Search results for ""Author Martin Popoff""

The first book ever on the classic British rock band UFO. Based around the author's many interviews with all the key players such as Phil Mogg, Pete Way & Michael Schenker. Noted author Martin Popoff takes you through the Schenker era in great detail; album-by-album, song by song along with touring anecdotes and of course, tales revolving around the wild and excessive behaviour that was very much a part of the band. Rounding if off is a full discography.

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Author Martin Popoff assembles a panel of experts to roll through the records one by one, no stone unturned, no songs left unaddressed. There's been little written about Plant's journey from solo icon of the '80s through to his repeated deep-dives into Americana, world music, tributes to other writers, and the singular symphony of sounds that results when he mixes these parts. This book deconstructs each of Plant's 11 thought-provoking albums. It's hoped that the reader emerges with a new and nuanced appreciation for what Robert's been trying to achieve over the decades.

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If any band deserves to have homage paid to them with a lavish, limited edition photographic book, look no further than Thin Lizzy. With their origins going back to the late sixties, by 1971 with the first album release, Lizzy’s journey really began. Incredibly no one has published a visual biography before, but now that has been rectified. Drawing on several thousand images and items of memorabilia this large format 240-page book is a treasure trove for Thin Lizzy devotees — crammed full of live and off-stage shots that portray the band’s journey through the decades. It also includes loads of super cool memorabilia including backstage passes, gig posters, media adverts and much more, all reproduced on high quality art paper. This is one future collector’s item that every self-respecting Lizzy fan will want to own. Rounding it off, Thin Lizzy: A Visual Biography is topped and tailed with 20,000 words by Lizzy biographer and world-renowned rock author Martin Popoff. This lavish book will prove to be a valuable addition to any fan’s collection.

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This new tome by the hugely prolific Canadian author Martin Popoff is a detailed re-write and expanded edition of his 2005 publication English Castle Magic. In fact the book is 50% bigger, a whopping 120,000 words and 318 pages including two swell colour photo sections. Sensitive To Light is without doubt the most comprehensive Rainbow biography to date and is based around multiple interviews the author has conducted with most of the key band members over many years including Ritchie Blackmore, as well as Roger Glover, Tony Carey, Graham Bonnet and Joe Lynn Turner, along with those who are sadly no longer with us, namely Cozy Powell Ronnie James Dio, Jimmy Bain and Craig Gruber. Loads more research has also gone into this new publication which is brought bang up to date with the Ronnie Romero era live shows and new songs, following Blackmore’s decision to rejuvenate Rainbow in 2016, almost twenty years on from the last incarnation that had concluded in 1997. From the raw and fiery Dio years, through the criminally under-rated Down to Earth album, the smooth crooning Joe Lynn Turner era and into one final somewhat forgotten record fronted by Doogie White, it’s all examined here, track by track, fascinating tale by trick. Ritchie Blackmore and his reputation is legion. But is it warranted? This is the book you should read to find out why as we look at the man’s career as reigning lord over the constantly evolving consortium of monster talents known as Rainbow.

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In Dominance and Submission: The Blue Oyster Cult Canon, three-time BOC book author Martin Popoff turns the microphone away from himself to moderate a gathered and esteemed panel of Cult experts for deep-dive discussions on every Blue Oyster Cult studio album. No stone is left unturned, as we look at the personalities in the band, every song, every album cover, the band's highly regarded lyrics as poetry, their music as ground-breaking and genre-defying. Dominance and Submission is set-up in Q&A format, allowing for pure and piercing prose that is also conversational and easy-access. In the end, the author is confident that the wise words from this cabal of music authorities-with Popoff not pulling any punches either, joining in the fun when the door is opened-will have you playing the band's "canon" with a renewed appreciation as to the complexity laced throughout such albums as Tyranny and Mutation, Agents of Fortune-with its career defining hit "(Don't Fear) The Reaper"-Spectres, Fire of Unknown Origin and the daunting Imaginos. But have no fear, Martin and his team have taken us right up to the band's effusively received comeback album, The Symbol Remains, bringing band and fan full circle-umlauts included, of course. Finally, augmenting the learning (and listening) experience, Dominance and Submission provides a plethora of images that make these essays on the band's fifteen albums that much more visceral. Bottom line: if you thought Martin had covered everything you need to know in his definitive Agents of Fortune: The Blue Oyster Cult Story, think again-the analysis proffered by his panel even sent Popoff back to the sacred texts for a rock 'n' roll re-imagining. If he's been made smarter by what these guys have to say, you will be too.

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Megadeth's run of thrash classics from the mid eighties through to the nineties continue to be celebrated in the metal community long after leader Dave Mustaine's band mates have been discarded to the sands of time-save one, Dave "Jr" Ellefson. Along the way there's Mustaine's pathology with his ex-friends in Metallica but also a hell of a lot of killer metal as the band works its way up through Peace Sells and So Far, So Good... So What! through to the superlative metal classics, namely Rust In Peace and Countdown To Extinction. Later came Cryptic Writings and Risk that threatened to kill the band but the reconstitution of Megadeth after its demoralising decline and then deflating dispersal at the destructive hand of Mustaine is a story untold... until now. But it's a tale worth telling for its instructiveness on how to rebuild and maintain a career. Quite simply the recent Megadeth story spanning the albums The World Needs A Hero through to Super Collider includes some of the beast and heaviest Megadeth ever committed to record. Celebrate Mustaine's vision track-by-track with top author Martin Popoff. With over sixty books to his name, Popoff applies his tried and tested methodology to a head-crunching canon of work that is truly as strong at the recent end of the spectrum as it is with the classics you all know and love.

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Explore the extraordinary history of Van Halen through the groundbreaking band’s 50 most important moments, brought to vivid life with photos and memorabilia. Formed in Southern California in 1974, Van Halen became one of the best-selling bands in rock history and one of the highest-grossing tour acts with their rock-solid rhythm section, the histrionics of outrageous frontman David Lee Roth, and the wildly inventive and until-then unimaginable guitar heroics of Eddie Van Halen. In Van Halen at 50, prolific rock journalist Martin Popoff pays tribute to the band on the occasion of their 50th anniversary by curating 50 significant milestones, from their formation in 1974 to the passing of Eddie Van Halen in 2020. This volume features: Stunning concert and candid offstage photography Images of memorabilia, including gig posters, vinyl record sleeves, ticket stubs, period ads, and more Gatefold Van Halen timeline

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If you saw Queen, then Queen Live! will serve as the ultimate tour program-type memento of those magic days. And if you didn't, this book goes a long way toward putting you in that hallowed space, watching one of the most talented bands night after night, year after year until the bitter end on this most eminent of British institutions.

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Having written the first book ever on UFO, 2005’s long out-of-print Shoot Out the Lights, Martin Popoff, author of over seventy rock books, has now greatly expanded and rewritten the later years material from that title, bringing us now Lettin’ Go: UFO in the `80s & `90s. Popoff brings to the project new interviews with the key members throughout the decades, along with a substantial amount of new research to offer what is now the only book to focus on the eighties and nineties era of the band that saw huge turbulence amongst the ranks. Utilising his celebrated one album per chapter method, Popoff analyses the complete catalogue from the period of the band where initially Paul Chapman takes over from the departed Michael Schenker for the albums. No Place To Run, The Wild, the Willing and the Innocent, Mechanix and Making Contact. The journey takes us through the albums following the departure of Chapman and bassist Pete Way and concludes with 1995’s Walk On Water that sees the classic line-up reunited with Schenker back on guitar before he sensationally walked out on the band after just four shows of the supporting tour. In and around Popoff’s famed meticulous analysis of the catalogue, look for lots of tour talk, revealing nightmares surrounding the band’s business, and warnings about how the twin demons of drugs and alcohol can slow a band’s progress on the way to the top.

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Meticulous, detailed reference-styled timelines, charting the history of this esteemed UK institution, from its inception to the band's posthumous last album, Coda, issued in 1982. This elegant coffee table book charts the explosive live stage history of the band, along with the iconic albums. Memorabilia adds a visual feast to the book.

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ÊKickstart My Heart: A Mêtley Crðe Day-by-DayÊ is an exciting chronology that celebrates in innovative form ä through the use of day-by-day entries and supporting band quotes mostly collected firsthand by the author as well as memorabilia shots and photography ä the crazy lives lived by Vince Mick Nikki and Tommy at the booze-drenched apex of the rock-'n'-roll food chain. Augmented with entries that help place the band in a wider rock context Popoff presents a swift-moving action-packed symphony of text and visuals that reprises his collaboration with Backbeat on similarly structured titles about Iron Maiden and Ozzy Osbourne. With very few Mêtley Crðe-related books on the market ÊKickstart My HeartÊ will likely serve for years to come as the most complete ä and completely party-hardy ä celebration of this band now 35 years on and in the midst of completing its final tour ever.

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Dublin's Thin Lizzy have become one of the most revered cult acts of all time, studious and discerning fans of hard rock the world over revelling in the storytelling acumen of the legendary Phil Lynott and the craft and class of his band. Through numerous interviews with most of the principals involved and a mountain of painstaking research Emerald; Thin Lizzy's Golden Era examines the band's career up to 1976 culminating in the superlative and sparkling Jailbreak, home of such hits as 'Cowboy Song', 'Emerald', 'Jailbreak' and 'The Boys Are Back In Town' and followed by Johnny The Fox that included the hit single 'Don't Believe A Word'. Along the way, alcohol and drugs wreaked havoc between band members, producers and managers, but despite line-up changes and a mostly grinding, rock scrabble existence, Ireland's favourite sons persevered, finally achieving the smash hit record they'd deserved for so long. Immerse yourself in Popoff's celebrated record-by-record methodology and emerge a rejuvenated Lizzy fan, newly appreciative of the deep album tracks hiding within this singular band's often forgotten early years. A revised and expanded version of Popoff's previous Dublin To Jailbreak Emerald; Thin Lizzy's Golden Era is based on interviews the author conducted specifically for the book with band members Eric Bell, Scott Gorham, Brian Downey, Gary Moore and Brian Robertson; managers Terry O'Neill and Ted Carroll; producers Nick Tauber and Ron Nevison; Nigel Grange from Vertigo; road manager Frank Murray and cover artist Jim Fitzpatrick. Revealing Phil Lynott in all his dastardly guises Emerald; Thin Lizzy's Golden Era, is an essential read for the devoted Lizzy fans.

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They were the envy of all the more "earthly" rock acts scrambling to make it in the world of '70s hard rock, each and all aspiring to the success levels of Aerosmith, Ted Nugent, Blue Oyster Cult, Styx and Angel label mates Kiss. But the story of Angel is of a band out of time, playing regal progressive heavy metal and then changing to try reach radio, in either guise, not quite clicking with enough Kiss fans-Kiss were the devils in black and Angel were the good guys in white-nor the fans of progressive rock or, later, those more inclined to Foreigner, Journey and Cheap Trick. Along the way, the band went first class, with the best gear, a killer stage show and tons of promotion from Neil Bogart and Casablanca until they had racked up a million dollars of debt by the end of their blessed run, the guys often oblivious to what lesser bands had to go through. Indeed, this is a story of a band hailed as rock stars and indeed often headlining like rock stars, without the record sales to justify the crazy spending that a believing Bogart threw at the band. Then it was all over and we heard virtually nothing from any of them (save for keyboardist Gregg) after 1981 until... well, both Punky Meadows and Frank DiMino stormed back with solo albums. And then, appearing outta nowhere like they did in their famous stage show, Angel returned in 2019 with a blindingly white and quite sprightly new album called Risen. Come celebrate what it was like to live as the alter-ego to Kiss as we examine the band's five studio albums of the original run, the crushing concert album, Live Without a Net, as well as where it all went wrong and the inspiring return of Frank and Punky through the spirited hard rocker that is Risen.

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Yes: A Visual Biography I: 1968 - 1981 documents the progressive rock pioneer's first twelve years from the release of their eponymous debut album through to 1980's Drama: A suitable name for a band whose career has been full of drama as documented in Popoff's narrative that charts Yes's ups and downs as the band glided out of the sixties with a full-on assault on the seventies music scene that saw them become one of the biggest global acts-selling out venues around the world from New York's Madison Square Garden to London's Wembley Arena. Popoff takes you on a journey from the early days of the band with original members Chris Squire, Jon Anderson, Bill Bruford, Peter Banks and Tony Kaye; to the hugely successful seventies when the likes of Steve Howe, Patrick Moraz, Rick Wakeman and Alan White all added their individual stamps on the band's identity. Then the surprise union with The Buggles that saw Yes enter the eighties a world apart from the way they had entered the seventies but continuing to delight their legion of fans.

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Taking cue from the do-it-yourself attitude of their country’s punk movement, Britain’s up-and-coming heavy metal bands that comprised the New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM) were not content to wait for record labels to come knocking. Instead, they took to issuing their own music, typically in the form of 7 inch singles but also 12s and full-length album, many indie, some on small labels, and some on the major labels smart enough to get on board (essentially EMI and MCA). Martin Popoff, writer of more record reviews than anybody in history across all genres), has undertaken the task of documenting virtually every record large and small from heavy metal’s most fabled period (beginning essentially in `79 with a hard stop at 1983) providing catalogue information, mini reviews as only he can do, plus a gob of thumbnails of those wonderful 7” picture sleeves and LP covers. Additional features: * Includes hundreds of rare 45 picture sleeve and album cover images. * Every record rated out of 10. * Layout designed so that LPs are distinguished from 7”, 10” and 12” singles/EPs. * Label, year of release and catalogue number for almost every entry. * Two appendices, displaying all 9’s and 10’s for singles as opposed to LPs.

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Rock City, Narita, Fire Down Under, Restless Breed, Born in America... These are the pioneering, superlative heavy metal records that represent the classic first decade of Brooklyn’s Riot’s, before the band would break up, eventually storming back with Thundersteel and The Privilege of Power, existing to this day as Riot V after the shocking death from Crohn’s disease of guitarist and leader Mark Reale. Riot’s is a tale of opportunities missed, of a band ahead of the curve, and of a band from which both its classic era lead singers — Guy Speranza and Rhett Forrester — are now dead, as is, of course, Mark Reale, a quiet man who, fatefully, wanted to leave the business to others and just play his heavy metal. But this book is not just about the ’75 to ’85 period of the band that spawned one of the finest metal records of all time, 1981’s Fire Down Under. Even if the classics framed by those ten years get the full, dedicated chapter, track-by-track Popoff treatment, the subsequent rich and substantial catalogue of the band is discussed as well, right up to the present day where Riot shines on. But still, the focus is on songs like `Warrior’, `49er’, `Road Racin’’, `Outlaw’, `Don’t Hold Back’, `Altar of the King’, `Violent Crimes’, `Vigilante Killer’ and of course the insanely anthemic `Swords and Tequila’, as we celebrate a New York institution that is perhaps the shining example of the term, “honorary New Wave of British Heavy Metal” band.

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Take a deep dive into one of the best-selling albums ever on the 50th anniversary of its release with this beautifully produced and authoritatively written slipcased edition. Veteran rock critic Martin Popoff leaves no stone unturned in taking apart The Who’s generation-spanning masterpiece, Quadrophenia, while exploring each of the album’s 17 tracks and their themes of identity, anxiety, and mental health. Chapters cover: The state of The Who as of 1973, including their role in Mod culture The recording sessions at famed Olympic Studios and the band’s own Battersea location, including techniques used Song-by-song studies of each album side, including analyses of lyrics and the guitars, drums, keyboards, and synthesizers employed by members Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey, John Entwistle, and Keith Moon The 1979 motion picture based on the album’s song cycle The continent-hopping tours that supported the album The rock group’s trajectory post-Quadrophenia, including notable albums and tours Popoff also takes you on side journeys examining each band member, mod vs. rocker culture, the album’s famous graphic design, manager/producers Chris Stamp and Kit Lambert, Quadrophenia collectibles, and more. There’s even a brief discography and complete LP tour dates. Presented in a 10" × 10" slipcased book, The Who & Quadrophenia is illustrated with stunning performance and candid off-stage photography as well as rare memorabilia. The result is a richly presented celebration and your ultimate tribute to the rock opera masterpiece.

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One of the world’s most prolific bands is being broken down track by track, album by album—and you have tickets to the details, facts, and secrets in Led Zeppelin​. Formed by the unlikely alliance of two ace London studio musicians and two bar-band bumpkins, Led Zeppelin went on to create the template for the marauding modern rock ’n’ roll band. Often described as “heavy,” any true fan will tell you that the band’s 9 studio albums and 81 tracks thereon are actually a complex amalgam of blues, psychedelia, rock, folk, and country that reveal the influences of Led Zeppelin’s four members. Veteran music journalist Martin Popoff picks apart each of these 81 tracks in exquisite detail, and for the first time ever, you can come along for the ride. Popoff analyzes the circumstances that led to their creation, the recording processes, the historical contexts, and more. Offstage and performance photography, as well as images of rare memorabilia, bring the band’s story to vivid life. Included as a special bonus, he also offers an introductory essay on each of the band’s nine studio albums, and sidebar features that explore influences on the band as well as song details, such as running time, instruments played, engineers, and studios.

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A unique and beautifully produced celebration of the iconic and beloved rock star, Bowie at 75 features a slipcased hardcover with a gatefold timeline, gatefold artwork, frameable pull-out gig poster, and a pull-out photo print! Hendrix, Joplin, Mercury…few rock artists garner as much adulation after passing as they did in life. In Bowie at 75, veteran rock journalist Martin Popoff examines David Bowie’s extraordinary life through the lens of 75 significant career achievements and life events, guiding you through all 27 studio albums, as well as a curated selection of earworm singles. But Popoff delves deeper to reveal the events that helped chart the course of Bowie’s career: Guest appearances with artists like Iggy Pop, Lou Reed, Tina Turner, and Queen Key performances such as Live Aid Collaborations with an incredible roster of guitarists that included Mick Ronson, Adrian Belew, Robert Fripp, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Nile Rodgers, and Earl Slick Film and television roles Romance…and more. From his eponymous 1967 debut LP and ending with Blackstar, released just two days before his death, Bowie is regarded as one of the most influential musicians and performers of the previous five decades, during which he constantly redefined himself. In examining 75 touchstones, Popoff gives you a unique view of Bowie’s career arc from folkie to the breakthrough single “Space Oddity” to his flamboyant glam rock alter ego, Ziggy Stardust, and beyond. Illustrated with live concert and candid offstage photography as well as memorabilia including gig posters, 7-inch picture sleeves, and more, this incredible package also includes a gatefold timeline, a gatefold painting depicting “A Party of Bowies,” a previously unpublished 8×10-inch glossy print, and a pullout poster by famed gig poster artist Frank Kozik. The result is a stunning tribute to one of the most influential and admired stars in rock history—in a milestone year.

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Find out what 20 rock journalists and writers have to say about Rush's 20 studio albums.Formed in Toronto in 1968, the rock trio Rush has gone on to multiplatinum success behind the distinctive high register and virtuosic bass-playing of frontman Geddy Lee, the legendary drumming and lyric-writing of Neil Peart, and the guitar heroics of Alex Lifeson. Despite having just four chart-topping singles since the release of their debut LP in 1974, Rush has nonetheless sold more than 25 million albums in the U.S. and more than 40 million worldwide. Indeed, the Canadian trio may be the definition of an "album band," and this new book from prolific rock journalist and acknowledged Rush authority Martin Popoff pays tribute to the band's discography by moderating in-depth, frank, and entertaining conversations about all 20 of Rush's studio albums. Inside, the author gathers 20 rock journalists and authors who offer insights, opinions, and anecdotes about every release. Together, the conversations comprise a unique historical overview of the band, as well as a handsome discography. Popoff also includes loads of sidebars that provide complete track listings, details on album personnel, information on where and when the albums were recorded, and sidebar facts about the albums, their songs, and the band.

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An updated version of Loud 'n' Proud: Fifty Years of Nazareth, drawing on copious images and items of memorabilia, this large format 240-page book is a treasure trove for Nazareth devotees — crammed full of live and off stage shots that portray the band’s journey through the decades. It also includes loads of super cool memorabilia including backstage passes, gig posters, media adverts and much more, all reproduced on high quality art paper. From the early days of the seventies through to the current day, nestling alongside the wonderful imagery, the band’s whole career is documented by esteemed rock writer Martin Popoff who was assisted through the whole narrative by Nazareth’s founder and only remaining original member Pete Agnew. Popoff also interviewed Agnew for the book in addition to previous interviews the author has conducted, not only with the bass player extraordinaire but with many other band members past and present, all neatly laid out in a timeline, making this the essential go to Nazareth book.

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Denim and Leather is 260 pages of biker metal hail after hail, with two four-page photo sections, loads of fresh interview content, all the facts and dates and even some of the hot disputes. As the back cover crows... Stand Up and Be Counted! Now that there's no more Motorhead, it's up to Iron Maiden and Saxon to uphold the fine tradition of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, something both bands have been doing for over 40 years now. Indeed, 2020 marked the 40th anniversary of Saxon's landmark Wheels of Steel album, a record we celebrate in this book with much reverence and many pints of ale clinked between headbangers clad in both denim and leather. Of course there's more than that but not everything! Indeed, Denim and Leather: Saxon's First Ten Years focuses on the band's golden era, Saxon's prodigious first decade of output. Saxon, Wheels of Steel, Strong Arm of the Law, Denim and Leather, Power & the Glory, Crusader, Innocence Is No Excuse, Rock the Nations and Destiny each are dedicated stand-alone chapters, inside of which Popoff deconstructs every song across both sides of the original vinyl, while not forgetting bonus tracks and B-sides, as well as the live material along the way, including the beloved The Eagle Has Landed album. It's a glory-bound Saxon-fest that is long overdue, and it is the hope of the author that at the end of this sometimes critical examination that the reader returns to these records with new reflections on the NWOBHM and some of the detrimental things that came after for many bands, the heroes of our story included.

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Quite simply, Martin Popoff’s Sabotage! Black Sabbath in the Seventies marks the most intensive analysis of Black Sabbath’s first eight albums ever attempted. This is a big book—129,000 words long, every song analysed in detail, loads of first-hand interview footage from close to 50 interrogations. In the baking, Popoff interviewed all of the principles—Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward—repeatedly, along with myriad other folks who are part of this remarkable tale. Black Sabbath, Paranoid, Master of Reality, Vol 4, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, Sabotage, Never Say Die and Technical Ecstasy… these are the building blocks of heavy metal, and within these awesome audio chapters, Popoff breaks down each and every song on each of these reverberating and cannonating records, while Geezer offers explanation of the lyrics, Bill poetically explains why these songs resonate and Tony and Oz look on with their characteristic sense of bemusement. Also touched upon are the band’s torrid troubles with money and management and drugs and booze, as well as tour tales, album cover stories and production tips ‘n’ tricks. Also included are two four-page sections of colour plates. All told, it’s everything needed to send the reader back to the catalogue, headphones on, for a second listen of this landmark run of records spanning 1970’s self-titled debut to 1978’s Never Say Die, the shambling, controversial last gasp before Ozzy’s shocking ouster from the ranks.

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In this scintillating sequel to Sabotage! Black Sabbath in the Seventies, Martin Popoff blows up the kaleidoscopic narrative of the Sabs over the ensuing twenty years, dissecting each and every of the band's ten studio albums and two (and-a-half) live albums produced over that time period. So this is the book where we hear the gripes, snipes, swipes and thumbs-up likes from Ronnie James Dio, Ian Gillan, Glenn Hughes, Tony Martin and finally once more Ozzy Osbourne, as they remark upon this institution coddled by the anchor of the band Tony Iommi, who valiantly held Black Sabbath together through many years of blood, sweat and Tyrs. Heaven and Hell, Mob Rules, Live Evil, Born Again, Seventh Star, The Eternal Idol, Headless Cross, Tyr, Dehumanizer, Cross Purposes, Forbidden and finally, extensively broken down, Reunion... they're all here, song by song, the hirings and the firings highlighted and explained. Incorporating talk from over 60 interviews conductive with band members and other relevant parties over 25 years, make no mistake-this is the most in-depth examination of the band during this timeframe ever executed. So come one and all, re-love modern-era Black Sabbath all over again-you'll be pleasantly surprised at how much dastardly doom there is from Tony Iommi that you need to know and embrace once again.

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A thoughtfully curated and gloriously illustrated retrospective of the band’s studio releases, Queen, comes just in time for the 45th anniversary of their debut LP and biopic. Formed in 1970, Queen went on to become one of the most popular—and most successful—rock bands of all time. Even following the untimely death of beloved and magnetic frontman Freddie Mercury, and nearly 50 years after their formation, interest in the band has continued, evidenced by scores of reissues, arena tours with surviving members, and a feature-film biopic. In this new installment in Voyageur Press’s Album by Album series, rock journo Martin Popoff convenes a cast of 19 Queen experts and superfans to discuss all 15 of the band’s studio albums (including their soundtrack for the 1980 film Flash Gordon). Panelists include Queen experts, rock journalists, musicians, and record industry figures. The results are freewheeling discussions delving into the individual songs, the circumstances that surrounded the recording of each album, the band and contemporary rock contexts into which they were released, and more. The engaging text of this beautifully designed book is illustrated throughout with rare live performance and candid offstage photography, as well as scads of rare Queen ephemera. The Album by Album series is a unique approach to the rock bio, injecting the varied voices of several contributors. The results have even the most diehard fans rushing back to their MP3 players (or turntables) to confirm the details and opinions expressed!

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Drawing on several thousand images this large format 240-page book is a treasure trove for Cult devotees-crammed full of live and off-stage shots and memorabilia that portray the band's journey through the decades. Complimented with words by Cult biographer Martin Popoff. The perfect companion and a valuable addition to any fan's collection.

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Yes: A Visual Biography II: 1982 – 2022 documents the progressive rock pioneer’s career from the eighties to the present day. Popoff takes you on a journey built around his interviews with Anderson, Bruford, Howe, Squire, Wakeman, Downes, White and many others, the tale unfolds via an exhaustive chronology designed to satisfy the most knowledgeable of Yes fans. Not content with charting the band’s history, Popoff covers the major projects outside of the Yes umbrella, such as Asia, GTR and Rick Wakeman’s extravaganzas, to paint the whole picture. If you’ve been moved by albums such as Fly from Here and Heaven and Earth, you’ll love this book, which perfectly captures the spirit of progressive rock’s first and biggest and best act of crack musicians bent on bending your perceptions of what rock can be. Throughout the book Popoff draws on his own interviews conducted with various band members throughout the last two decades, leaving much of the story to be told in their own words, along with a smattering of album reviews by the author and others. This large format coffee table book is fully illustrated throughout, documenting the story visually from 1982. As well as an abundance of concert images the stunning photographic content is topped off with many off stage shots.Yes A Visual Biography II: 1982 – 2022 will augment any Yes fan’s collection.

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Popoff assembles a panel of Lizzy scholars and devotees. Together they deconstruct each Thin Lizzy studio albums and every single song inside of them. It's likely that the most demanding fans will come away with fresh perspectives on the band. A reminder of why he or she fell in love with Thin Lizzy in the first place.

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With this beautifully produced book, relive the extraordinary history of the of the hottest band in the land through 50 milestone events. Formed in New York City in 1973, Kiss became one of the most popular and best-selling bands in rock history with their inventive stage presence and heavy, hook-filled catalog, both ideally suited for packing hockey arenas and football stadiums. This richly illustrated book from prolific rock journalist Martin Popoff pays tribute to the band on the occasion of their 50th anniversary by curating and examining the 50 most significant milestones. This exquisite volume features: Sturdy hardcover format Stunning concert and candid offstage photography, much of it never before published Images of memorabilia, including gig posters, 7-inch picture sleeves, ticket stubs, and more Gatefold Kiss timeline Popoff covers everything down through the decades: The band’s formation on the New York club scene Their fortuitous signing to the Casablanca label Infamous TV appearances, including Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park The formation of the famous Kiss Army fan club Mega tours undertaken in support of the LPs Interband conflicts and personnel changes The band’s 1980s “unmasking” Innovative marketing such as comic books and the Kiss Convention And, of course, each of the landmark studio LPs The result is an epic tribute to one of the most influential and admired bands in rock history—in a milestone year.

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Take a deep dive into one of the best-selling albums ever on the 50th anniversary of its release with this beautifully produced and authoritatively written slipcased edition. Veteran rock critic Martin Popoff leaves no stone unturned in taking apart Pink Floyd’s generation-spanning masterpiece, The Dark Side of the Moon, while exploring each of the album’s 10 tracks and their themes of madness, anxiety, and alienation. Chapters cover: The state of Pink Floyd as of 1972, with special emphasis on deposed founder Syd Barrett The recording sessions at famed Abbey Road Studios, including techniques used and the roles of personnel such as engineer Alan Parsons Song-by-song studies of each album side, including analyses of lyrics and the guitars, drums, keyboards, and synthesizers employed by members David Gilmour, Roger Waters, Nick Mason, and Richard Wright The ground-breaking art and packaging created by design firm Hipgnosis and its founder Storm Thorgerson The continent-hopping tours that supported the album and also introduced the songs before its release The rock group’s trajectory post-Dark Side, including notable albums, tours, and the departure of Waters Popoff also takes you on side journeys examining each band member, session players, prog rock, the Live at Pompeii concert and film, Waters’ singular writing technique, Dark Sidecollectibles, awards, and more. There’s even a brief discography and complete LP tour dates. Presented in a 10.5" × 10.5" slipcased book, Pink Floyd and The Dark Side of the Moon is illustrated with stunning performance and candid off-stage photography as well as rare memorabilia. The result is a richly presented celebration and your ultimate tribute to the prog-rock masterpiece.

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Wild Mood Swings: Disintegrating The Cure Album by Album, Martin Popoff’s innovative new project on iconic post-punk pioneers The Cure, celebrates 50 years now since key actor of the band Robert Smith got hold of his first guitar. And the form this celebration takes is a critical analysis of the band’s 13 studio albums, utilising a panel of thoughtful and engaging music critics culled from the author’s and Marco D’Auria’s video channel, The Contrarians. Presented in easy-to-read Q&A format, Martin gathers these wise music swamis into small teams with an aim toward deconstructing and reassembling each album, hopefully generating myriad new ways for the reader and Cure fan to appreciate the band’s seminal records, beginning with Three Imaginary Boys in 1979 and ending with 4:13 Dream in 2008. As bonus to the discussion, Popoff has created a detailed timeline linked to each album, echoing the format used for his many celebrated visual biographies issued through Wymer Publishing in recent years. The end result presents a fresh methodology with which to consider a band’s catalogue, with the hope being that the mix of hard chronological reference material and freewheeling opinion, review and analysis makes for a lively celebration of—and subsequent richer appreciation for—everything Robert Smith has done for millions of Cure fans around the world, much of it therapeutic, redemptive and in so many inspiring instances, urgently life-saving.

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The astonishing run of albums unleashed upon an unsuspecting public within the span of five years created the legend of Alice Cooper that lives on to this day. But we’re talking about the original Alice Cooper group here, a band called that with a lead singer also going by that name. In other words, the legend was built by Vincent “Alice Cooper” Furnier, Michael Bruce, Glen Buxton, Dennis Dunaway and “platinum god” Neal Smith. It is all of them working together — along with producer Bob Ezrin — that created the mystique of songs like “I’m Eighteen,” “Is It My Body,” “Desperado,” “Under My Wheels,” “Be My Lover,” “Elected” and “No More Mr. Nice Guy.” And it is all of them working together — along with crack management in Shep Gordon and Joe Greenberg—that created the shock rock buzz that kept the newspapers full of indignation about this band set out to destroy human civilization. Easy Action: The Original Alice Cooper Group tells the story in meticulous chronological detail, from the band’s early days in Phoenix as The Spiders, through being broke on the Sunset Strip, followed by a career-reviving relocation to a notorious party house on the outskirts of Pontiac, Michigan. Corroborating the improbable sequence of events is a plethora of stories from the band themselves, who explain how the original Alice Cooper group went from politely ignored pariahs in Los Angeles to international Public Enemies No. 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. Listen to the guys and their good-natured explanations behind the mayhem, and it soon becomes apparent that the ghoulish makeup around the singer’s eyes and the boa constrictor around his neck — not to mention the head-choppings, the hangings and the hard rock — were all served up in good fun. Now it’s time for you, dear reader, to join in the fun and see why Alice Cooper was, for a golden moment in time fully 50 years ago now, the most feared and revered act in all of rock ‘n’ roll.

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A glorious pictorial celebration of the band's full career. This visual biography timeline acts as a reference book, including the side-projects, and documents the parallel career paths of UFO and Michael Schenker since 1980, along with Waysted. Covering it all in one mighty tome, crammed full of stunning visuals including many previously unpublished photos.

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The publication of Martin Popoff’s Uriah Heep: A Visual Biography is something of a bitter-sweet pill given recent events. Following the sad loss of Lee Kerslake in September 2020, Popoff — having interviewed various band members over the past few years — was all set to conduct another interview with Ken Hensley in mid November when the tragic news of Ken’s sudden departure reached Heep fans around the world. Undeterred, the decision that had already been made to immortalise Uriah Heep with a comprehensive visual biography remained. Popoff’s celebrated and detailed timeline takes us through more than fifty years of massive rock history from this much-loved band. From the early days with legendary front man David Byron, through the John Lawton years; the John Sloman and Pete Goalby fronted periods and from 1986 with Bernie Shaw taking centre stage; all eras are comprehensively covered. This differs from previous Uriah Heep books through the inclusion of so many previously unpublished photos, along with rare memorabilia and artefacts that makes this an indispensable addition to the vast Uriah Heep catalogue.

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In This Means War: The Sunset Years of the NWOBHM, Martin Popoff and dozens of his UK rock buddies document the frenzied fruition years of the movement, namely 1981 and 1982, and then the many facets that caused the genre to implode by the end of 1984, with cracks in the armour beginning to appear the previous year. Why did metal disappear in Great Britain with the first hungover light on January 1, 1985? And where exactly did it go? The answers are enclosed, in the words of those who were there... and then nowhere fast! Utilizing his celebrated oral history method—rich with detailed chronological entries to frame the story—Popoff blasts through all of the big events from 1981 to 1984, in this action-packed book that serves as concluding volume to Wheels of Steel: The Explosive Early Years of the NWOBHM—same easy reading format, same attention to documenting the subject at hand with visuals from the glorious era. And by the way, this one’s way more packed with historical images, with more substantive text as well. It’s a beefy follow-up and conclusion to the well-received volume one, and the two together serve as a grand and exhaustive study of this momentous metal movement. So come join Martin, along with dozens of the rockers themselves, as they together tell the tale of this ersatz genre’s maturity and demise, a demise that is ultimately laced with the pride that a platform had been created on which metal was to thrive for all of the rest of the loud `n’ proud `80s.

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This long-awaited treatise on Montrose and Gamma is first and foremost the story of the five Montrose and four Gamma records, their making and baking, the hirings and firings, the superlative delivery live. Within the detailed analysis, one of course gets to celebrate with the author Montrose classics like `Rock the Nation’, `Make it Last’, `Rock Candy’, `Bad Motor Scooter’, `I Got the Fire’, `Matriarch’ and `Jump on It’, along with the entirety of the Gamma years, including the top-shelf Gamma 2, an album Popoff considers the equal to the earth-shattering first Montrose album of 1973. But there’s a darker turn to this extensive tribute as well, as we look at Ronnie’s shocking suicide in 2012, before we correct the record, so to speak, looking at his legacy as articulated by those who played with him and knew him best. All told, it’s a rough ride, with unsettling doses of negativity, but once our tale winds down, there are more than enough lessons on creativity to satisfy any lover of the arts, particularly those centred around the type of six-string mayhem cooked up by the hero of our story, Ronnie Montrose.

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