Search results for ""Author Stephen Lambe""

* 2018 marks the 60th anniversary of the start of the Carry On series. * The first book to examine each of the 31 films in detail. * Also covers the Carry On TV series and the Christmas Specials. When Carry on Sergeant became a big hit in British cinemas in 1958, not even the most optimistic of its cast or crew believed that it would become the first of a 31-film franchise. The series went on to become one of the most successful and well-loved in British - and indeed world - cinema. Beginning as relatively gentle comedies, the humour broadened during the late 60s, taking on an end of the pier quality that at its best was as hilarious as it was risque. Lifelong fan Stephen Lambe discusses each of the films in depth, celebrating the team's greatest moments, while examining in equal detail some of the lesser known or less successful editions of the series, as well as some of the unsung performers that made the series such a success. He also examines some of the series spin offs - including the Carry on Christmas TV. With plenty to excite both casual and diehard fans, The Carry Ons - on screen is the perfect reference guide to this remarkable series of films.

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For a few short years in the 1970s, the unique music of Focus entertained the world. Build around the prodigious instrumental talents of Dutch masters Jan Akkerman (guitar) and Thijs Van Leer (keyboards and flute), the band produced three classic hit albums in quick succession, and scored two worldwide hits with 'Sylvia' and 'Hocus Pocus'. The latter piece is as ubiquitous as tunes from the 70s get, distinctive for Akkerman's famous riff and Van Leer's once-heard-never forgotten yodeling. Musical and personal tensions between the two lead to a split in 1976, the band limping on until 1978. However, the 1970s also saw seven solo albums each from these two hugely talented musicians, with Akkerman moving into jazzier territory while Van Leer had huge success with his Introspection series of light, classical flute-based albums. Stephen Lambe's enlightening book guides the reader through the band's early history year by year, dealing with all eight Focus albums song by song, while also giving the same treatment to Akkerman and Van Leer's lesser know solo work between 1970 and 1979. It makes for both an important potted history of the band and an insight into the tensions which lead to such a creative - if short lived - peak, but also acts as an essential guide to the astonishing music the two men made while at the peak of their powers.

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When the final episode of Seinfeld aired on 14th May 1998, an amazing 76.3 million Americans tuned in, making it the most popular situation comedy is US television history. * The first show-by-show episode guide to be written about this iconic television series * Not just a hit in the USA, Seinfeld remains a cult show in the UK and Europe, now available on DVD and on Amazon Prime * Bang up to date, the book includes recent Seinfeld-related activity including the revival episode on 'Curb Your Enthusiasm' and Seinfeld's own 'Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee' Co-created by Larry David, this 'comedy about nothing' made celebrities of its four stars: stand-up comedian Jerry Seinfeld; comedian and actor Michael Richards who played eccentric neighbour Kramer; Julia Louis-Dreyfus who played Seinfeld's former girlfriend Elaine and Jason Alexander as Jerry's volatile best friend George. Completely unique in its outlook and execution, the success of the series lay in its early years, able to develop its own style below the radar as a minor network hit, before reaching a mass public with its fourth season in 1992. Much analyzed during its time on screen, the show has not been re-evaluated for many years. Now, 21 years since the series finished, Stephen Lambe's timely and superbly-crafted new book examines Seinfeld's first five seasons episode by episode, tracing the development of every character, catchphrase and quirk, from the series' embryonic pilot episode in 1989, to its status as an Emmy award-winning show by the time that season five wrapped in 1994. While the series was a huge success in the USA, it was also a cult hit across the globe and its legacy continues into the new millennium.

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Yes are the archetypal 1970s progressive rock group. Playing powerful and adventurous music when it was briefly part of the mainstream, the band thrilled millions with their iconic albums and epic live shows. Records like Fragile and Close to the Edge helped define an era and although the band dissolved at the end of the decade, Yes emerged once again with 90125, a streamlined, modern sound in the 1980s and a US number one hit single in ‘Owner of a Lonely Heart’. Now in their sixth decade, the band continues to release albums and play live into the new millennium. This book examines each one of the band’s studio albums, highlighting the many high points, and the rarer missteps, as well as focussing on the changes in band dynamics which led to some varied – but always interesting – music. This new, expanded edition celebrates a flurry of recent Yes activity, including new albums The Quest and Mirror To The Sky as well as a detailed examination of the band’s live recordings, making this the most up-to-date and comprehensive guide to the band’s music yet written, which will be essential reading for Yes' legions of fans worldwide.

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Created in the late 1960s, fashionable in the early 1970s and hated in the 1980s, Progressive Rock has a colourful and eventful story. Many of the genre's main protagonists, including Genesis, Yes, King Crimson and Emerson, Lake & Palmer, remain as popular as ever, while lesser-known names like Camel, Caravan, Renaissance, Van der Graaf Generator and Gentle Giant retain cult status. In this completely revised and updated edition, Stephen Lambe guides the reader through the early years as the music developed out of the British Progressive Music boom of the late 1960s into its own genre, and reached full maturity in the early 1970s. He also discusses how the music was received and developed outside the UK, particularly in the USA and Europe. Received wisdom has it that punk swept Progressive Rock away in the late 1970s, yet the genre never died. An early 1980s revival, spearheaded by major label signings Marillion, IQ and Pallas, burned brightly but fell away sharply later in the decade. However, in the early 1990s, the movement began to re-establish itself, largely below the radar, led by Swedish band The Flower Kings and American group Spock's Beard. The rise of the internet and the decline of the worldwide pop industry allowed niche music - as Progressive Rock had now become - to flourish once again in the new millennium. Stephen Lambe has been co-promoter of the Summer's End Progressive Rock festival since 2006. He helps promote Welsh band Magenta, and is Secretary of the Classic Rock Society, whose patrons include Steve Hackett and Roger Hodgson. He writes regularly for the magazine Rock Society.

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When Yes ran into problems recording their tenth album in Paris at the end of 1979, it was almost the end. Yet in the 80s, the band rallied, firstly as part of an unlikely collaboration with new wave duo The Buggles, then with 90125, the most successful album of their career, which spawned a number one hit in the USA with 'Owner Of A Lonely Heart'. The band failed to capitalise on this success, however, lingering too long over its successor Big Generator and by the end of the decade, Yes had effectively split into two versions of the same group. With most authors concentrating on the group's 1970s career, Yes in the 1980s looks in forensic detail at this relatively underexamined era of the band's history, featuring rarely seen photos researched by author David Watkinson. The book follows the careers of all nine significant members of the group during a turbulent decade which saw huge highs but also many lows. Not only does it consider the three albums the band itself made across the decade, but also the solo careers and other groups - including Asia, XYZ, The Buggles, Jon and Vangelis and GTR - formed by those musicians as the decade wound towards a reunion of sorts in the early 1990s

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