A memoir by the English folk singer: 'one of the greatest artists who ever lived' (Stewart Lee) about her journey through America's southern states with Alan Lomax
It's the late 1970s, and across Britain aggressive, young bands are forming. Independent labels are springing up to release their music. But this isn't the story of punk. Forget punk. Punk was a flash in the pan compared to this. This is the story of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, a musical movement that really did change the world.
Through two decades of conversations and correspondence, Frank & Co offers a unique insight into the life and work of the American musician and composer Frank Zappa.
Britpop Decades covers the ten-years that witnessed the birth, boom and bust of Britpop - a period in which home-grown indie guitar music from across the UK went mainstream, pop stars were cut from the most unlikely of cloth, and British culture made its voice heard with some incredibly bombastic choruses.
The iconic life story of Brian Epstein, the 'Fifth Beatle', in his own words - and inevitably the story of the making of the Beatles. Featuring a new introduction by Craig Brown (One Two Three Four: The Beatles in Time).
Written by Green's close associate, this fourth edition of the biography first published in 1995 challenges the accepted narrative about why he left Fleetwood Mac and what happened next.
David Bowie was an immense star whose music and writing transcended generations, and who was one of the most articulate influencers of modern music. This fantastic new, unofficial biography covers his life, music, art and movies.
Featuring forewords from bandmates Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, this is the official and fully authorised biography of the world's most revered and celebrated drummer.
The essential guide to veteran British indie favourites Saint Etienne - the story of how they made music out of memories, and how we made memories out of them.
The diary and essays of Brian Eno republished twenty-five years on with a new introduction by the artist in a beautiful hardback edition.
'One of the seminal books about music .
An exploration of female friendship and women in music, from the iconic singer-songwriter and bestselling author of Another Planet and Bedsit Disco Queen
Tracey Thorn, musician and author of the bestselling autobiography Bedsit Disco Queen, offers a unique insider's take on the art of singing: why and how we sing, and the voice's power to captivate
The complete lyrics of Syd Barrett - 52 songs written for Pink Floyd and during his subsequent solo career - are presented together for the first time, along with rare photos and artwork, to form this beautifully illustrated book.
Switching between the cynical and the sanguine, the defeated and the defiant, this title deals in love, war, beauty, children, romance, rejection, Pethedine, poetry, pants, money, flowers and more...
In this incredibly entertaining autobiography, Ronnie Spector takes the reader on a journey through the dazzling highs and devastating lows that have shaped her life.
David Bowie is holed up in his Bel-Air mansion, drifting into paranoia and confusion. Bowie has long been haunted by the emotional work of the Die Brucke movement and the Expressionists. Berlin is their spiritual home, and Bowie adopts this city as his new sanctuary. Immediately he sets to work on "Low", his own expressionist mood-piece.
Derided as one-hit wonders, estranged from their original producer and record label, and in self-imposed exile in Los Angeles, the Beastie Boys were written off by most observers before even beginning to record their second album. But, "Paul's Boutique" eventually transformed the Beasties from a fratboy novelty to hiphop giants.
The Stone Roses shows a band sizzling with skill, consumed with drive and aspiration and possessing an almost preternatural mastery of the pop paradigm. This book explores the political and cultural zeitgeist of England in 1989, and attempts to apprehend the magic ingredients that made "The Stone Roses" such a special album.
A factional novella: a place where fictional characters rub shoulders with real people, and where actual documented events thread their way through the text alongside imagined scenarios. Through the eyes of 23-year-old Greg Keltner, drug dealer, wannabe musician, and hanger-on, here, we witness the gestation and birth of an entertaining album.
Though "Nevermind" was Nirvana's most commercially successful album, and the record that broke them - and the grunge phenomenon - internationally, "In Utero" has increasingly become regarded as the band's best album, both by the critics and the band members themselves. This work tells the story behind the creation of "In Utero".
Madness came to prominence in the UK in the wake of the Punk/New Wave explosion and must be seen in the context of Britain in the late 70s, musically, socially and politically. Through interviews with the band, this title tells the inside story of how Madness rose to be the most successful singles band of the 1980s in the UK charts.
An album which distilled a genre from the musical, cultural, and social ether, Portishead's "Dummy" was such a complete artistic achievement that its ubiquitous successes threatened to exhaust its own potential. The author offers an impressionistic investigation of "Dummy" that imitates the cumulative structure of the album itself.
In this remarkable and entertaining book, John Perry gets to the heart of Hendrix's unique talent, guiding the reader through each song on the album, writing about his live performances and talking to peers and contemporaries. Part of a new series of short books about critically acclaimed and much-loved albums of the last 40 years.
The author of the cult book "Techgnosis" writes about the big, big Led Zeppelin album. Featuring every heavy metal fan's favourite epic Stairway to Heaven, the huge sound of this album has set the template for rock. Also includes Black Dog and Rock 'n' Roll.
What binds this series together, and what brings it to life, is that all of the authors - musicians, scholars, and writers - are deeply in love with the album they have chosen.
The album that Brian Wilson created in an attempt to outdo the Beatles' Rubber Soul album. Worshipped by music lovers for its harmonies it is also regarded as an early demonstration of how to use the recording studio as an instrument. Brian Wilson has recently been touring the album again, playing it to thousands of devoted fans.
It was the strange and mystical "Another Green World" (1975) that was the cosmic bridge between Old Eno and New Eno, between Rock and Ambient, between the guitar and the synthesizer, between the old world and electronic music as we know it. This book excavates the album's past, and untangles how it was a link to the future of electronic music.