Name: Jimi Hendrix: 'Talking'
Brand: Tony Brown
Price: 12.0 USD
Availability: InStock

Tony Brown

Jimi Hendrix: 'Talking'

$12.00

Jimi Hendrix is still widely revered as the most gifted guitarist in the history of rock. His fluency on an electric guitar was breathtaking, and he had a way with words that somehow paralleled his music. Fortunately, Jimi gave many interviews during his short life. Here is what he had to say... I used to like to paint. At school the teacher used to say 'Paint three scenes'. And I'd do abstract stuff like Martian sunsets.Because I didn't have a cent in my pocket, I walked into the first recruitment office I saw and went into the army. Anyway my discharge come through... and I found myself with my duffle bag and three or four hundred dollars in my pocket. I went in this jazz joint and had a drink, liked it and stayed. I came out of that place with sixteen dollars left... All I can do I thought is get a guitar and try to find work. Woodstock was groovy and all that, but anybody can get a field and put lots of kids in there and put band after band on. I don't particularly like the idea of groups after groups. It all starts merging together. Music is religion for me. There'll be music in the hereafter, too. Many say they can understand themselves better when they take LSD. Rubbish! They're idiots, who talk like that. I had one [car] back home, but a girl-friend wrecked it. She ran it straight through a hamburger joint. After that, I started to devote more times to my music than to girls. Yeah, I never did want to go to the moon too much. I always wanted to go to Saturn or Venus, or something like that. I believe that maybe in one sense we might be nothing but little ants to them, you know.

Cover image for Jimi Hendrix: 'Talking', isbn: 9780857127365

Daryl Easlea

Everybody Dance

$12.00

With their era-defining music and instantly recognisable look, Chic's reputation as pioneers of disco has endured long after the movement itself. After their initial success in the 1970s with classics such as Good Times, Le Freak and I Want Your Love, Chic disbanded in 1983, with founding members Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards becoming in-demand producers. After Edwards tragic early passing in 1996, Nile Rodgers involvement in Daft Punk's 2013 smash hit Get Lucky catapulted Chic back to international acclaim. And now, from curating Meltdown in 2019 to headlining festivals all over the world, Nile Rodgers and Chic have arguably never been more popular. Covering the sweet successes and fallings out of favour, the creative process and encounters with Jimi Hendrix, David Bowie, Diana Ross, Madonna and others, the acclaimed Everybody Dance explores the highs and the lows of Chic's journey in fascinating detail. With a new foreword by Duran Duran founding member John Taylor and a host of new interviews with Nile Rodgers, Johnny Mathis and many others, to add to those with Ahmet Ertegun, Bryan Ferry and David Bowie, this edition bring their enthralling journey up to date.

Paul Lester

Gang of Four: Damaged Gods

$12.00

Between 1977 and 1984 Gang Of Four pioneered the concept of the indie Guitar band that could make you think as well as dance. This is the fascinating story of how the Leeds-based outfit emerged at the height of punk and helped take it in a whole new direction, adding elements of funk, disco, dub reggae and experimental rock.

Through interviews with all the original band members, managers, A&R men and musicians who joined GO4 later, author Paul Lester demonstrates how the groundbreaking band paved the way for some of the world's biggest acts, including the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Franz Ferdinand.

Cover image for Gang of Four: Damaged Gods, isbn: 9780857120205

Claude Flowers

New Order + Joy Division

$12.00

Formed from the erosion of Joy Division after the suicide of Ian Curtis, New Order were early pioneers of the synthesizer in dance music, coupled with deep bass lines. This book details the start of Factory Records and New Order's connections with Manchester's Hacienda Club, of which they were part owners. Also examined is the demise of Factory, the band's signing to Phonogram and the solo careers of Peter Hook, Barney Sumner, Julian Gilbert and Steve Morris.

Cover image for New Order + Joy Division, isbn: 9780857127600

Michael Heatley

Ryan Adams

$12.00

Ryan Adams is American roots music's first superstar of the new century. First finding cult fame with alternative country band Whiskeytown, his rebellious image and photogenic street urchin looks have won a wide fan following that includes Elton John and Noel Gallagher. In this first account of his life, Michael Heatley traces Adams' progress from small town North Carolina to trysts with actress Winona Ryder, the broken romances and personal demons that have fuelled his most affecting work and his dedication to legendary country-rock pioneer Gram Parsons. Still in his mid twenties, Adams has the world at his feet. If, unlike Parsons, he opts for self-preservation rather that the self-destructive image he often portrays. This book assesses the past, present and future of a performer with the potential and the eclecticism to be 'the new Neil Young'.

Cover image for Ryan Adams, isbn: 9780857123244

Graeme Thomson

George Harrison

$12.00

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

This Omnibus Enhanced digital edition includes Spotify sections, detailing Harrison’s early influences, his contributions within The Beatles and the best of his solo career. Additionally, an interactive Digital Timeline leads you through a collage of music, videos and images, displaying live performances, interviews, memorabilia and more.

As a Beatle, Harrison underwent a bewilderingly compressed early adulthood, buffeted by unprecedented levels of fame and success, from schoolboy to global superstar. "Beatlemania" offered remarkable experiences and opportunities, and yet dissatisfaction still gnawed within. His life became a quest for meaning and truth which travelled far beyond the parameters of his former band and his former self. This elegant, in-depth biography tracks these changes and conflicts, marking the struggle of walking a spiritual path lined with temptation.

Drawing on scores of interviews with close friends and collaborators, rigorous research and critical insight, Behind The Locked Door is a fascinating account of an often misunderstood man. As well as an intimate character study, it offers a full analysis of Harrison’s music, from his earliest songs for the Beatles to his landmark solo album All Things Must Pass, his work with The Traveling Wilburys and the posthumous Brainwashed. Behind The Locked Door provides the definitive account of a compelling, contradictory and enlightening life.

Cover image for George Harrison, isbn: 9780857128584

Dick Porter

Blondie: Parallel Lives

$12.00

Parallel Lives is the definitive biography of Blondie, the iconic New York band led by singer Debbie Harry and guitarist Chris Stein. One of the most iconic groups of their generation, Blondie experienced an unparalleled rise to global superstardom during the late 1970s, topping charts and breaking moulds.

This Omnibus Enhanced edition includes a Digital Timeline of Blondie's career packed with audio, video and images of tour nights, memorabilia, music videos and interviews. Additionally, throughout the book are links to curated playlists allowing you to hear Blondie's finest gems, their early influences and more.

Beginning with their childhoods, backgrounds and influences, Parallel Lives charts the development of Blondie towards their global success and fractured break-up; followed by their 1997 reformation, critical renaissance and controversial induction into the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame.

Drawing upon extensive and revealing interviews with Debbie Harry, Chris Stein and other significant players, the Omnibus Enhanced Blondie: Parallel Lives is the definitive, eye-witness account of the group’s long and tumultuous existence. Co-author Kris Needs had established a friendship with Harry, Stein and the rest of the band that endures to this day. Now, as a trusted confidante, he finally reveals the full story.

Cover image for Blondie: Parallel Lives, isbn: 9780857127808

Harry Shaw

Oasis: Talking

$12.00

For a few short publicity-fuelled months, the rivalry between Oasis and Blur was something akin to The Beatles and the Stones in the sixties. And though Oasis’s musical inspiration came squarely from The Beatles, the Gallagher brothers were clearly more than comfortable to inherit Jagger and Richards’ mantle as kings of controversy.

The war of words with Blur is now ancient history, but the brothers have gone on to attack other groups and artists, former members of Oasis and, most colourfully, each other.

As written by Harry Shaw, here are the Gallagher brothers, in their outspoken glory, in their own words...

Parental advisory notice: explicit contents.

Cover image for Oasis: Talking, isbn: 9780857123664

Joel McIver

Machine Head: Inside The Machine

$12.00

Over 17 years and eight albums, heavy metal band Machine Head have sold millions of units, earned a Grammy nomination and won personal awards from Metal Hammer and other magazines. The story is a classic rise, fall and rise again scenario -- they exploded onto the metal scene in 1994, enjoyed a successful string of albums and then lost their way in the nu-metal era. Now they are in the middle of one of metal's most acclaimed comebacks.
Joel McIver has interviewed all the band-members several times and has a unique insight into their rollercoaster story, which includes alcohol addiction, inter-band brawls and therapy, sackings, near-splits and two decades of the heaviest music known to man, delivered all over the world.

Cover image for Machine Head: Inside The Machine, isbn: 9780857127983

Graham Vickers

Pomus & Shuman: Hitmakers Together & Apart

$12.00

The first joint biography of one of rock n roll's greatest song writing teams, Hitmakers Inc. explores the private lives and public triumphs of lyricist Doc Pomus and composer Mort Shuman. Between 1958 and 1965, usually working out of Manhattan s famous Brill Building, they wrote some 500 teen anthems and timeless ballads for Elvis Presley, Ray Charles, The Drifters, Bobby Darin, Del Shannon and Andy Williams among others. Polio-stricken ex-blues shouter Pomus always attracted the press coverage, but after the duo split junior partner Shuman proved the more colourful of the two, acting in films, writing musicals, joining the post-Beatles British beat boom and eventually becoming a chart-topping singer-composer in his own right in of all places France. The story of Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman, writing together and individually, reveals a personal dynamic that was both warm and difficult but which at its height produced songs like Teenager In Love, Save The Last Dance For Me, Surrender, Little Sister, (Maries The Name) His Latest Flame, This Magic Moment and Lonely Avenue.

Cover image for Pomus & Shuman: Hitmakers Together & Apart, isbn: 9780857128003

Richard Balls

Sex & Drugs & Rock 'N' Roll

$9.99

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.

Cover image for Sex & Drugs & Rock 'N' Roll, isbn: 9781787592810

Grant McPhee

Postcards from Scotland

$16.99

By 1983, many of Scotland’s post-punk bands had broken up or moved south to chase the major labels in London. That vacuum was filled by an influx of young musicians who were determined to remake the scene in their own image.

In this compelling and dynamic oral history, Grant McPhee chronicles the radical transformation of Scotland’s independent music scene from 1983-1995. Including archival photos and drawing from over 100 interviews with the key players of the time, Grant McPhee allows them to set the scene in their own words; including the Cocteau Twins, Shop Assistants, Teenage Fanclub, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Primal Scream and many more.

Postcards from Scotland is the definitive story of the radicals, misfits and experimentalists who made independent music what it is today.

Cover image for Postcards from Scotland, isbn: 9781787592728

Paul Anderson

Mods: The New Religion

$12.00

Mod may have been born in the ballrooms and nightclubs around London but it soon rampaged throughout the country. Youngsters in the 60s soon found a passion for sharp clothes, music and dancing, but for some it was pills, thrills and violence.

In Mods: The New Religion the original Mod generation tell it exactly how it was, in their very own words. This book includes first hand accounts of the times from the people who were actually on the scene. Top faces, scooterboys, DJs, promoters and musicians build up a vivid, exciting snapshot of what it was really like to be with the in-crowd.

Packed with rare pictures, ephemera, art and graphics of the era, Mods: The New Religion includes interviews with Eddie Floyd, Martha Reeves, Ian McLagan, Chris Farlowe and many more.

Cover image for Mods: The New Religion, isbn: 9780857128508

Peter Hogan

Nick Drake: The Complete Guide to his Music

$12.00

The indispensable consumers' guide to the music of Nick Drake. A thorough analysis of every officially released album by Drake, from the early albums that were largely overlooked at the time of their release in the late Sixties and early Seventies to more recent posthumous collections. Peter Hogan is among the few contemporary aficionados of Nick Drake who actually bought his records in the early Seventies when they were first released. He is an experienced music writer who has contributed to Melody Maker, Vox and Uncut, and is the author of books on The Doors, R.E.M. and The Velvet Underground.

Cover image for Nick Drake: The Complete Guide to his Music, isbn: 9780857121240

Don Letts

There and Black Again

$9.99

social commentator, husband and father – has always defied conformity. A British-born son of Windrush parents, he seamlessly pivoted between London’s punk and reggae scenes – earning his reputation as the ‘Rebel Dread’. In There and Black Again, Don Letts looks back on his exceptional life, which has seen him befriend Bob Marley after sneaking into his hotel, join The Clash’s White Riot tour as manager of The Slits and become one of the UK’s most highly regarded video directors just as the MTV boom hit. Told in part as scenes from a movie shot on location in London, Kingston, New York City, Los Angeles, Windhoek, Salt Lake City and Goldeneye, There and Black Again co-stars a cast of hundreds, including Joe Strummer, John Lydon, Bob Marley, Chrissie Hynde, Chris Blackwell, Paul McCartney, Nelson Mandela, Keith Richards, Patti Smith, Chuck D., Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood. 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. There and Black Again is the refreshing and often unexpected story of a man who has never been afraid to tread his own path. ‘The Don’s tale, upgraded, expanded, marinated in

Cover image for There and Black Again, isbn: 9781787592865

Rob Bowman

Soulsville, U.S.A.: The Story of Stax Records

$12.00

Walk the halls of the famous studio that produced hits for Otis Redding, Isaac Hayes, Sam and Dave, and Booker T. and the MGs. Soulsville, U.S.A. provides the first history of the groundbreaking label along with compelling biographies of the promoters, producers, and performers who made and sold the music. Over 45 photos. Winner of the 1998 ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award Winner of the ARSC Award for Best Research in Record Labels

Cover image for Soulsville, U.S.A.: The Story of Stax Records, isbn: 9780857124999

Brad Tolinski

MC5

$14.99

A riveting oral biography of the proto-punk Detroit rockers MC5, based on original interviews with the band and key members of their inner circle.

Few bands have dared to ignite a revolution through their fusion of activism and art like MC5. Managed by the charismatic radical and hippie spokesman, John Sinclair, MC5 wasn't just a band; they were a thunderous proclamation of dissent, amplifying the voices of the marginalized long before it was fashionable. From championing Black Lives Matter to rallying for cannabis legalization, they fearlessly thrust their beliefs onto the world stage. For their efforts, the rabble-rousing musical arm of the White Panther Party, the scourge of J. Edgar Hoover's FBI and other defenders of public decency, were often beaten with clubs, threatened at gunpoint, tossed into jail, and even unceremoniously dumped by their record company, right as their album was storming up the charts--and all while the Sex Pistols were still on training wheels.

What has been lost amidst this notoriety is MC5 itself, a band worth remembering not because they were bad boys, but because they were so damn good.

In MC5: An Oral Biography of Rock's Most Revolutionary Band, music journalists Brad Tolinski and Jaan Uhelszki invite readers to reconsider this legendary group. Centered around a series of interviews with MC5, their manager, and their inner circle--many of whom are no longer with us--that Tolinski and Uhelszki inherited from CREEM Magazine founding staffer and Mojo's US editor Ben Edmonds prior to his death, this book presents a genuinely candid, funny, and moving portrait of rock's most uncompromising and articulate band. MC5 also features a virtual "who's who" of 1960s rockers, including Iggy and the Stooges, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, promoter Bill Graham, John Lennon, the Jefferson Airplane, and political firebrands like Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, Tom Hayden, and Black Panther Eldridge Cleaver.

As innovative, insightful, and inspiring as the band itself, MC5 is a fitting testament to the legacy of these iconic rock pioneers--told in their very own words.

Cover image for MC5, isbn: 9781787592858

Dave Lewis

Led Zeppelin: A Celebration

$12.00

Led Zeppelin's records and concerts outsold every other band on the planet. This is the first-ever comprehensive reference book on the group. It draws on years or research and features masses of unpublished information, photos and visuals. Every known fact about Led Zeppelin is included, every detail concerning their records, their concerts and their music...Breakdown of the careers of Page, Plant, Jones and Bonham In the Studio: conversations of Zep taped during recording sessions The Ten Album Legacy: all recorded material analysed album-by-album 100 Most Collectable Zep Items: an illustrated guide to valuable memorabilia International discography, the most comprehensive ever published Bibliography, film, video and complete concert listings Complete Zep equipment file, listing every item owned and used Rare album and single sleeves, posters, press cuttings and documents

Cover image for Led Zeppelin: A Celebration, isbn: 9780857128195

Simon Goddard

Bowie Odyssey 72

$12.00

A new year for David Bowie means new clothes, new boots, new hair and a new name: Ziggy Stardust. To the gloomy blacked-out Britain of powercuts and three-day weeks he may as well be from outer space – if that’s what it takes to make him famous, far be it from him to tell anyone he isn’t. Bowie’s success as the bisexual Starman soon rubs off on his new friends Mott The Hoople and his hero Lou Reed as 1972 becomes Annus Glamrockus. Music, fashion and the old codes of gender will never be the same again. But as his runaway fame quickly blurs all lines between fantasy and reality, neither will David. The third volume of the Bowie Odyssey series offers a wild and revelatory snapshot of the year of Ziggy as Simon Goddard continues his vivid real-time journey through the decade Bowie changed pop forever.

Cover image for Bowie Odyssey 72, isbn: 9781787592391

Peter Freestone

Freddie Mercury: An Intimate Memoir by the Man who Knew Him Best

$12.00

An intimate memoir of the flamboyant Queen singer by the man who knew him best.

Peter Freestone was Freddie Mercury’s Personal Assistant for the last 12 years of his life. He lived with Mercury in London, Munich and New York, and he was with him when he died.
In this book, the most intimate account of Mercury’s life ever written, he reveals the truth behind the scandalous rumours, the outrageous lifestyle and Mercury’s relationships with men, women and the other members of Queen.
From the famous names – including Elton John, Kenny Everett, Elizabeth Taylor and Rod Stewart – to the shadowy army of lovers, fixers and hangers-on, Peter Freestone saw them all play their part in the tragi-comedy that was Freddie Mercury’s life.
Freestone lived with Mercury in Europe and America for over a decade. From the East 50s apartment in New York to Kensington Lodge, the house in London where Mercury died – not to mention innumerable international hotel rooms and apartments in between – Freestone was always on hand to serve and protect the man he had first met in the Biba department store in the early 1970s. Then Queen was a largely unknown band. Soon it would be the most glitzy of glam rock bands. Freestone saw the fame arrive and with it the generosity, the excess, and the celebrity friends who came and went.
“I was chief cook and bottle washer, waiter, butler, valet, secretary, amanuensis, cleaner, baby-sitter… and agony aunt,” he writes. “I shopped for him both at supermarkets and art markets, I travelled the world with him, I was with him at the highs and came through the lows with him. I saw the creative juices flow and I also saw the frustration when life wasn’t going well. I acted as his bodyguard when needed and in the end, of course, I was one of his nurses.”
Freestone’s bet-selling account of a talented and extravagant star’s life and death is compelling, entertaining and ultimately, very touching.
Illustrated with many photos from personal and Freestone’s own archives.

Press Reviews

“An entertaining and thought provoking read” – PRS for Music Sales
“This collection of Freddie’s own words is the closest thing there is to an autobiography of a man with no regrets. The foreword is written by his mother” – reFRESH magazine, Leading Gay mag in the UK

Cover image for Freddie Mercury: An Intimate Memoir by the Man who Knew Him Best, isbn: 9780857121271

Peter Celmins

Peter Green

$12.00

Blues guitar great and Fleetwood Mac founder, Peter Green, was an enigma throughout his career. His innovative songwriting and unmistakeable voice shot Fleetwood Mac into the mainstream in 1969 with 'Albatross', 'Man of the World', and 'Oh Well'. But in May 1970, he turned his back on stardom and quit the band.

Written by Green's associate and friend, this biography - first published in 1995, now fully revised and updated - challenges the accepted narrative about why he left the band, and what happened next. It tracks every stage of Green's career, from his semi-pro years playing bass to his rise to fame in John Mayall's Bluesbreakers and Fleetwood Mac. It also takes a closer look at Green's solo material and the personal trauma that saw him hit the headlines.

This edition covers his return to the stage in 1996 with Peter Green Splinter Group and how his final band, Peter Green & Friends, was formed. It also covers the last years of his life and includes new, unseen photographs.

Cover image for Peter Green, isbn: 9781787592438

Kris Needs

George Clinton & The Cosmic Odyssey Of The P-Funk Empire

$9.99

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.

Cover image for George Clinton & The Cosmic Odyssey Of The P-Funk Empire, isbn: 9781787592704

Dafydd Rees

The Beatles 1963

$18.00

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.

Cover image for The Beatles 1963, isbn: 9781787592469

Bella Wolfson

Smile: The Story of Lily Allen

$12.00

With her urban prom-queen style and West London punk attitude, Lily Allen is recognised worldwide as much for her quirky image and party-girl reputation as her music. Lily's meteoric rise to fame has been peppered with extreme highs and lows – no lower than when she tragically suffered a miscarriage in 2008. This, like every step of Lily's life, is charted in this new biography.

Cover image for Smile: The Story of Lily Allen, isbn: 9780857124630

Mick Middles

Arcade Fire: Behind the Black Mirror

$12.00

The story of a world-beating multi-instrumental band with a unique creative dynamic.

Their story is compelling – a complex musical collaboration in an eight-piece band that has coalesced around Win Butler and Régine Chassagne. They have triumphed worldwide at festivals and stadiums whilst racking up three award-winning albums: Funeral, Neon Bible and The Suburbs.

This is the story of a truly fascinating band whose music has always triumphed over the trappings of success.

Cover image for Arcade Fire: Behind the Black Mirror, isbn: 9780857127730

Martin Power

The Life of Blur

$12.00

As with most great bands, it is difficult to remember a time when Blur weren’t a part of Britain’s rich musical landscape. From art-rock origins they went on to make four multi-platinum number one albums and produced some of the finest songs of the modern era: End of A Century, Girls And Boys, Parklife, Song 2, Beetlebum...

And it might not be over yet!

The Life Of Blur charts their story from shaky beginnings through to the full-blown superstardom of Parklife, The Great Escape and beyond. At the heart of this tale is the complex, sometimes explosive relationship between Blur’s four founding members: Damon Albarn, Graham Coxon, Dave Rowntree and Alex James. A rich soup of relentless ambition, dogged persistence, fraying tempers and a million clanging champagne bottles, the emotional chemistry that makes up Blur has been just as interesting to watch as the songs the band have produced.

Author Martin Power has talked with band’s former managers, fellow musicians, old school teachers and close friends to shed new light on a group once called “the most intelligent, enduring and credible band to emerge from the Nineties”.

With a concise critical commentary on their music, rare photographs and a complete discography, as well as shedding new light on the group's various solo activities - including Damon Albarn's Gorillaz and Graham Coxon's one-man assault on the indie charts - this is the definitive account of Blur’s epic journey.

Cover image for The Life of Blur, isbn: 9780857128621

Mike Barnes

A New Day Yesterday

$9.99

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.

Cover image for A New Day Yesterday, isbn: 9781787592711

Mac Randall

Exit Music: The Radiohead Story

$12.00

Radiohead may be one of the world's most famous bands, but the five members give away little about themselves. Outsiders with attitudes, they are still more likely to tidy their hotel room than trash it, and few journalists have been able to get close to Thom Yorke, Ed O'Brien, Colin Greenwood, Phil Selway and Jonny Greenwood... until now.

Author, Mac Randall, was one of only two American journalists present for the launch of the legendary OK Computer in Barcelona. He has interviewed all the band members and now, in Exit Music: The Radiohead Story, has written the definitive Radiohead biography. Their beginnings, their personal style and their shifting ambitions are all explored in this intimate portrait.

Cover image for Exit Music: The Radiohead Story, isbn: 9780857126955

Tony Fletcher

Dear Boy: The Life of Keith Moon

$12.00

Keith Moon was more than just rock's greatest drummer, he was also its greatest character and wildest party animal. Fuelled by vast quantities of drink, drugs, insecurities and confusion, Moon destroyed everything with gleeful abandon: drum kits, houses, cars, hotels, relationships and, finally, himself.

In Dear Boy, Tony Fletcher has captured lightning in a bottle – the essence of a totally incorrigible yet uniquely generous boy who never grew up, and who changed the lives of all who knew him. From a life distorted by myths of debauchery and comic anarchy, Fletcher has created a searingly personal portrait of the rock legend.

From over 100 first-hand interviews, he traces with deadly accuracy Moon's remarkable journey from his working-class Northwest London childhood, through the Who's glory years to the California high-life and a terrible, premature death.

Here too are fascinating insights into the history of the Who and the emergent British pop culture revolution of post-war years. Keith Moon was one of the shock troops of that revolution: the world's greatest rock drummer, a phenomenal character and an extravagant hell-raiser who – in a final, uncharacteristic act of grace – actually did die before he got old.

Cover image for Dear Boy: The Life of Keith Moon, isbn: 9780857122223

Alyn Shipton

Jazz Life and Times: Fats Waller

$12.00

Fats Waller (1904-1943) was an outsize man in all respects: five feet eleven inches tall, he weighed 285 pounds. He was the greatest of the Harlem "stride" pianists, he composed hundreds of songs, he led a band which made over 400 recordings and he wrote several Broadway shows. Waller is seen by jazz historians as a man of immense musical talent which was never fulfilled, in the interests of his career as a popular and humorous entertainer. In this fully revised and updated biography of Waller, Alyn Shipton re-examines his career, arguing that his talents as a songwriter, show composer and brilliant recording and broadcasting artist have not been fully appreciated. A new final chapter, provides a comprehensive survey of Waller's recordings as they have been reissued for the CD era

Cover image for Jazz Life and Times: Fats Waller, isbn: 9780857128270

Graham Fellows

Two Margarines And Other Domestic Dilemmas!

$10.00

How DO you avoid the 'nightmare scenario' of having two open tubs of margarine in your fridge? Throw one tub away, or give it to a friend or neighbour? If the remedy were that simple no one would have bothered to write a book about it, would they? John Shuttleworth would... and he has! 'Sheffield's funniest man' (The Times) and 'The 42nd best reason to love Britain' (The Telegraph) has made simple remedies to everyday domestic dilemmas, well... complicated! And ridiculous. And totally hilarious! Indeed, it's fair to say this book is crammed with ridiculous and hilariously over-complicated advice... that only an utter fool would follow!

Cover image for Two Margarines And Other Domestic Dilemmas!, isbn: 9781787592056

Barry Miles

The Beatles Diary Volume 1: The Beatles Years

$12.00

With greatly expanded text, this is the most revealing and frank personal 30-year chronicle of the group ever written. Insider Barry Miles covers the Beatles story from childhood to the break-up of the group.

Ian Preece

Listening to the Wind

$15.00

Seek to get behind the scenes to the nitty-gritty of life in the more boutique, hand-to-mouth world of the independent music industry today? A world where the handful of vinyl pressing plants that still exist on the planet are creaking at the seams to keep up with demand; a world where middle-aged bearded hipsters and sixth-formers alike can be found thumbing through the racks buying (or re-buying) those classic Talking Heads, Can or David Bowie LPs; where copies of the new Tindersticks album on clear vinyl on City Slang are scarce; where a Nils Frahm LP is re-released by Erased Tapes a year or so on complete with a second LP of fan remixes; a world where you could fly to Europe in the time it takes to queue round the block on Record Store Day outside Rough Trade's Brick Lane shop. Part handbook for the hipster nation, part thoughtful probing of a semi-cottage industry that brings joy to millions, this is a celebration of sleeves, records, good taste, and all independent music.

Cover image for Listening to the Wind, isbn: 9781787592100

June Sawyers

Tougher Than the Rest: 100 Best Bruce Springsteen Songs

$12.00

Bruce Springsteen is among the most literate of singers in rock history with songs touch people's hearts and minds. He is the story teller of our generation. Tougher Than the Rest dissects the best of Springsteen's vast body of work, from his earliest pieces on 'Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ' right through to 'Devils & Dust' released three decades later. The author comments on the origin and critical response each song received as well as sharing insights into the song's literary, historical, and cultural references. Packed with numerous sidebars, rich photographs and lots of extras, Tougher Than the Rest is a must for all Springsteen fans!

Cover image for Tougher Than the Rest: 100 Best Bruce Springsteen Songs, isbn: 9780857122919

Don Powell

Look Wot I Dun

$12.00

Look Wot I Dun is the story of Slade told through the eyes of drummer Don Powell whose life was shattered when, in 1973 at the height of the group's fame, he was involved in a horrific car crash. Unflinching in his honesty, Powell deals frankly with the aftermath of the accident that took the life of his girlfriend and left him with injuries that affect him to this day. Leader of the glam rock movement, Slade was the UK's biggest singles band from 1971 to 1974. Their many hits have become rock standards, not least of which was Merry Christmas Everybody, arguably Britain's all-time favorite Christmas song. This previously published book is now brought up to date in paperback format with an additional chapter from Don, detailing his touring activity over the last seven years, since the original release of his book in hardback.

Cover image for Look Wot I Dun, isbn: 9781787592018

Roger Griffin

David Bowie: The Golden Years

$25.00

David Bowie: The Golden Years chronicles Bowie’s creative life during the 1970s, the decade that defined his career. Looking at the superstar's life and work in a year by year, month by month, day by day format, and placing his works in their historical, personal and creative contexts.

The Golden Years accounts for every live performance: when and where and who played with him. It details every known recording: session details, who played in the studio, who produced the song, and when and how it was released. It covers every collaboration, including production and guest appearances.

It also highlights Bowie's film, stage and television appearances: Bowie brought his theatrical training into every performance and created a new form of rock spectacle. The book follows Bowie on his journeys across the countries that fired his imagination and inspired his greatest work, and includes a detailed discography documenting every Bowie recording during this period, including tracks he left in the vault.

The Golden Years is an invaluable addition to the Digital shelves of any true Bowie fan.

Cover image for David Bowie: The Golden Years, isbn: 9780857128751

Simon Wells

Butterfly on a Wheel: The Great Rolling Stones Drugs Bust

$12.00

Four pep pills, a Sunday tabloid, two celebrated rock stars and a court case. Butterfly on a Wheel: The Rolling Stones Great Drugs Bust documents how these ingredients came to form a huge slice of British social history; a watershed where attitudes to drugs prompted a seismic change in popular culture.

When Keith Richards threw a drug-fuelled party at his West Sussex house in early 1967, it was never going to be an uneventful affair. The police broke in, dragged Keith Richards and Mick Jagger away in handcuffs, and a media frenzy erupted which pitted the hedonistic counterculture against the British Establishment.

Using previously unpublished police and court documents, best-selling author Simon Wells reveals what really happened on the night of the raid and the extraordinary conspiracy mounted to end the careers of Jagger and Richards, with The Beatles soon to follow. Using fresh interviews with lawyers, police and eye witnesses to the notorious party, Wells reveals the truth about the celebrity pushers, London gangsters, bent cops, corrupt newspapers and dodgy politicians.

This Omnibus enhanced edition includes an online media collection of television news footage, newspaper reports, interviews with Jagger, Richards and McCartney, as well as an interview with the author.

Cover image for Butterfly on a Wheel: The Great Rolling Stones Drugs Bust, isbn: 9780857127112

Stephen Miller

Kristofferson: The Wild American

$12.00

The Wild American is the story of Kristofferson's triumphant pursuit of a career that took an even more unlikely turn when he broke into movies and became famous all over again.

Kris Kristofferson is one of country music's most illustrious singer-songwriters. Seemingly destined for a distinguished military career, ex-Golden Gloves boxer and Rhodes scholar Kristofferson gave it all up to sweep floors in Nashville, began to pitch his songs to his musical heroes and finally became a star himself.

Cover image for Kristofferson: The Wild American, isbn: 9780857121097

David Stafford

Halfway to Paradise: The Life of Billy Fury

$15.00

“There’s only ever been two English rock’n’roll singers, Johnny Rotten and Billy Fury.” – Ian Dury

If he’d merely stood like a statue on stage, he would have flooded theatres with hormonal longings, but he was incapable of standing still. He pulsed. He writhed. He invalidated the manufacturer’s guarantee on microphone stands. He provoked shock and awe.

From Billy’s troubled childhood in Liverpool, via gold and silver lamé, to his later years as a farming ornithologist and a comeback cut short by his premature death, David and Caroline Stafford’s sparkling biography brings to life this captivating performer. Billy knew everybody, auditioned The Beatles to be his backing band, met and out-handsomed Elvis, partied with Keith Moon and hosted acid parties. Yet, throughout the mayhem, he always remained true to himself: diffident and amused.

Halfway to Paradise tells the full story with the compassion and affection due to an artist who, decades after his death, still commands admiration and adoration: the life, the times, the fans, the Fury.

Cover image for Halfway to Paradise: The Life of Billy Fury, isbn: 9781787590748

Clinton Heylin

Bootleg! The Rise And Fall Of The Secret Recording Industry

$12.00

An absorbing account of the record industry's worst nightmare.

In the summer of 1969, Great White Wonder, a collection of unreleased Bob Dylan recordings appeared in Los Angeles. It was the first rock bootleg and it spawned an entire industry dedicated to making unofficial recordings available to true fans.

Bootleg! tells the whole fascinating saga, from its underground infancy through the CD 'protection gap' era, when its legal status threatened the major labels' monopoly, to the explosion of trading via Napster and Gnutella on MP-3 files.

Clinton Heylin provides a highly readable account of the busts, the defeats and victories in court; the personalities – many interviewed for the first time for this book.

This classic history has now been updated and revised to include today's digital era and the emergence of a whole new bootleg culture.

Cover image for Bootleg! The Rise And Fall Of The Secret Recording Industry, isbn: 9780857122179

John Mendelssohn

Gigantic: The Story Of Frank Black And The Pixies

$12.00

The influence and importance of The Pixies cannot be overestimated. Their style of broken, furious yet melodic and exceptionally catchy punk rock blazed a trail for such vital bands as Mudhoney and Nirvana, the grunge movement and the 90s British indie-rock sound. Bossanova and Surfer Rosa have become familiar members of the canon of great rock albums, although the group's initial career was cut short by the dismissive actions of singer-songwriter Black Francis/Frank Black.
John Mendelssohn's biography details the turbulent career of The Pixies and Frank Black, including personal struggles with other band members and Black's unusual and uncompromising solo work. Culminating with the group's 2004 reformation, this is the definitive story of The Pixies.

Cover image for Gigantic: The Story Of Frank Black And The Pixies, isbn: 9780857121165

Jim McCarthy

Gabba Gabba Hey! The Graphic Story Of The Ramones

$12.00

The Ramones were the hard-hitting New York punk band that erupted in nervy 1974 when a serial killer terrorised the city and civic bankruptcy loomed.

From their beginnings in Queens and the burgeoning punk scene at CBGB’s, through the excitement of their first album, a brush with Phil Spector and more than two thousand concerts over a 22 year period, The Ramones always were a force to be reckoned with.

This is their full story told in dramatic graphic style: the in-fighting, the deaths of three founding members, their influence on British bands like The Sex Pistols and The Clash, the induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and finally a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

Cover image for Gabba Gabba Hey! The Graphic Story Of The Ramones, isbn: 9780857128522

Johan Bakker

Behind the Rainbow

$12.00

Eva Cassidy’s story is one of the most compelling and poignant in recent music history. In this thoughtful and probing biography, Johan Bakker explores her brief performing career and the fame that only came after her death at the age of 33.

A local performer, Eva Cassidy’s performance in Iceland was the closest she ever got to Europe. Yet her music has touched millions across the world. Her posthumously released albums, Imagine, Songbird, Simply Eva and Somewhere included three UK number ones have sold more than ten million copies.

Interviewing Eva’s friends, colleagues and family in Washington D.C. and Maryland, Johan Bakker traces her short life, her idealism and her disillusionment with the business side of her trade.

Cover image for Behind the Rainbow, isbn: 9781787592483

Michael Heatley

David Gray: A Biography

$12.00

The first biography of Manchester born singer David Gray, from his early years in obscurity though the gradual building of support in Ireland to the huge mainstream success of the White Ladder album, which has sold over a million copies in the UK and produced massive hit singles, Babylon and Please Forgive Me.

Updated and revised to cover the chart-topping follow-up album, A New Day At Midnight.

Cover image for David Gray: A Biography, isbn: 9780857120526

Jeff Apter

Gwen Stefani and No Doubt: Simple Kind of Life

$12.00

The eclectic Orange County band No Doubt was formed in 1986 by Eric Stefani and John Spence who soon recruited Eric’s younger sister Gwen as co-vocalist. With the addition of Tony Kanal on Bass, they launched a 20 year career that would fuse ska, grunge, alt. rock and shades of several other musical genres into a unique mix.

The 1987 suicide of John Spence resulted in the battlefield promotion of Gwen to lead vocalist, a shift that would prove a launch pad for her future solo career and media celebrity status.

Through it all No Doubt went from strength to strength and in 1995, following the departure of Eric Stefani, finally found mainstream success when their third album, Tragic Kingdom, enjoyed over 15 million sales worldwide. Since then this ska-loving band from Southern California has flourished. Despite a frequently changing line-up and the potential distraction of Sven’s parallel solo career, No Doubt have stayed true to their mission to be musical and visual innovators.

Cover image for Gwen Stefani and No Doubt: Simple Kind of Life, isbn: 9780857120489

Ian McCann

Bob Marley: The Complete Guide to his Music

$12.00

The indispensable guide to the music of Bob Marley. An album by album, track by track, examination of every song released by Marley and the Wailers from the early sessions in Jamaica to the Island recordings and compilations released after Marley's death.

Featuring details of Marley's recordings for Studio One, Leslie Kong, Lee Perry, Island and Tuff Gong Productions, this is the ultimate gift for any die-hard Marley fan.

Cover image for Bob Marley: The Complete Guide to his Music, isbn: 9780857127358

Loudon Wainwright III

Liner Notes On Parents, Children, Exes, Excess, Decay & A Few More Of My Favourite Things

$15.00

‘Liner Notes is, unsurprisingly, as good as its author’s songs, with moments of sharp humor alternating with real-life pain, and vivid reflections on love, death, and the whole damn thing. Loudon Wainwright is a true original: not like anyone else, just as he set out to be.’ Salman Rushdie

In the late 1960s, Loudon Wainwright III established himself as a loner, deliberately standing outside the conventional. He recorded his first album in 1969, full of raw, angry poetry, but it was the 1972 novelty song ‘Dead Skunk’ that brought him popular recognition.

Wainwright’s songs are as hilarious as they can be painful. In Liner Notes, he details the family history and fractured relationships that have informed him: the alcoholism, infidelities and competitiveness; the successes, joys and love. Wainwright writes poignantly about being a son, a parent, a brother and a grandfather while re-printing selections from his father’s columns and meditating upon family, inspiration and art.

As plain-speaking on the page as in his songs, Wainwright lays everything bare in this heartfelt memoir of music and family. His lyrics adorn and inform the text, amplifying his prose and connecting his songs to the life he led.

‘He is unafraid and clear-eyed about the events of his life – and utterly engaging.’ Rosanne Cash

’Fans of the self-lacerating, painfully funny Wainwright III will find the memoir they want here’ Kirkus Reviews

Cover image for Liner Notes On Parents, Children, Exes, Excess, Decay & A Few More Of My Favourite Things, isbn: 9781783239566

Eddie Holland

Come and Get These Memories

$12.00

As the creative force behind Berry Gordy Jr.'s Motown Records in the mid-Sixties, a writing credit from Holland Dozier Holland was virtually a guarantee of chart success. From 'Stop! In The Name Of Love' to 'How Sweet It Is To Be Loved By You', they were the songwriting and production dream team responsible for some of the greatest songs of the twentieth century. In this compelling autobiography, brothers Eddie and Brian Holland share their story for the first time, starting with growing up in Detroit raised by a single mother and their grandmother, before shining a light on their early musical careers. A gifted lyricist, Eddie started out as a solo singer with Berry Gordy as his manager before partnering up with Brian and Lamont Dozier, both talented arrangers and producers. When Holland Dozier Holland came together, they helped transform Motown Records from a local soul label into a worldwide hit factory, home to international superstars such as Marvin Gaye, Martha & The Vandellas, The Supremes, Smokey Robinson, The Miracles, The Four Tops and The Isley Brothers. After an awe-inspiring tenure they left Motown in 1968, continuing their successes at new labels and with new collaborators for years to come. Featuring honest and open first-hand accounts, Come and Get These Memories is more than just a behind-the-scenes look at Motown Records at its peak: Eddie and Brian set the record straight on both their personal and professional lives and offer a revealing slice of pop-music history.

Cover image for Come and Get These Memories, isbn: 9781787591837

Barney Hoskyns

Into the Void: Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath

$12.00

Compiled by Rock's Backpages, here is the ultimate collection of interviews, profiles and reviews concerning the weird and wonderful career of Ozzy Osbourne! From Black Sabbath through the annual Ozzfest tour to the MTV Phenomenon 'The Osbournes', Ozzy has always attracted attention. Among the world-class commentators writing about him here are Mike Saunders, Glenn O'Brien, Simon Reynolds, John Walsh, Chris Welch and David Dalton. These are the best pieces ever written about Ozzy and Sabbath, and now for the first time they are all in one book: a glorious Ozzfest of conversation, analysis and criticism focusing on Birmingham's great Gothic Rock hero.

Cover image for Into the Void: Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath, isbn: 9780857121066

Martin Hoyle

The World Of Opera: Mozart

$12.00

A new and popular biography that will appeal to all those who love the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and who would like to know more about his operas and the life he lived. Perhaps Mozart's operas -- more than any of the other forms in which he composed -- hint most at his "divine discontent", and reveal how this child prodigy turned into a genius who could see into the human heart.

Cover image for The World Of Opera: Mozart, isbn: 9780857127617

Zoë Howe

How's Your Dad?: Living in the Shadow of a Rock Star Parent

$12.00

What's it like growing up as the offspring of rock royalty? Living through bizarre backstage – and onstage – experiences, unconventional childhoods, drugs, debts and mad babysitters, the subjects of this book may have grown up quickly but their backgrounds shaped them in very different ways. In this frank and affectionate book, Zoë Street Howe meets the children of iconic music figures and discovers if a rock star parent really is a blessing or a curse.

Cover image for How's Your Dad?: Living in the Shadow of a Rock Star Parent, isbn: 9780857124159

Everett True

Nirvana

$12.00

Everett True is responsible for bringing Nirvana, Hole, Pavement, Soundgarden and a host of other bands to public attention. He introduced Kurt to Courtney, performed on stage with Nirvana on numerous occasions and famously pushed Kurt onto the stage of the Reading Festival in 1992 in a wheelchair.

This is the true story written by the only journalist allowed into the Cobain house immediately after Kurt’s death. True reveals the details of what the legendary band was really like, what happened to Cobain in Olympia and Seattle, how Kurt first met Courtney, and gives the lowdown on the scenes, the seminars, the live dates, the friends and the drug dealers surrounding the grunge explosion.

A decade after Kurt Cobain’s suicide, Nirvana continues to exert an enormous power on popular music as new generations discover the poignancy in their music. For the first time, here is a true insider’s commentary on one of rock’s most influential bands.

Cover image for Nirvana, isbn: 9780857120137

Michael Bradley

Teenage Kicks: My Life as an Undertone

$12.00

Michael Bradley joined his school friend's group in Derry, Northern Ireland in the summer of 1974. They had two guitars and no singer. Four years later the Undertones recorded 'Teenage Kicks', John Peel's favourite record, and became one of the most fondly remembered UK bands of the post punk era. Sticking to their punk rock principles, they signed terrible deals, made great records and had a wonderful time. They broke up in 1983 when they realised there was no pot of gold at the end of the rock and roll rainbow. His story is a bitter-sweet, heart-warming and occasionally droll tale of unlikely success, petty feuding and playful mischief during five years of growing up in the music industry. Wiser but not much richer, Michael became a bicycle courier in Soho after the Undertones split. "Sixty miles a day, fresh air, no responsibilities," he writes. "Sometimes I think it was the best job I ever had. It wasn't, of course."

Cover image for Teenage Kicks: My Life as an Undertone, isbn: 9781783238521

Graham Jones

Last Shop Standing: Whatever Happened To Record Shops?

$12.00

Last Shop Standing: Whatever Happened To Record Shops? documents the sad disappearance of a cultural icon from our high streets. Once a thriving industry, the UK has gone from having over 2000 independent record shops in the 1980s to just 269 in 2009.

Written by Graham Jones, who has worked in the distribution industry for over 25 years as a record company salesman, this book presents a snapshot of a business that is under threat of going the same way as the stamp shop, the coin shop and the candlestick maker. Jones’ speaks to 50 record shop owners to see why they have survived while nearly two thousand others have closed. These interviews form the basis of the book, which celebrates the rich social history in which the record shop is steeped.

In 2012 Last Shop Standing was made into an award winning 50 minute film, featuring interviews with Johnny Marr, Norman Cook, Richard Hawley, Paul Weller and Billy Bragg, alongside many of the record shop owners featured in the book. Given a new tagline – ‘the rise, fall and rebirth of the independent record shop’, the film has been screened around the globe and was an official selection at the Chicago International Movies & Music Festival in 2013.

Cover image for Last Shop Standing: Whatever Happened To Record Shops?, isbn: 9780857124173

Jim Green

The Musician's Joke Book

$12.00

A side-splitting selection of one-liners, comic definitions, yarns and witty quotes from the world of music. Most professions have their own jokes, but musicians seem to have more than their fair share. Perhaps it's the insane travel schedule, the bad lodgings or just lack of sleep. But as Jim Green says in his introduction, "...it's not surprising we're a band apart (so to speak), outcasts who seek only our own company, rubbing two jokes together for warmth and trying to feel superior by sneering at one another's abilities and personalities." So maybe the reason musicians love poking fun at one another is nothing more than getting in first before everyone else does. Or perhaps choosing laughter is the only alternative to despair... Anyway, here is a truly great selection of jokes, quotes and stories from the world's second oldest profession. Enjoy! Q: What is the definition of perfect pitch in a piccolo? A: When you throw it in the toilet and it doesn't hit the rim. Q: What do you throw a drowning lead guitarist? A: His amp. Q: Why was the clarinetist staring at the orange juice bottle? A: Because the label said "concentrate." "I don’t know anything about music. In my line you don't have to." Elvis Presley

Cover image for The Musician's Joke Book, isbn: 9780857123695

Ian Hunter

Diary of a Rock 'n' Roll Star

$12.00

Ian Hunter's Diary of a Rock 'n' Roll Star has received a litany of plaudits and been described as what "may well be the best rock book ever" and "an enduring crystallization of the rock musician's lot, and a quietly glorious period piece" from Q and The Guardian . A brutally honest chronicle of touring life in the Seventies, and a classic of the rock writing genre, Diary of a Rock `n' Roll Star remains the gold standard for rock writing. This new edition includes new content from Hunter and a foreword from Johnny Depp.

Cover image for Diary of a Rock 'n' Roll Star, isbn: 9781787591547

Tim Grierson

Blinking Lights and Other Revelations: The Story of Eels

$12.00

Blinking Lights is the first biography of an extraordinary band, Eels. Writer, Tim Grierson, gives an in-depth examination of their extensive career, insight into their remarkable lives, and a detailed discography of their work.

Over the last 15 years, Mark Everett’s band has released nine acclaimed albums, from Beautiful Freak to 2010’s Tomorrow Morning. Everett is one of music’s most fascinating characters and Blinking Lights covers his unusual childhood, the tragedy of his sister’s suicide, his relationship with his brilliant mathematician father, and his initial struggles to succeed in the music industry.

Featuring interviews with those close to Everett – who gave his blessing – to those closest to him, including former band members.

Cover image for Blinking Lights and Other Revelations: The Story of Eels, isbn: 9780857127471

Mark Beaumont

Jay-Z: The King of America

$12.00

Jay-Z: King of America is the first in-depth biography to dissect the life and music of the most successful rapper of all time. From crack dealing on the mean streets of New York to million dollar deals at the highest echelons of music industry, Jay-Z’s story is a whole new kind of American Dream.

Updated to include recent turbulence with Kanye West, rumours of an affair with Rhianna, his latest album Magna Carta Holy Grail and troubles with his streaming service Tidal, this is the most complete biography of Jay-Z available. Author Mark Beaumont has interviewed Jay-Z, Kanye West, Busta Rhymes, LL Cool J, Damon Dash, Dr Dre, Rick Rubin and more. Revealing insights from these encounters inform this no-holds-barred biography of a great American success story.

Along his winding path Jay-Z shattered barriers in rap music and has done more than anyone to make the genre the global crossover success it is today. This book includes detailed accounts of all 12 of his albums, including the seminal classic Reasonable Doubt, the landmark Blueprint trilogy and his latest gem, Magna Carta Holy Grail. Mark Beaumont traces Jay Z’s ascent to hip-hop’s throne and his pivotal role in forging modern rap music.

Taking in all of the drug busts, knife attacks, entrepreneurial brilliance, premature retirements and secret weddings, this is Jay-Z’s hard knock life fully exposed…

“Definitely THE book to own this Christmas, and takes his rightful place at the top of our book chart.” - RWD magazine (Leading UK urban music mag)

Cover image for Jay-Z: The King of America, isbn: 9780857127921

David Sinclair

Spice Girls Revisited

$12.00

The Spice Girls phenomenon was a genuine pop music landmark. No group since The Beatles had commanded as much media attention. Ginger, Baby, Posh, Sporty and Scary became international stars and, whether they were adored or ridiculed, they became the ultimate expression of global media fame in the Nineties.

Cover image for Spice Girls Revisited, isbn: 9780857121110

Mark Putterford

Phil Lynott: The Rocker

$12.00

The definitive biography of Thin Lizzy's charismatic lead singer . Using dozens of interviews with family, friends and band members, Putterford gives a touching and sometimes shocking account of the life of the one and only black Irish rock legend.

Cover image for Phil Lynott: The Rocker, isbn: 9780857122544

Joel McIver

Giving The Game Away: The Thunder Story

$12.00

The legend of Thunder spans 27 years and is studded with 18 Top 40 UK singles, as well as a haul of gold and platinum albums. They've had their share of breakups and re-formations, and their story, told in their own words and illustrated with rare photos and memorabilia, reflects both the price and the perks of rock fame.

Author Joel McIver, whose other titles include the bestselling Justice For All: The Truth About Metallica, has captured the life and times of Thunder through individual recollections and a many mirrors of perspective. Coupled with numerous personal artefacts, photographs, memorabilia and revelations, Giving The Game Away intimately portrays a band of young hopefuls as they transform into arena mega-stars.

With a foreword by Andy Taylor, producer of Backstreet Symphony and guitarist for Duran Duran and Power Station, Joel McIver has crafted the definitive, authorised biography of this much-loved British rock band.

Giving The Game Away includes curated music. Whilst you read the book, hear the classic songs of Thunder and surround yourself with the music that surrounded them.

Cover image for Giving The Game Away: The Thunder Story, isbn: 9781783237852

Daryl Easlea

Crazy in Love: The Beyoncé Knowles Biography

$12.00

Crazy in Love explores the astonishing life and career of Beyoncé Knowles, the Texan teenager who rose from performing in hometown backyards to being the most recognisable face on the planet.

Beyoncé now towers above the entertainment industry – Music, film, fashion. She has released critically acclaimed albums one after the other, and, alongside partner Jay-Z, forms half of one of the most powerful couples in the world. This exciting and revealing portrait delves into the key events of her life, her music and her marriage to uncover true person behind the persona. Crazy in Love is essential reading for any fan.

“At this point, I really know who I am, and don’t feel like I have to put myself in a box. I’m not afraid of taking risks – no one can define me.” Beyoncé

Cover image for Crazy in Love: The Beyoncé Knowles Biography, isbn: 9780857127235

Jenny Fabian

Groupie

$10.00

Fabian and Byrne's story of 19-year-old Katie and her unswerving commitment to sex, drugs & rock 'n' roll now takes its rightful place as a key novel of the Sixties. When Groupie was first published in 1969 it caused a sensation. The Swingin' Sixties capacity to outrage may have been starting to decline, but this novel managed to shock all over again. A thinly fictionalised chronicle of Jenny Fabian's adventures with underground rock heroes of her day, Groupie caused a furore for all kinds of reasons... It had the scent of danger that accompanies an authentic original... It ruffled feathers with its matter of fact descriptions of drug taking and sexual high jinks... It prompted guessing games about the true identities of its principal characters... Most of all, it was highly explicit about a phenomenon that had never before been documented... Decades later, this book is still extraordinarily fresh and playing the celebrity guessing game is still fun. Groupie is also the genuine article - no reconstruction of Sixties underground rock culture has ever captured the Zeitgist as well as this novel.

Cover image for Groupie, isbn: 9781787592186

Mick Middles

Breaking Into Heaven: The Rise, Fall & Resurrection of The Stone Roses

$12.00

In 1989, The Stone Roses exploded onto the music scene at the forefront of a new wave of music from Manchester. The Roses’ music – an exhilarating mixture of sixties’ pop, rock and dance – made them the UK’s most talked-about group, while their first album, The Stone Roses, is now revered as one of the finest débuts of all time.

The band’s flared trousers, baggy t-shirts and floppy fringes were copied by a generation, and their 1990 gig at Spike Island in front of 30,000 people became legendary. Then, with the world at their feet, and a multi-million-dollar record contract signed, the Stone Roses disappeared only to come back 15 years later even bigger and better.

Their story truly is one of resurrection.

Cover image for Breaking Into Heaven: The Rise, Fall & Resurrection of The Stone Roses, isbn: 9780857127891

Neil Fraser

Long Shadows, High Hopes: The Life and Times of Matt Johnson & The The

$12.00

From life in an East End pub to fame on a global stage, Matt Johnson – founder, songwriter and visionary lynchpin of iconic band The The – created some of the most engaging, challenging and enduring music of his era.

Then he walked away from it all.

In this authorised biography Neil Fraser has drawn back the curtain on a brilliant enigma. Neil Fraser has gained unprecedented access to Matt Johnson and his The The archives. He has conducted hundreds of hours of interviews with Johnson and those involved in his life and work, including Johnny Marr, Johanna St Michaels, JG Thirlwell and Tim Pope.

Long Shadows, High Hopes reveals the whole story, from early days to glory days. It examines the man behind the iconic songs and the acclaimed albums – an outspoken political lyricist and visionary force who made a success of living on his own terms. With the announcement from Matt Johnson in in 2017 that The The would appear again, this book reveals what has prompted him to step out of the long shadows after so long.

Cover image for Long Shadows, High Hopes: The Life and Times of Matt Johnson & The The, isbn: 9781787590854

Howard Gray

Wagner: Illustrated Lives Of The Great Composers

$12.00

Howard Gray. A series of biographies of great composers which present the subjects against the social background of their times. Each draws on personal letters and recollections, engravings, paintings and - where they exist - photographs, to build up a complete picture of the composer’s life.

Cover image for Wagner: Illustrated Lives Of The Great Composers, isbn: 9780857125699

Dave Lewis

Led Zeppelin: The 'Tight But Loose' Files

$12.00

The long-awaited sequel to Zeppelin expert Dave Lewis’ acclaimed first edition of Led Zeppelin: A Celebration, this new book on the legendary band includes exclusive interviews, analysis of concerts both during and after the Zeppelin era, and detailed accounts of important turning points in Led Zeppelin’s career.

Chapters include the recording of Led Zeppelin IV, and their appearances at Earls Court in 1975 and Knebworth in 1979. It also includes the Tight But Loose interviews with Peter Grant and John Paul Jones, as well as collaborations between Page and Plant in the 90s. With a foreword by bass player John Paul Jones. Color and black and white photos.

Cover image for Led Zeppelin: The 'Tight But Loose' Files, isbn: 9780857122209

Bruce Crowther

Gene Krupa: His Life & Times

$12.00

The life and times of Gene Krupa Traces the life and career of the late drummer and assesses his influence on modern jazz. In depth account of Gene's life and the times surrounding that period. Includes selected discography and plenty of photographs.

Cover image for Gene Krupa: His Life & Times, isbn: 9780857128256

David Dalton

Who Is That Man? In Search of the Real Bob Dylan

$12.00

Bestselling author David Dalton goes in seach of the real Bob Dylan in an electrifying biography that puts all the others in the shade.

As an artist Bob Dylan has been a major force for half a century. As a musical influence he is without equal. Yet as a man he has always acted like an outlaw on the run, constantly seeking to cover his tracks by confounding investigators with a dizzying array of aliases, impersonations, tall tales and downright lies.

David Dalton presents Dylan's extraordinary life in such a way that his subject's techniques for hiding in full sight are gradually exposed for what they are, Despite the changing images, the spiritual body swerves, the manipulative nature and the occasionally baffling lurches between making sublime music and self-indulgent whimsy, the real Bob Dylan has never been more visible.

Among the eyewitnesses cited are Marianne Faithful, Allen Ginsberg, Andy Warhol, Larry 'Ratso' Sloman, Nat Hentoff, Suze Rotolo and many more. Yet in the end it is Dalton's impressive ability to find revealing patterns in Dylan's multiple disguises that reveals more than we ever expected to learn about the real man behind the Dylan legend.

Cover image for Who Is That Man? In Search of the Real Bob Dylan, isbn: 9780857127792

James Burnett

The Illustrated Lives of the Great Composers: Ravel

$12.00

Ir has been said that no music amplifies the french ideals of precision and good taste better than the work of Maurice Ravel, yet his background could scarecly have been more cosmopolitan. The son of a Swiss father and a Basque mother, he was born near St. Jean de Luz in 1875; he died in Paris at the age of sixty-two. His primary inspiration, and in consequence the character of his best music, came from art and life. He was exceptionally sensitive to the new current of thought and the aesthetic changes in the Arts following the First World War. Indeed, the music of Ravel is an accuarate reflection of the man himself. This lavishly illustrated book which sets the work and achievements of Ravel in the context of the events of his time, will appeal to the general music lover and also to the serious student.

Cover image for The Illustrated Lives of the Great Composers: Ravel, isbn: 9780857124357

Johan Bakker

Behind the Rainbow: The Tragic Life of Eva Cassidy

$12.00

Eva Cassidy’s story is one of the most compelling and poignant in recent music history. In this thoughtful and probing biography, Johan Bakker explores her brief performing career and the fame that only came after her death at the age of 33.

A local performer, Eva Cassidy’s performance in Iceland was the closest she ever got to Europe. Yet her music has touched millions across the world. Her posthumously released albums, Imagine, Songbird, Simply Eva and Somewhere included three UK number ones have sold more than ten million copies.

Interviewing Eva’s friends, colleagues and family in Washington D.C. and Maryland, Johan Bakker traces her short life, her idealism and her disillusionment with the business side of her trade.

Cover image for Behind the Rainbow: The Tragic Life of Eva Cassidy, isbn: 9780857127488

Lee Thompson

Growing Out of It

$12.00

Whether flying across a screen or lighting up the stage, Madness’ wild, energetic sax player has always been hard to miss. For Lee ‘KIX’ Thompson, life is for having as much fun as possible. Growing Out Of It is the tale of one ‘nutty boy’ not really growing out of it at all. From getting up to no good as a teenager to his many musical (mis)adventures in the 1970s, Lee’s memoir of his formative years captures his enduring love for his north London stomping ground, where he first met the other members of Madness. This is a story of growing up in a certain time and place when anything felt possible, even a bunch of north London lads forming a ska revival band – and becoming one of Britain’s best-loved groups.

Cover image for Growing Out of It, isbn: 9781787592193

Charles White

Life And Times Of Little Richard

$12.99

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’n’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 pictures from Little Richard’s own archive and a comprehensive discography.

Joel Mclver

Unleashed: The Story of TOOL

$12.00

The very first book about the Anglo-American metal band Tool explores not only their uncompromising music but also their unsettling, self-made image based on mythological symbols and arcane theories.
The quartet of master musicians – Maynard James Keenan, Danny Carey, Justin Chancellor and Adam Jones – emerged from the club scene in Los Angeles in 1990 alongside their friends Rage Against the Machine, grabbing the concept of heavy music and then completely redefining it. With a sixties-style commitment to art and agit-prop, they have now attained a level of artistic complexity and depth which makes their enduring success a miracle in today’s culture of bland, corporate entertainment.
Their rise to glory has been one of the stranger rock tales of our time. Joel McIver leaves no detail omitted as he delves into the mystery behind Tool’s music

Cover image for Unleashed: The Story of TOOL, isbn: 9780857127709

Geoff Brown

Michael Jackson: A Life In Music

$12.00

Not just a complete fan's guide to the music of Michael Jackson, this book is the definitive overview of the unforgettable King of Pop's unique career. Album by album, track by track, it examines every song released by The Jackson 5, as well as Michael's complete solo output from Off The Wall in 1979 to his last album of original material, Invincible, in 2001. Features include:

A brand new chronology
A detailed album by album, track by track analysis
A separate section on compilation albums
A song index for easy reference.
Eight page colour timeline
Dozens of quotes from Michael himself

Geoff Brown is production editor of Mojo Magazine and has written extensively on soul and R&B in the UK media during a 25 year career in music journalism. He has also written books on Diana Ross and James Brown.

Cover image for Michael Jackson: A Life In Music, isbn: 9780857122575

Darryl W. Bullock

Queer Blues

$15.00

From the very beginning, the blues has had a close connection with the LGBTQ community. There is a long and decorated history of so-called ‘dirty blues’ songs, stretching back beyond the earliest attempts to capture the blues on record. The 1920s and 30s saw the release of dozens of raunchy, bawdy blues recordings aimed at a knowing LGBTQ audience. Queer Blues tells the story of the pioneering LGBTQ composers and entertainers that wrote, performed and recorded these wonderfully outlandish, life-affirming songs and chronicles, including: Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, Josephine Baker to Frankie ‘Half-Pint’ Jaxon and many more. This is the definitive account of the LGBTQ trailblazers of early blues and a fascinating consideration of the intersection between music and LGBTQ history, from the award-winning Darryl W. Bullock.

Cover image for Queer Blues, isbn: 9781787592551

Robert Hardcastle

Verdi and His Operas

$12.00

The life and work of the greatest of all Italian composers, Giuseppe Verdi, including the much-loved anecdotes, which the author firmly believes reflect both historical and mythic truths about their subject. Covers all Verdi operas, from the early works in the bel canto tradition to the late masterpieces Otello and Falstaff.

Cover image for Verdi and His Operas, isbn: 9780857127624

Bob Young

Status Quo: Still Doin’ It The Official Updated Edition

$12.00

Recognised as one of the first 'bands of the people' Status Quo's ultimate aim has always been to 'send an audience home happy' which they continue to do the world over.

Status Quo: Just Doin' It is the authorised book of personal and professional photographs of the band taken between 1966 and 2012, plus hundreds of photos of rare memorabilia.

Their story has been told in many different ways and this special new book, compiled by Bob Young, their friend and associate for 38 years, is a colourful and often humorous insight into the world of Status Quo and many of the characters associated with Rossi and Parfitt, as they continue to bring their own unique brand of rock ‘n’ roll to millions of loyal fans around the world.

Cover image for Status Quo: Still Doin’ It The Official Updated Edition, isbn: 9780857124845

Chris Welch

Close to the Edge: The Story of Yes

$12.00

One of the greatest names in classic rock, Yes have been on the circuit for an incredible 34 years. Jon Anderson, Steve Howe, Rick Wakeman, Chris Squire and Bill Bruford are just some of the star players who helped take the band to incredible heights.

Their turbulent story spans the early days of pub and club gigs, international super group status in the heyday of rock, and various line-ups since.

Chris Welch's definitive biography has been updated to include the historic return of Rick Wakeman to the classic Yes line up during 2002 and their subsequent highly successful tour of America.

Cover image for Close to the Edge: The Story of Yes, isbn: 9780857120427

Kenneth Womack

John Lennon 1980

$12.00

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.

Cover image for John Lennon 1980, isbn: 9781787592155

Chloe Govan

Who's Laughing Now? The Story of Jessie J

$12.00

Reveals how Jessie broke away from her background – a tough area of Essex where stabbings and violent crime were rife – to become the antithesis of the typical Essex girl.

Tells of her performance background, taking ballet classes from the age of four and appearing in a string of musicals, including one where she fell off the stage and did a back flip onto the conductor.

Reveals how she was on national TV winning singing competitions at age 15 and how she recorded a demo the same year, before studying Musical Theatre at the BRIT School

Talks of her ill-fated stint in a girl group, dealing with tears, cat fights and mammoth egos.

Recalls how she finally earned a record deal only to suffer a stroke and for her label to go into liquidation the same year.

Reveals her yearning for fame, including a string of support slots where she appeared as an unknown artist. She was booed – but often booed back.

Her trip to America where she penned a Number One single, but was so desperately lonely and unhappy that she felt suicidal – yet she penned a song about this period that would become the title track of her album/

Interviews with record producers, school classmates, friends, dance tutors and more give the full lowdown on Jessie’s road to fame.

Cover image for Who's Laughing Now? The Story of Jessie J, isbn: 9780857127747

Johnny Rogan

Morrissey & Marr: The Severed Alliance

$12.00

Morrissey & Marr: The Severed Alliance is among the most successful – and controversial – rock biographies ever published. Having denounced the book and called for the death of its author Johnny Rogan, Morrissey later did a U-turn and cited it as evidence in the royalty-related court case brought by Smiths drummer Mike Joyce.Now, 20 years after it was first published, Rogan has returned to his definitive Smiths biography to produce a completely revised edition based on new information and new interviews to add to the almost 100 initially conducted over a four-year period.

Widely acclaimed as one rock’s leading writers, Johnny Rogan now brings yet more insight and analysis to his best-selling book that revealed, for the first time, the true and unsanitised story of The Smiths – the most important group of their generation.

Cover image for Morrissey & Marr: The Severed Alliance, isbn: 9780857127822

David Buckley

David Bowie: The Music and The Changes

$12.00

David Bowie: The Music and The Changes is the ultimate guide to the music of the genius, fashion icon and near-mythical rock god. Author, David Buckley, was awarded a PhD on David Bowie so is best placed to guide you through an album by album and track by track exploration of this incredible man's incredible music.

The Music and The Changes kicks off with a timeline of Bowie's life, from his humble beginnings to his early albums to conquering the charts in the 1970s and 1980s and cementing his status as one of rock and pop music's most admired artists and icons. The real highlight for fans and those just getting into Bowie is the album by album and track by track analysis of every single one of his albums, up to and including his most recent release 'The Next Day'.

Wonderfully engrossing and incredibly detailed, this is indisputably the most complete analysis of Bowie's music ever published. Boasting release information, biography, historical details, full track listings and fascinating comments on individual tracks, David Bowie: The Music and The Changes is an authoritative and comprehensive guide to one of rock's most intriguing figures.

Cover image for David Bowie: The Music and The Changes, isbn: 9781783236176

Andy Neill

Had Me a Real Good Time: The Faces Before During and After

$12.00

The definitive account of one of rock 'n' roll's most engagingly shambolic acts as well as an evocative portrait of the times in which they raised hell and recorded some timeless tracks, now updated with details of the sad death of keyboard player Ian McLagan.

Cover image for Had Me a Real Good Time: The Faces Before During and After, isbn: 9781783236190

Mark E. Smith

The Fall

$12.00

Over the years, The Fall have given me more pleasure than any other band and, when people ask me why I always say, 'they are always different, they are always the same' John Peel.

The first ever authorised biography of this most inscrutable of bands! Together music writer Mick Middles and Fall leader Mark E. Smith have written an exhaustive biography of The Fall. Spanning their years on the fringe of the Manchester punk scene, three dozen albums, numerous tours, two successful stage plays and various spoken word events, this book is as strangely compelling as the band itself. Laced with Smith's distinctive brand of working class intellectualism and trenchant broadsides this is a meticulously researched story to thrill the famously disparate fans of The Fall who revel in a string of classic albums that fly in the face of all fashion, fads and musical trends.

Mark E Smith remains famously true to his roots. Uncomfortable in art circles in London or, say, New York, he continues to live a full life in his native Salford, perfectly at home amongst the artisans in the string of local pubs. Just one more reason why Mark E Smith is a truly unique phenomenon with assured longevity.

The book is the only authorised account of the enigma that is Mark E Smith. Author Mick Middles has been a close friend of Smith for over 25 years, and the book, written with Smith's complete approval and assistance, delves deep into the heart of that enigma.

Cover image for The Fall, isbn: 9780857120304

Daryl Easlea

Talent Is An Asset: The Story Of Sparks

$12.00

When LA musicians Russell and Ron Mael moved to Britain in 1973, they hit the pop world as Sparks and looked like oddballs, even in the context of the glam rock movement that made them welcome. Soon defined by their weird and wonderful 1974 single This Town Ain't Big Enough For The Both Of Us from the Kimono My House album, Sparks have now released 22 albums over four decades, each record inhabiting a bizarre world of its own.

Their songs were peppered with puns and pop culture nods, as well as nostalgia and jokey images, all mixed up in a kaleidoscope of musical references ranging from rock to opera to disco. They remain one of pop music's truly original and uncompromising acts.

The Sparks story is now celebrated in this unauthorised book, Daryl Easlea's exploration of their extraordinary drawing on hours of new interviews and research. Talent Is An Asset comes as close as possible to pinning down the quicksilver nature of two gifted musicians who have gone out of their way to remain unpredictable and elusive, forever entrenched behind a dazzling gallery of jokes, impersonations and musical eccentricities.

Cover image for Talent Is An Asset: The Story Of Sparks, isbn: 9780857122377

Geoff Brown

The Life of James Brown

$12.00

This is the definitive biography of this extraordinary and controversial superstar, written by Geoff Brown, a former editor of Black Music magazine. For three decades James Brown dominated the changing face of post-war popular black music. Others were as inspirational in the short term, and several of his successors have been bigger pop stars, but none matched Brown's independent authority, sustained influence or commercial longevity.

But while another generation danced to the pulse of James Brown, at the end of the eighties the man himself was back in a southern US jail, a country mile or so from where he was incarcerated in his teens. between the two internments is the compelling story if a man who, by reaching from his roots and striving determinedly for himself, came to represent in music and personal power the post-war emancipation of black America.

Illustrated with many rare photographs and includes a comprehensive discography.

Cover image for The Life of James Brown, isbn: 9780857120328

Stephen Miller

Smart Blonde: The Life of Dolly Parton

$12.00

Smart Blonde: Dolly Parton is a comprehensive and revealing biography which includes interviews with family members, musicians and producers who have worked with Dolly over the years. This new and fully updated edition includes a detailed section on the superstar's legendary performance at 2014's Glastonbury Festival.

This book is a detailed assessment of her music as a singer and songwriter over the last forty years, and author Stephen Miller discusses how she shrugged aside the male-dominated world of Nashville in the early 1960s to take hold of her career, sell millions of albums and appear in films with Jane Fonda, Burt Reynolds and Sylvester Stallone.

Smart Blonde: Dolly Parton throws new light on her private life - her mysterious and closely guarded relationship with her husband Carl Dean, and her lifelong friend Judy Ogle as well as her seeming love of cosmetic surgery. This is the story of an artist and performer who is deadly serious about music but is often seen as frivolous about her image. The updated version of this Dolly Parton biography includes details of her Glastonbury 2014 performance, the cherry on the cake of her illustrious career. Finding new fans and putting on a characteristically entertaining show for old ones, the UK tour led to her most recent album being her biggest-selling album in the UK ever.

This incredible detailed Dolly Parton biography is a must for all fans, old and new, of this jewel in country music's crown. Boasting an authoritative account of her ongoing career, this is the only biography on the legendary lady, the queen of country, the philanthropist and perfect performer.

Cover image for Smart Blonde: The Life of Dolly Parton, isbn: 9781783233915

Darryl W. Bullock

Pride, Pop and Politics

$15.00

Pride, Pop and Politics charts the development of gay culture and the rise of LGBTQ politics in the UK, from the formation of the Gay Liberation Front to the present day, through the music that provided the soundtrack. Fifty years on from Britain’s first Pride march, the long road to LGBT equality continues. Through protest songs and gay club nights, street theatre activism and fundraising concerts, the performing arts have played an influential role in each great stride made. With new interviews with musicians and DJs, performers and activists, including Andy Bell, Jayne County, John Grant, Horse McDonald and Peter Tachell, Pride, Pop and Politics hears from those whose art has been influenced by the campaign for LGBT rights – and helped push it forward. This informative, eye-opening book is the first to focus on the relationship between gay nightlife and political activism in Britain.

Cover image for Pride, Pop and Politics, isbn: 9781787592384

Cam Cobb

Weighted Down

$16.99

Skip Spence was a soldier, a rock star, a folkie, an innovator, an addict, a cult phenomenon and a ward of the state. The cast of characters in his story include some of the biggest stars in music: Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Neil Young and many more.

His life is the story of the Sixties – it’s the story of San Francisco, the biggest bands in America and rock’n’roll mayhem.

Although Spence spent much of his life battling addiction and mental illness, during his lucid moments he performed in several bands and is best known for his work with Jefferson Airplane and as the co-founder of Moby Grape. Tracks from his cult solo album Oar has been covered by Tom Waits, Beck and Robert Plant.

With family photos, a foreword by Robin Spence, and accounts from his friends, bandmates and family, Weighted Down is the first book to tell his story in full.

Cover image for Weighted Down, isbn: 9781787592629

Keith Badman

The Beatles: Off the Record

$12.00

The Beatles Off The Record is the most comprehensive oral history of The Beatles ever published - an 'as it happened' story of the greatest pop group of them all.

Featuring a wealth of quotes from the Sixties by John, Paul, George and Ringo themselves and a host of others who were close to the group during the heady days of Beatlemania and beyond, including their families, fellow musicians, Brian Epstein, George Martin and dozens more.

As Hunter Davis, The Beatles official biographer, states in his foreword; ...compared with some of The Beatles' later selective and polished or faulty and fading memories, this is much nearer the truth. Well, as it appeared to be, at the time...

Cover image for The Beatles: Off the Record, isbn: 9780857120458

Peter Doggett

Jimi Hendrix: The Complete Guide to His Music

$12.00

The indispensable consumers' guide to the music of Jimi Hendrix, now widely acclaimed as the most gifted instrumentalist in the history of rock.An album by album, track by track, run-down of all music recorded and released by Hendrix, from his earliest American Recordings through the Jimi Hendrix Experience to the many posthumous releases. Features include...An album by album, track by track analysis of Hendrix's best workInformation on when and where the music was recordedA rundown on expoitative recordings that are best avoidedA track index for easy referenceSixteen page colour section

Cover image for Jimi Hendrix: The Complete Guide to His Music, isbn: 9780857127105

Brian Southall

Sex Pistols: 90 Days At EMI

$12.00

A fascinating insider's account of the notorious three months that turned the British music industry on its head.

Here is the story of how the Sex Pistols shocked and shamed EMI—the UK's most revered and profitable record company—and ended up £40,000 the richer thanks to manager Malcolm McLaren's cunning business strategy.

Author Brian Southall is the former EMI PR executive who was there during the whole infamous Sex Pistols/EMI affair. For the first time, he now tells the whole story, from EMI's signing of the Pistols in September 1967, through the notorious incident on Thames Television's Today programme, to the band's extreme behavior at London's Heathrow airport that resulted in EMI severing their 90-day-old contract.

Cover image for Sex Pistols: 90 Days At EMI, isbn: 9780857120373

Mark Hodkinson

Queen: The Early Years

$12.00

This classic account of the birth of a legendary group is the truly authentic version of Queen's rise to stardom. Author Mark Hodkinson interviewed over 60 friends and colleagues of Freddie Mercury, Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon to piece together a fascinating jigsaw of anecdotes from the days when the future superstars were playing with bands like The Reaction, The Opposition, 1984 and Sour Milk. Intimate, suprising and meticulously researched, Queen: The Early Years is a riveting read accompanied by many previously unseen early photographs of the four band mambers.

Cover image for Queen: The Early Years, isbn: 9780857120557

Robert Dallas

The Electric Muse Revisited

$12.00

Folk music has been evolving and adapting for centuries, but in the 1960s and 70s came an extraordinary period of change and innovation. Rock musicians borrowed from traditional songs, while folk musicians re-worked ancient ballads using electric guitars and drum kits. From Dylan to Fairport Convention, Richard Thompson and Steeleye Span, the fusion of old and contemporary created a powerful new style: folk-rock. Since then, new and experimental folk fusions have continued, involving anything from rap to electronica. First published in 1975, at the height of the folk-rock boom, the critically acclaimed Electric Muse chronicled the story of the folk movement, from roots to revival. With new chapters on the eras of Eliza Carthy, Billy Bragg, June Tabor, Bellowhead, Sam Lee, Stick In The Wheel and others, and featuring new interviews and photographs, this edition brings the fascinating narrative up to date. As in 1975, The Electric Muse Revisited is published simultaneously with a new album set of the same title, on Good Deeds Music.

Cover image for The Electric Muse Revisited, isbn: 9781787592247

Eddie Holland

Come and Get These Memories

$9.99

Records in the mid-Sixties, a writing credit from Holland Dozier Holland was virtually a guarantee of chart success. From 'Stop! In The Name Of Love' to 'How Sweet It Is To Be Loved By You', they were the songwriting and production dream team responsible for some of the greatest songs of the twentieth century. In this compelling autobiography, brothers Eddie and Brian Holland share their story for the first time, starting with growing up in Detroit raised by a single mother and their grandmother, before shining a light on their early musical careers. A gifted lyricist, Eddie started out as a solo singer with Berry Gordy as his manager before partnering up with Brian and Lamont Dozier, both talented arrangers and producers. When Holland Dozier Holland came together, they helped transform Motown Records from a local soul label into a worldwide hit factory, home to international superstars such as Marvin Gaye, Martha & The Vandellas, The Supremes, Smokey Robinson, The Miracles, The Four Tops and The Isley Brothers. After an awe-inspiring tenure they left Motown in 1968, continuing their successes at new labels and with new collaborators for years to come. Featuring honest and open first-hand accounts, Come and Get These Memories is more than just a behind-the-scenes look at Motown Records at its peak: Eddie and Brian set the record straight on both their personal and professional lives and offer a revealing slice of pop-music history.

Cover image for Come and Get These Memories, isbn: 9781787592834

Patricia Butler

Angels Dance and Angels Die: The Tragic Romance of Pamela and Jim Morrison

$12.00

Angels Dance and Angels Die tells the story of the turbulent relationship between legendary Doors front man, Jim Morrison, and his common-law wife, Pamela Courson. Follow the lives of Courson and Morrison before their fateful meeting in 1965; their lives together until Morrison's death in 1971; and Courson's life without Morrison, including her fight to gain the rights to his estate until her death from a heroin overdose on April 25, 1974.

Cover image for Angels Dance and Angels Die: The Tragic Romance of Pamela and Jim Morrison, isbn: 9780857123596

Peter Doggett

The Art And Music Of John Lennon

$12.00

From his childhood paintings to the song he recorded on the day he died, here is a complete catalogue of Lennon's work across many fields: songwriting, performing, drawing, painting, film, poetry, prose and conceptual art.

This magnificent book also contains detailed information about all of the Lennon recording sessions as part of the Beatles, as a solo artist and with Yoko Ono. Plus a complete UK and US discography, home demo recordings, composing tapes, studio out-takes, live recordings, collaborations, and interviews.

Peter Doggett's fascinating book traces the story of a unique creative adventure that ended too soon but left behind an incalculable legacy of words, images and music from a giant of rock n roll who always searched for the truth beyond the limits of his frame.

Beatles Historian Peter Doggett provides the definitive guide to the imaginative work of John Lennon. This comprehensive account details a man whose life and work were indivisible. Whether it was his amusing drawings to amuse classmates, recording million-selling hits with the Beatles or making avant-garde with Yoko Ono, John Lennon never stopped being a creator and Doggett explores his vivid imagination across many different Lennon projects spanning many years and creative forms.

Cover image for The Art And Music Of John Lennon, isbn: 9780857121264

Darren Bloom

Amy Winehouse: A Life Through a Lens

$12.00

This incredible collection of photos, shot by Darren and Elliott Bloom between 2005 and 2011, chronicles the troubled career of a legendary singer who tragically died at the age of 27.All aspects of Amy Winehouse's life are covered, as she enthusiastically talks to fans, inhabits London's clubs and pubs, and browses in neon-lit convenience stores, whilst also revealing an artist troubled by substance abuse and ill-judged relationships.Darren and Elliott Bloom's family knew the Winehouse family and this connection gave them a unique opportunity to work alongside Amy. As her fame grew, the Bloom brothers became Amy's 'official' paparazzi in the hope of clawing back some control over the media feeding frenzy. Many of their images appeared in the acclaimed 2015 Oscar-winning documentary 'Amy'.

Cover image for Amy Winehouse: A Life Through a Lens, isbn: 9781783238729

Nick Johnstone

Yoko Ono 'Talking'

$12.00

One of the most consistently controversial and misunderstood artists of recent years, this is Yoko Ono in her own words, discussing performance, art, and her life with John Lennon.

She is the world's most famous widow - the often maligned, largely mysterious Japanese avant-garde artist whose relationship with the world's greatest pop group still casts an inescapable shadow over her life and work. In this book, part of the 'Talking' series, countless quotes and interviews have been compiled to present Yoko in her own words, taken from across her life and career.

Unofficial and Unauthorised. Parental advisory - Explicit Contents.