Search results for ""author tony thompson""

The Doors remain one of the most original acts in the history of Rock and Roll. However, their actual music is sometimes overshadowed by the cult of Jim Morrison. Those with long memories will recall a point in the 80s when he went from lead singer of an old band to a signifier of cool known as ‘Morrison.’ His image appeared everywhere on t-shirts, posters, and in the film The Lost Boys, adorning a wall in Keifer Sutherland’s vampire cave. A biopic in the 1990s attempted something like realism but managed only to dramatize the legend of the ‘Lizard King’. Meanwhile, outside of a few high rotation tracks on ‘classic’ rock stations, most of their work took a back seat to Jim’s ever-growing status as a cultural icon. This book dusts off the vinyl and puts on the headphones for a sustained reappraisal of the band’s musical career. Hidden gems, deep cuts, overrated top ten hits, and the enigmatic series of album closers are all subjected to late night interrogations. Let’s head to Venice Beach circa 1965, pick up a Fender bass organ on the way, take a face from the ancient gallery and walk on down the hall!

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The landscape of British organised crime has changed beyond all recognition over the last five years. Youth violence, the drug trade and rising levels of gun crime are rarely out of the news. The country also continues to experience an influx of powerful foreign criminal syndicates who are establishing operations here in order to take advantage of Britain's global connections. Beginning on the troubled streets of the inner cities, Gang Land takes its readers on a journey up through the underworld hierarchy until it finally reaches the very highest levels, occupied by elusive and shadowy 'Mr Big' characters. Written using a mix of personal experiences, undercover work, primary research and cutting edge investigation, this fully updated paperback edition of Gang Land sheds new light onto this highly secretive, often terrifying and utterly fascinating world.

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Creedence Clearwater Revival were a San Francisco band of the 1960s that had nothing to do with Human Be Ins, Timothy Leary, or the Summer of Love. They were, for a time, the most popular band in the US but never scored a number one hit. They were headliners at Woodstock but didn’t appear in the film or on the soundtrack LP. They shared a radical ‘back to basics’ sensibility with The Band but were not embraced by the emerging rock press with anywhere near the same enthusiasm. When the punks were hunting dinosaur bands to extinction in 1977, Richard Hell covered one of their songs on his debut album. In the 1980s, as their songs became staples of ‘classic rock’ radio, they were revered by underground bands like The Gun Club, The Minutemen and The Scientists. As Butch said to Sundance, ‘Who are those guys?’ In this book, a track-by-track analysis of all the band’s recorded output, Tony Thompson rolls up the sleeves on his plaid shirt and prepares to answer the big questions. Who’s Jody? What is ‘chooglin’? Where is Green River? Why can’t the singer leave Lodi? Who was the fortunate son? Is the bathroom on the right?

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'Protected Witness Unit (PWU): Designed to hold prisoners who are giving evidence or assistance to the police in cases of serious crime. All inmates are known to staff simply as 'Bloggs', followed by a number...'In December 1995, the bodies of three men were discovered in a Range Rover in a quiet country lane in the Essex village of Rettendon. All three were well-known villains. Each been blasted in the head with a shotgun at point-blank range. The search for the killers had almost ground to a halt when tensions within the gang involved boiled over and one member decided to break ranks. At first his story seemed too incredible to be believed, but as the evidence to support his version of events began to mount up, the motives behind the brutal murders became clear. The plot eventually uncovered involved everything from Irish terror groups and European smuggling rings to prostitution and police corruption. Tony Thompson, crime correspondent of the OBSERVER, is one of the country's leading experts in the field of organised crime. Now, in this extraordinary book, he chronicles the rise of some of Britain's most powerful and notorious villains and of the man whose betrayal led to their downfall - the man known as 'Bloggs 19': arguably the most important supergrass since the time of the Kray twins.

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This is the story of an international group of drug smugglers, their criminal success and the hunt to bring them to justice. There were sixteen of them, from America, Britain, Australia and Thailand, and together they were called 'The Ring'. They first began exporting marijuana in the aftermath of the Vietnam war, and over the years they smuggled vast shipments into the USA and Europe, becoming multi-millionaires in the process. In 1988, they decided to carry out one final heist that would ensure they could retire forever. However, they were intercepted by the police, and the key Ring members all had to flee to avoid being arrested. With unlimited money at their disposal and contacts in all parts of the globe, they were the ultimate fugitives. Tracking them down would call for a fifteen-year international manhunt. Tony Thompson describes their rise, fall and eventual capture in a thrilling, fast-paced true crime adventure.

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An outlaw motorcycle club is a band of brothers like no other. Hidden away from mainstream society behind multiple layers of secrecy, mythology and a sophisticated campaign of misinformation that portrays them as nothing more than loveable rogues, the brutal truth about the biker world has long escaped public scrutiny. In reality, today's outlaw bikers are at the epicentre of a violent underworld subculture, enforced by a ruthless code of silence, and control a global criminal empire worth millions. Spanning the UK, Europe, America, Canada and Australia, OUTLAWS is a compelling, shocking and chilling story of how bikers are born and made, and how and why they die.

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Cambridge, 1961. A group of students set off on the trip of a lifetime. Against the backdrop of the Cold War they travel through the Soviet Union to the Middle East, South Asia and on to Africa. Their mode of transport? The iconic VW Kombi. This book tells the story of that trip, not just the people they met and the places they saw, but the many experiences - sometimes nerve-wracking, sometimes bizarre - that they encountered along the way. It provides a fascinating insight into a world on the brink of change - seen through the eyes of nine young men fresh from university. The two VW Kombis doggedly traversed treacherous mountain passes, near-impossible roads, jungle tracks and river crossings on their journey through Anatolia, the Middle East, Asia and Africa. This book is an affectionate and highly entertaining re-creation of the relationship between the nine young travellers and their companions, the two VW Kombis which functioned as transport, shelter, canteen and home. It is also a tribute to the determined and rugged determination of the VW Kombi whose descendants still tackle the highways and the more daunting roads of the world.

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