitive biography of pop sensations ABBA, revised and fully updated.

Exploding on to the international music scene after winning Eurovision with ‘Waterloo’ in 1974, Abba have since become one of the most famous pop groups in the world. Bright Lights Dark Shadows is the definitive account of the rise, fall and rise of the Swedish pop music titans.

This new edition of the best-selling book has been extensively updated to include details of ABBA Voyage, the phenomenal ninth and final album, the amazing concert experience in London and the ongoing personal lives of Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, Anni-Frid Lyngstad and Agnetha Fältskog.

"Essential reading for anybody who cares about Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys and the evolution of rock & roll."—Jason Fine, former Editor-in-Chief, Rolling Stone 

An intimate look at Brian Wilson’s rollercoaster of a life and career, it’s told through the eyes of those who were there during Wilson’s most legendary productions including Pet Sounds and Good Vibrations.

Originally published in 1978 as The Beach Boys and the California Myth, this groundbreaking study was both the first full-length book on the band and the first to recognize Brian Wilson as one of the most significant and influential artists of the 20th century. Covering the turbulent family strife and internal conflicts as well as giving proper attention to the remarkable music, the book was an instant classic.

Revised and updated, God Only Knows covers the decades since the 1985 edition, including Brian’s first acclaimed solo album, his startling return to live performing, the landmark Pet Sounds tour, the “All-Star Tribute to Brian Wilson” (which Leaf wrote and produced) and the triumphant and miraculous Brian Wilson Presents SMiLE world premiere in London.

Filled with surprising revelations, insight and behind-the-scenes detail, this indispensable book also features forewords by Jimmy Webb, the Bee Gees’ Barry Gibb and Melinda Wilson, Brian’s wife.

The biography of George Clinton, one of music’s most fascinating, colourful and innovative characters, featuring a new cover and foreword by critic Miles Marshall Lewis.

The most comprehensive history of the life, music and cultural significance of a great Black music pioneer and the era which spawned him.

Clinton stands alongside James Brown, Jimi Hendrix and Sly Stone as one of the most influential Black artists of all time who, along with his vast P-Funk army took black funk into the US charts and sold out stadiums by the mid 1970s with his mind-blowing shows and legendary Mothership extravaganzas.

The book contains first hand interview material with Clinton, Bootsy Collins, Jerome Bigfoot Brailey, Junie Morrison, Bobby Gillespie, Afrika Bambaataa, Jalal Nuriddin (Last Poets), Juan Atkins, John Sinclair, Rob Tyner (MC5), Ed Sanders (The Fugs), Chip Monck (“The Voice of Woodstock”) plus other P-Funk associates and friends.

An insiders’ view of the rise of Parliament and Funkadelic from the doowop era and LSD-crazed early shows through to P-Funk’s huge rise, the era of the Mothership and beyond.

John Lennon 1980: The Last Days in the Life traces the powerful, life-affirming story of the former Beatle's remarkable comeback after five years of self-imposed retirement.

Lennon's final pivotal year would climax in several moments of creative triumph as he rediscovered his artistic self in dramatic fashion. With the bravura release of the Double Fantasy album with wife Yoko Ono, he was poised and ready for an even brighter future only to be wrenched from the world by an assassin's bullets. John Lennon 1980 isn't about how the gifted songwriter died; but rather, about how he lived.

Don Letts – filmmaker, musician, DJ, broadcaster, social commentator, husband and father – has always defied conformity. A British-born son of Jamaican parents, he seamlessly pivoted between London’s punk and reggae scenes, earning his reputation as the ‘Rebel Dread’.

With reflections on the Black Lives Matter movement and the highs and lows of personal relationships, this impactful book includes moments of civil unrest, live music, humour and political struggle.

This is the refreshing and unexpected story of a man who has never been afraid to tread his own path.

Dury always met life head on, both in his relationships and in his music. As rocker, lyricist, artist and actor he was unsentimental and uncompromising. As a man he was harder to fathom – until now.

This acclaimed biography shines a light on it all, chronicling his darker moments as well as his triumphs.

Author Richard Balls talked to more than fifty of Dury’s friends, as well as to Dury himself shortly before his death. This remastered edition includes the continuing success of The Blockheads and tells the inside story of the biopic Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll, a foreword by Martin Freeman and an afterword from Andy Serkis.

There are vivid insights into harsh post-war schools for disabled children, the fifties art school scene and the ramshackle pub rock circuit, plus a mixed bag of celebrities from Peter Blake to Omar Sharif.

Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, a couple of cynical New York jazz fans wormed their way into a record contract and astonished critics with their first album ‘Can’t Buy a Thrill’ in 1973. Nine albums later, they were among the biggest selling acts in the world. Steely Dan were different from the rest of rock’s super-sellers. They rarely gave interviews and, after some early bad experiences on the road, they refused to tour. They didn’t have their photographs taken and few people knew what they looked like. Steely Dan weren’t even a proper group; it was two musicians and a producer, yet every top notch player in the world lined up to appear on their albums. Brian Sweet, former editor and publisher of Metal Leg, the Steely Dan fanzine, draws back the veil of secrecy that has surrounded Becker and Fagen, presenting the true story of how they made their music and lived their lives

Book by book, year by year, the ultimate literary trip through Bowie’s greatest decade.

Simon Goddard’s electric ride through Bowie’s greatest decade reaches the halfway mark with this fifth instalment. Wickedly funny and shockingly tragic, Bowie Odyssey 74 is the story of one man trying to find his soul in a world that’s gone to the devil.

Darkness looms in 1974. It could be the winter energy crisis. It could be The Exorcist. Or it could be the shock that Britain’s biggest pop star, David Bowie, is about to leave its shores for good.

Bidding the corpse of glam, Ziggy’s haircut, and loyal ‘Bowietania’ farewell, the plan is to storm North America with his highly theatrical Diamond Dogs tour. But by opening night he’s already wishing he was Barry White instead. Then there’s that nasty sniff he can’t get rid of. And that fly in his milk. And the suspicion that, much like every other teen idol named David, fame is driving him completely out of his mind …

A new and expanded edition of Behind the Rainbow, Johan Bakker’s definitive biography of musician Eva Cassidy.

Cassidy's story is one of the most compelling and poignant in recent music history. In this thoughtful and probing study Bakker re-evaluates her career and the fame that came only after her death at the tender age of 33.

Cassidy performed largely in and around Washington D.C.. Iceland was the only place she ever played in Europe, yet her jazzy folk pop would, after her death, make her a star both there and in her homeland. Since her passing she has sold more than ten million records.

Bakker has interviewed Cassidy's friends, colleagues, and family, and by tracing her formative experiences, outlook, and eventual disillusionment with the music business, has crafted a detailed and considered account of her life.

Picking up where the critically acclaimed Salad Daze left off, Heady Daze sees Wayne Hussey revisit the years from 1985 to 1990 leading The Mission through their formation to global success.

From headlining some of Europe’s major festivals, playing with U2, Robert Plant and The Cure and sweeping the UK music papers’ readers’ polls, to the excesses of touring the world and the lurid headlines that followed them wherever they ventured, it’s all here in this memoir packed full of candid moments and hilarious anecdotes.

While she once made headlines with her hedonistic lifestyle, part of Nicks' irresistible appeal is her youthful vulnerability and mystical aura, making her an artist with whom fans have an unbreakable emotional connection.

Crowned 'The Reigning Queen Of Rock And Roll' by Rolling Stone, and with gold and quadruple platinum solo albums under her beaded belt, Stevie Nicks has enjoyed the ultimate in rock 'n' roll success in her life as a recording artist - but this charmed life has come as a result of hard graft, self-belief and a devotion to creativity above all; hers has been a journey of intense highs and lows.

This biography, a celebration of the Stevie Nicks phenomenon, takes us on her journey from peripatetic mid-West childhood to her explosion onto the music scene as chiffon-swathed rock goddess, right up to present day. Including exclusive interviews with some of Stevie's associates and collaborators from over the years, author Zoe Howe explores the mystique while retaining the magic of this modern-day musical sorceress and wise woman of rock.

This revised edition includes information about the full line-up Fleetwood Mac tour dates ('On With The Show'), the 24 Karat Gold self-portrait collection exhibition Stevie curated in Hollywood to coincide with her 24 Karat Gold album, her work with the LA band Haim, coping with the loss of her close friends Glenn Frey and Prince, being a Rolling Stone cover girl again and more.

The classic authorized biography that told it all.

Foreword by Sir Paul McCartney

When Little Richard burst onto the scene in the early 1950s, he was utterly unique. Drenched in sweat, screaming, hollering, and pumping his piano, he made all who followed sound tame. His stage act was so explosive that for years people assumed the real man could never match the flamboyant public image.

Little Richard made himself a star through sheer talent and personality, breaking racial and sexual taboos on his way to becoming the primal force of Fifties rock & roll.

Using Richard’s own words, Charles White chronicles a staggering career that spanned the very inception of rock’n’roll, the rise of The Beatles, tussles with God and the Devil, and an erratic series of comebacks.

This edition includes a new cover as well as pictures from Little Richard’s own archive and a comprehensive discography.

At the start of 1963, The Beatles were a successful local Liverpool band with one hit single; twelve months, two albums and the arrival of Beatlemania later, they were on the cusp of world domination.

Featuring daily entries covering every pivotal event, The Beatles 1963 draws on hundreds of new eyewitness accounts and provides numerous unseen photographs.

Meticulously researched, this is the definitive account of the momentous year that sent John, Paul, George and Ringo to stratospheric heights.

An entertaining, definitive and in-depth study of prog rock, with a new cover and a foreword by Steve Hackett (Genesis).

Progressive rock, a genre formed out of a creative surge in the late Sixties and throughout the Seventies. Made by young musicians for a young audience, prog music looked towards new horizons by synthesising rock, jazz, folk, classical and other styles.

While prog has always divided critical opinion, in its heyday it had a large and devoted fanbase, and the era's biggest acts from Pink Floyd to Genesis went on to enjoy long-lasting international and commercial success. Although the scene fragmented in the late Seventies, new generations of young listeners continue to discover the unique sounds of prog today.

Examining the myths and misconceptions surrounding the genre, music journalist Mike Barnes paints a vivid, colourful picture of the Seventies based on his own interviews with the musicians, music business insiders, journalists and DJs, and the personal testimonies of fans of that extraordinary decade.

Offering something new for even the keenest of prog enthusiasts, A New Day Yesterday is an entertaining and in-depth study of both the music itself and the cultural conditions and attitudes that fed into, and were affected by, this remarkable musical phenomenon.