Search results for ""Outline Press Ltd""

In the late 70s, the Bee Gees spectacularly revived their career and, with their soundtrack to the Saturday Night Fever film, became the biggest disco group in the world. But when the disco boom crashed they went from icons to punch lines overnight. The band was inescapably frozen in time: all long, flowing manes, big teeth, falsettos, medallions, hairy chests, and skintight satin trousers, one finger forever pointing in the air. The Bee Gees would spend the next forty years trying to convince people there was more to them, growing ever more resentful of their gigantic disco success. We d like to dress Stayin Alive up in a white suit and gold chains and set it on fire, they said. Staying Alive finally lifts that millstone from around their necks by joyfully reappraising and celebrating their iconic disco era. Taking the reader deep into the excesses of the most hedonistic of music scenes, it tells how three brothers from Manchester transformed themselves into the funkiest white group ever and made the world dance. No longer a guilty pleasure but a national treasure.

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Long before there was a peace process in Ireland, Van Morrison unwittingly did his bit to unite a nation divided. Born in the heart of East Belfast in the North, he is revered as a Celtic soul hero in the South. His music, while rooted in jazz and blues and soul, has an Irish accent--a distinctly Protestant Irish accent. Morrison''s songs form a map of this small island--a map of places, people, and cultures, too. They evoke a long-ago Belfast at a time before it became violently divided by sectarian conflict during the Troubles. They laud literary giants James Joyce, W.B. Yeats, and Oscar Wilde. They tell of the immigrant experience, the going away from the land that has long been Ireland''s heartache. And they form a map of Morrison himself, revealing more than this notoriously difficult character ever would in interviews or conversations. A Sense Of Wonder is not a biography of Van Morrison. Rather, it is a journey through the Ireland depicted in his songs--a journey that

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Across five decades and counting, New Zealand-born singer/songwriter and Crowded House founder Neil Finn has become one of the best-loved figures in popular music, crafting enough hits along the way -- Weather With You, Locked Out, I Got You, Fall At Your Feet, It s Only Natural, and of course Don t Dream It s Over -- to forge his very own one-man Great Antipodean Songbook. One fateful day in April 1977, teenage Neil received a transcontinental phone call that would change his life. It was his older brother, Tim, calling from London, England, with a simple question: Do you want to join the band? That band, the art-rock combo Split Enz, would provide the launchpad for a career that has taken in widespread international success with Crowded House, as a solo artist, back with Tim in The Finn Brothers, and as a touring member of Fleetwood Mac. There have been bumps along the road, including repeated clashes with Tim and the tragic death of original Crowded House drummer Paul Hester, but taken as a whole, Finn s story is one of the most inspiring musical sagas of modern times. Australian author and journalist Jeff Apter has observed Neil s career from close quarters since the late 70s, from frantic early Enz gigs to private listening parties to huge reunion shows and numerous points in between, giving him the perfect perspective to write this intimate, even-handed biography.

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Led by indefatigable singer and songwriter Robert Pollard, GBV have been one of the most important rock groups of the past thirty years. After toiling for a decade in obscurity, they broke onto the scene in the early 90s by delivering generation- and genre-defining records such as 1994 s Bee Thousand and 1995 s Alien Lanes. Pollard and a rotating cast of musicians have kept at it ever since, releasing LP after LP of stadium-worthy rock n roll. Zeppelin Over Dayton: Guided By Voices Album By Album is the first serious and comprehensive look at the band s work. Based on the popular GBV podcast Self-Inflicted Aural Nostalgia, Zeppelin Over Dayton takes an in-depth look at each one of the group s records, looking at who was in the band at the time and how the LP fits into the band s discography, and providing commentary and analysis of every song. Drawing on new interviews and extensive research, Zeppelin Over Dayton offers an honest and thorough assessment of GBV s amazingly sprawling discography, providing ardent admirers with tons of fresh anecdotes and insight, and new fans a way to successfully navigate the group s dozens of LPs.

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`I was six or seven when I noticed the music in my head. It was there in the classroom, on the football pitch, at the dinner table, when I went to sleep and when I woke up. And it s continued ever since. As a teenager in Scotland, Mike Scott played in punk and garage bands, hitchhiked to see Bob Dylan play, and scammed his way into Patti Smith s inner circle during an eye-opening weekend in London. In 1983 he formed The Waterboys with an ever-rotating cast of collaborators including The Fellow Who Fiddles (Steve Wickham) and The Human Saxophone (Anthony Thistlethwaite) and soon found international success with the `big music sound of songs like `Don t Bang The Drum and `The Whole Of The Moon . In 1986 Scott travelled to Ireland to spend a week with Wickham and ended up staying for six years. During that time he developed a deep interest in roots and folk music, resulting in The Waterboys best-selling album, Fisherman s Blues. After scaling the heights of success and moving the band to New York, he followed another fascination and went to live in the Findhorn spiritual community in Northern Scotland. Adventures Of A Waterboy is an evocative memoir by one of the great British songwriters of the past four decades. It is an honest and revealing work, by turns heartfelt and funny, that tells the story of a cocky Scot with a sound in his head and his lifelong efforts to reproduce that sound a story that runs from teenage fandom to international stardom, from Scotland to New York City and beyond. This remastered edition adds ten `extra scenes written and handpicked by Scott, plus a selection of rare images not included in the original book.

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Wilcopedia is a comprehensive guide to the music of the preeminent American rock band of the twenty-first century. It offers a thorough appraisal of the entire Wilco canon, with detailed insights into every album and song the band have released, as well as side projects, collaborations, covers, and more. Since their formation in 1994, Wilco have become one of the most acclaimed and influential bands of modern times. While previous books have told their story in a biographical sense, Wilcopedia zeroes in on the music, tracing the evolution of the band s material from the studio to the concert stage, from the formative Uncle Tupelo recordings through the mould-breaking Yankee Hotel Foxtrot to latter-day gems Star Wars and Schmilco and beyond. Throughout their twenty-five year career, Wilco s founder and primary songwriter, Jeff Tweedy, has led his band through various shifts in line-up and genre that have kept fans on their toes and made their music difficult to categorize. While they are largely considered an Americana act, their music has touched on hard rock, electronica, pop, soul, punk, folk, and more. If you re looking for a thorough appraisal of the band s first quarter-century, one thing s for sure: Wilcopedia will love you, baby.

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The Brian Jonestown Massacre are probably best known for their leader Anton Newcombe s incendiary persona, as captured in the controversial 2004 rockumentary Dig! - which won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance - but what isn t known is the truth behind the making of the film, or the true story of the band since their formation in early 1990s San Francisco. Until now. Writer, actor, and musician Jesse Valencia spent ten years uncovering the mysteries of the band and the film, during which time he has traveled from San Francisco to Denver, Portland to Tucson, and beyond, gathering pieces of the band s history and putting them together, clue by clue, until he found it. Presented as a personal narrative and compiled from hundreds of sources and interviews with key members of The Brian Jonestown Massacre - including Joel Gion, Rick Maymi, Frankie Emerson, Jeff Davies, Dean Taylor, Miranda Lee Richards, and Peter Hayes - as well as members of The Dandy Warhols, Dig! director Ondi Timoner, and countless other figures from both the film and from the band s greater history, Keep Music Evil is the definitive work on the band and their enigmatic leader. Keep Music Evil also tells the stories of the creation of every album the band have released during their three-decade career, offering insight in Anton and his collaborators working methods, and provides an in-depth look at the making of Dig!, giving deeper context to the events as portrayed, correcting misinformation, and deconstructing the film as a whole. It also features rare, candid, and never-before-seen photographs of the band from throughout their career.

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How fast can you play? What guitar do you have? Who is better, Van Halen or Steve Vai? For metal fans in the 80s, these were common and important questions. Tune in to MTV, pick up a magazine, or walk into an instrument store, and more often than not you d be exposed to what is now known as shredding the fast, virtuoso soloing popularized by musicians like Vai and Van Halen, Joe Satriani and Yngwie Malmsteen, Randy Rhoads and Dimebag Darrell. Inspired by these pioneering guitarists, thousands of young musicians would spend hours at home in their bedrooms, perfecting both their playing and their poses. Though shredding fell out of favour during the grunge/alternative rock era, it has become increasingly popular again in recent years, spurred by the rise in popularity of bands like Children Of Bodom, DragonForce, and Trivium. Drawing on more than 70 exclusive interviews with key shredders past and present, author and guitarist Greg Prato has assembled the definitive guide to the fastest players of them all.

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No life in popular music touched on as many major musical milestones as that of The Beach Boys' Carl Wilson. While he is often unjustly overlooked as a mere adjunct to his more famous brothers Brian and Dennis, Carl was a major international rock star from his early teens. The proud owner of one of the greatest voices in popular music-one that graced some of the most important records of the pop era, including 'God Only Knows' and 'Good Vibrations'-Wilson was also one of the first musicians to bring the electric guitar to the forefront of rock'n'roll. His musical skills provided The Beach Boys' entree into the music business, from which he then stewarded their onstage journey through the ups and downs of the 60s to their comeback in the 70s and into the role of 'America's band' in the 80s. Along the way, Carl quietly endured his own battles with obesity, divorce, substance abuse, and ultimately terminal cancer, all the while working to protect his family's business and legacy. This major new biography reveals the true story of modern rock'n'roll, lived from the centre of the most important decades of popular music.

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When Cream broke up in 1968 it was by no means a foregone conclusion that it would be Eric Clapton who would enjoy continued commercial success. After all, it was Jack Bruce who had the looks, and who co-wrote and sang all the band's major hits, including "Sunshine of Your Love", "I Feel Free" and "White Room". But he was a singular talent who wanted to be a pioneer, not just a pop star, and he was never happy resting on his reputation. Cream split in their prime but their influence endured, and when they reformed in 2005 tickets were selling for nearly GBP 2000 on e-bay. In the 40 years since Cream split Bruce has continued his musical adventures with the likes of John McLaughlin, Billy Cobham, Carla Bley and Mick Taylor, never quite achieving the success and recognition he deserves. It has been an often troubled life - heroin addiction, management rip-offs, family tragedy, and a failed liver transplant, all of which he speaks about frankly in this book, telling a story that is sometimes funny, sometimes bleak, and always honest.

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My real story starts with a disaster, an unmitigated, pull-the-rug-from-under-you, clean-out-the-bank-account disaster. But had it not happened, The Police would never have risen to become the biggest rock band in the world; Jools Holland would not have ended up on TV; The Bangles, The Go-Go s, R.E.M., and many other music stars might never have made it either. It s strange how a fluke, a disaster, an unlikely event can lead to incredible results. But that is in essence what happened to me . . . Two Steps Forward, One Step Back tells the extraordinary story of a maverick manager, promoter, label owner, and all-round legend of the music industry. It opens in the Middle East, where Miles grew up with his father, a CIA agent who was stationed in Syria, Egypt, and Lebanon. It then shifts to London in the late 60s and the beginnings of a career managing bands like Wishbone Ash and Curved Air only for Miles s life and work to be turned upside down by a pioneering yet disastrous European tour. From the ashes of near bankruptcy, Miles enters the world of punk, sharing office space with Malcolm McLaren and Sniffin Glue, before shifting gears again as manager of The Police, featuring his brother, Stewart, on drums. Then, after founding IRS Records, he launches the careers of some of the most potent musical acts of the new wave scene and beyond, from Squeeze and The Go-Go s to The Bangles and R.E.M. Finally, the story comes full circle as Miles finds himself advising the Pentagon on how to win over hearts and minds in the Middle East and introducing Arabic music to the United States. Never let the truth get in the way of a good story, his father would tell him. Sometimes, though, the truth is all you need.

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Countless accolades have been bestowed upon King s X over the years, and, since their formation in 1980, they have grown to become one of the most universally admired in hard rock and heavy metal. But their story is one of many ups and downs, trials and tribulations, and periods of good and bad luck. This authorized biography examines and explores all aspects of their history, both personally and professionally. Comprised of extensive interviews conducted by author and longtime King s X fan Greg Prato, King s X allows the band s three members singer/bassist Doug Pinnick, guitarist Ty Tabor, and drummer Jerry Gaskill to tell their full story for the first time. It also opens the floor to friends and collaborators, plus some of the many top rock names who are also fans of the band, including Pearl Jam s Jeff Ament, The Police s Andy Summers, Smashing Pumpkins Billy Corgan, Soundgarden s Kim Thayil, Pantera s Rex Brown, Motley Crue s Mick Mars, and many more. In addition, King s X explores the stories behind every single song the band have recorded over the years, while also detailing the creation of each of their twelve albums and offering insight into the influence of religion on their work. It also features memories of the band s tours with some of rock s biggest names including AC/DC, Pearl Jam, and Motley Crue and the events that led to their show-stopping performance at the mammoth Woodstock 94 festival. Packed full of rare and never-before-seen photographs from throughout their career, King s X: The Oral History is the definitive companion to the band and their music.

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Moby Grape are a genuine cult phenomenon. Their story, a mixture of myth and truth, is a cautionary tale, a triumph, and a tragedy all at once. Though they are seen as a symbol of 1960s San Francisco, Moby Grape were never actually a part of the city s counterculture movement. Yet they were immersed in it, sharing stages with the likes of Aretha Franklin, Jimi Hendrix, Sly Stone, and many more. Moby Grape s five members came together from very different backgrounds, bursting onto the San Francisco scene in the fall of 1966. With their diverse pedigree, they were nothing less than musical alchemists, yet they were also rebels. Their blending of genres within a tight songwriting framework contrasted sharply with that of many of their SF peers. Following the release of the band s debut album in 1967, you could see everyone from Ringo Starr to Jimi Hendrix sporting a `Moby Grape Now! button. But in the months that followed, they were dogged by mismanagement, bad marketing, a scandalous drug bust, and general rock n roll mayhem. It seemed like it was all over in 1969, but in 1971 Moby Grape staged rock s first full-on reunion. Since then, they have fought to retain ownership of their own name, while two members of the band struggled with homelessness and mental illness. Despite all of this, they produced one of the best albums of the era, and today they are heralded by countless luminaries of rock music and rock criticism, from Robert Plant to Robert Christgau, Tom Waits to Greil Marcus. Drawing on extensive interviews with the surviving members of the band, What s Big and Purple and Lives in the Ocean? finally tells the full story of one of the great cult bands of the 60s.

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`Heroic and absurd, scurrilous and profound, Who Killed Mister Moonlight? charts the descent of four intelligent young men with faces like ruby-eyed dime-store skull rings into a glittering and very modern maelstrom. Fast, compelling, and disarmingly honest, this is an invaluable account of a strange and spectral cultural twilight era that we shall almost certainly never see again. Highly recommended. Alan Moore. Beginning with the creation of Bauhaus s seminal debut hit `Bela Lugosi s Dead , David J. Haskins offers a no-holds-barred account of his band s rapid rise to fame and glory in the late 70s, their sudden dissolution in the 80s, and their subsequent and often strained reunions. In between, he explores his work as a solo performer, and with acclaimed trio Love And Rockets culminating in the devastating fire that ripped through the sessions for their 1996 album Sweet F.A. He also delves deep into his exploration of the occult, drawing together a diverse cast of supporting characters, including William S. Burroughs, Alan Moore, Genesis P-Orridge, and Rick Rubin. Bristling with power and passion, music and magick, Who Killed Mister Moonlight? is a rock n roll memoir like no other. This revised and updated edition adds an extensive Bauhaus timeline, plus a selection of previously unpublished photographs not included in the original book.

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How has a group conceived as a short-lived commodity outlived many more 'real' bands by nearly fifty years? Why are The Monkees still important, and what does this tell us about their music, their TV show, and our understanding of popular culture today? Despite being built in Hollywood, and not necessarily to last, that is precisely what their music, TV, and cinematic output has done. They in many ways unique-as the first 'made for TV' band, their success introduced methods of marketing pop that have since become standard industry practice; their 'big screen' use of film and images in live performance is likewise now a firmly established principle of concert staging; and in the way they changed the rules of the game, taking control over their own affairs at the height of the success, risking magnificent failure by doing so. The Monkees invented a new kind of TV, gave a new model to the music industry, and left behind one of the most enigmatic movies of the modern era, Head. This book is about all that and more. Beginning by exploring the origins and personalities of the four Monkees before looking in depth at their work together on screen, on stage, and on record, this is the first serious study of the band and the first to fully acknowledge their importance to the development of pop as we now know it.

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Nirvana are one of the most influential bands in rock history, and even now, nearly 20 years after Kurt Cobain''s death, the reverence in which they are held is undiminished. Books have been written about Nirvana before, but they tend to concentrate on the band''s superstar period and Kurt Cobain''s demise, while skating over the early years. In Entertain Us, Gillian Gaar redresses the balance by examining in forensic detail the band''s rise to fame, and their first album, Bleach. Seattle native Gaar was one of the first journalists to write about Nirvana, and covered the band''s career closely, offering her a unique perspective to write this book. Drawing on extensive interviews with the key characters in the story, including bassist Krist Novoselic, drummer Chad Channing, and producers Jack Endino and Butch Vig, the book charts the band''s formation and early years as well as their role at the center of the grunge gold rush. By critiquing every song the band recorded in thi

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Gary Moore delighted entire generations with his passionate guitar playing, from the driving rock of Thin Lizzy in the 1970s to his explorations in subsequent decades of jazz fusion, heavy metal, hard rock, blues rock, and more. Throughout that time, he could be seen on the world s biggest stages, yet the real Gary Moore was always hidden in plain sight, giving little away. Now, however, through extensive and revealing interviews with family members, friends, and fellow musicians, acclaimed rock biographer Harry Shapiro is able to take readers right to the heart of Gary s life and career. Despite his early death in 2011, Moore still has legions of devoted fans across the world who will be enthralled by this unique insight into the life of a guitar genius who did it his way and whose music lives on. Beginning with Gary as a teenage guitar prodigy in war-torn Ireland and continuing through the many highs and lows of more than forty years in rock, Shapiro paints an intimate portrait of a musician widely hailed as one of the greatest Irish bluesmen of all time.

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Why has Serge Gainsbourg crossed over to the English-speaking world when so many of his contemporaries have remained largely confined to the Francosphere? What is it about this unshaven provocateur that so appeals to us? And who was the real Serge Gainsbourg anyway? Was he the sensitive seducer and songwriting colossus of the 60s and 70s? Was he Lucien Ginsburg, the son of Russian Jewish refugees who had to wear a yellow star during the Nazi Occupation of Paris? Or was he Gainsbarre, the deplorable, attention-seeking drunk who shamelessly propositioned Whitney Houston on live TV? Gainsbourg s cult has only grown since his death in 1991, and Histoire de Melody Nelson is now regarded as a classic in France and internationally. The 1971 album had only sold eighty thousand copies by 1986 when it finally went gold fifteen years after its release; its canonical elevation is a remarkable story, and there are many more remarkable stories attached to all of Gainsbourg s genre-defying, transgressive long-players. In Relax Baby Be Cool, writer Jeremy Allen takes each studio album in turn while exploring themes pertinent to Gainsbourg s life and music: jazz, performance, provocation, appropriation, postmodernism, aesthetics, metamorphosis, muses, Nazis, film and TV, Surrealism, fame, and decline. French pop music is more popular than it s been since the mid-90s, when the French touch was breaking. Gainsbourg s influence has also been huge on alternative music: from Pulp to Massive Attack, De La Soul to Danger Mouse, Black Grape to Iggy Pop, Luke Vibert to Die Antwoord, Air to Kylie Minogue. This book is full of new interviews from people who knew him, as well as younger artists who ve discovered him long after his death. Contributors include Jane Birkin, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Jacqueline Ginsburg (Gainsbourg s sister), Anna Karina, Mike Patton, Etienne Daho, Sly Dunbar, Alan Hawkshaw, Alan Parker, Jean-Claude Vannier, Tony Frank, Tony Allen, Mick Harvey, Bertrand Burgalat, Acid Arab, Jehnny Beth, Alain Chamfort, Metronomy, David Holmes, Blonde Redhead, Air, Sparks, Will Oldham, and many more.

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Part memoir, part social history, Revolutionary Spirit is the poignant, often hilarious story of a cult Liverpool musician s scenic route to fame and artistic validation. If Morrissey was the Oscar Wilde of the 1980s indie scene, Simpson was its William Blake, a self-destructive genius so lost in mystical visions of a new arcadia that he couldn t meet the rent. Simpson s career begins alongside fellow Liverpool luminaries Julian Cope, Ian McCulloch, Bill Drummond, Ian Broudie, Will Sergeant, Pete Wylie, Pete Burns, and Pete de Freitas at the infamous Eric s club, where, in 1976, he finds himself at the birth of the city s second great musical explosion. Along the way, he co-founds and christens the neo-psychedelic pop group The Teardrop Explodes, shares a flat with a teenage Courtney Love, and forms The Wild Swans, the indie band of choice for literary-minded teens in the early 1980s, who burn bright and brief, in the process recording one of the all-time great cult hit singles, Revolutionary Spirit . Marriage, fatherhood, and tropical illness follow, interspersed with artistic collaborations with Bill Drummond and members of The Brian Jonestown Massacre, among others. Following an onstage reunion with Cope at the Royal Festival Hall, Simpson discovers that seven thousand miles away, in the Philippines, he is considered a musical god. Presidential suites, armed guards, police escorts . . . you couldn t make it up, and, incredibly, he doesn t need to. Revolutionary Spirit marks the arrival of an original literary voice. It is the story of a musician driven by an unerring belief that artistic integrity will bring its own rewards, and an elliptical elegy to the ways it does.

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To fans and critics alike, the years 1973 to 1980 the Bon Scott era are the most significant of AC/DC s five-decade career. In a prolific and frequently brilliant run, they recorded six studio albums, established a diehard fan base that stretched from Australia to the UK, Europe to North America, toured relentlessly, and created no small amount of controversy and chaos. At one low point in Australia, the band s records were banned, their shows were cancelled, and they were hounded by police all because Angus Young dared bare his spotty backside at a press conference. In the midst of the mayhem, however, they were building a body of work that remains unmatched in hard rock. Many of AC/DC s classic songs were cut during this time `Dirty Deeds , `Rock And Roll Damnation , `High Voltage , `If You Want Blood (You Got It) , `Whole Lotta Rosie , `Long Way To The Top , `Let There Be Rock , and more and it says plenty that these fan favorites are still staples of the band s current live sets today. Illustrated throughout with rare photographs from the era, this book documents all the key events of this frenetic time, beginning with the band s very first shows in the bloodhouses of suburban Sydney even before the name AC/DC had been dreamed up by Margaret Young, Malcolm and Angus s big sister and culminating with 1979 s Highway To Hell, the album that paved the way for the mammoth success of Back In Black and all that was to follow, and the untimely death of Bon Scott, both an end and a new beginning for the band.

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Johnny Thunders: In Cold Blood is the definitive portrait of the condemned man of rock n roll, from the baptism of fire and tragedy that was the New York Dolls, through the junkie punk years of the Heartbreakers, to his sudden and mysterious death in 1991. It is an unflinching account of a unique guitarist whose drug problems often overshadowed his considerable style and talent, but whose unquestionable influence on glam, punk, and more still resonates today. Nina Antonia discovered Johnny Thunders and the New York Dolls as a teenager and spent her formative years as a dedicated fan before starting work on this book in her twenties. Then, when Johnny and his manager read her early drafts, they decided she should make it an authorised biography and granted her unique access to Johnny s life. As such, it begins by painting a historical portrait of Thunders and his early life and work before shifting into the present tense as Nina vividly describes her own experiences with the real-life Johnny and his associates. First published in 1987, Johnny Thunders: In Cold Blood has been kept alive over the years by an audience that isn t always catered for. While the New York Dolls are now rightly acknowledged as having been as pivotal as the Velvet Underground, and you might catch the odd fashionista sporting a Dolls T-shirt, Johnny s dark flame burns for those who have known adversity. He is the voice of the disenfranchised; he is every gifted son or daughter who went off the rails. Like Jesse James or James Dean, he couldn t come in from the badlands of rock n roll; he wouldn t appease or kowtow to the establishment. This new edition adds a new closing chapter, bringing Thunders legacy up to date, new photographs, and a foreword by Mike Scott of The Waterboys.

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Although Big Star were together for less than four years and had little commercial success, the influence of their three original albums - #1 Record, Radio City, and Third - continues to grow. Big Star bucked all the musical trends of the '70s. In an era of glam and prog rock they wrote catchy, radio-friendly power-pop tunes that remain influential today. Artists as diverse as Primal Scream, R.E.M., The Bangles, The Posies, Teenage Fanclub, Jeff Buckley, and Wilco have spoken about the Big Star legacy. In the decade since the original version of this book was published, Big Star have made a belated fourth album, In Space, and released an acclaimed four-disc retrospective, Keep An Eye On The Sky. The band have also lost two original members, an influential producer, and the photographer of their iconic logo. But interest in the group is as high as ever in the 21st century, with new bands such as Yo La Tengo and Hot Chip -

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Sophisticated, agitated, and eschewing every rock cliche, Josef K were the most exciting band of the post-punk era. So why did they suddenly implode, and what makes their music more vital than ever today?

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At twenty-one, Kathy Valentine was at the Whisky in Los Angeles when she met a guitarist from a fledgling band called the Go-Go s?and the band needed a bassist. The Go-Go s became the first multi-platinum-selling, all-female band to play instruments themselves, write their own songs, and have a number one album. Their debut, Beauty & The Beat, spent six weeks at the top of the Billboard 200 and featured the hit songs We Got the Beat and Our Lips Are Sealed . The record s success brought the pressures of a relentless workload and schedule culminating in a wild, hazy, substance-fuelled tour that took the band from the club circuit to arenas, where fans, promoters, and crew were more than ready to keep the party going. For Valentine, the band s success was the fulfilment of a lifelong dream?but that s only part of her story. All I Ever Wanted traces the path that took her from her childhood in Texas?where she all but raised herself?to the height of rock n roll stardom, devastation after the collapse of the band that had come to define her, and the quest to regain her sense of self after its end. Valentine also speaks candidly about the lasting effects of parental betrayal, abortion, rape, and her struggles with drugs and alcohol?and the music that saved her every step of the way. Populated with vivid portraits of Valentine s interactions during the 1980s with musicians and actors from The Police and Rod Stewart to John Belushi and Rob Lowe, All I Ever Wanted is a deeply personal reflection on a life spent in music.

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Before we recorded Infernal Love, I didn t know if I was coming or going. I developed quite a healthy drug habit and was drinking a bottle of Absolut vodka every day. I thought that if I gave up drinking, I d spend the next two weeks lying in bed and feeling sick. I decided to keep going and see if inspiration would hit - Andy Cairns, Therapy? So Much For The 30 Year Plan is the first ever book to detail the life of Therapy?, one of rock s boldest and most idiosyncratic acts. Written with the full co-operation of the band s current members frontman Andy Cairns, bassist Michael McKeegan, and drummer Neil Cooper this official biography explores the dizzying highs and crushing lows they have experienced while navigating a three-decade-long career. Featuring extensive interviews with the band and key figures from throughout their career, So Much For The 30 Year Plan offers insights into the band s origins in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, the backlash they received from the underground scene after signing to a major label, the birth of their million-selling 1994 album Troublegum, the full story behind their split with founding member Fyfe Ewing, and much more. Published to coincide with the band s 30th anniversary tour, this is essential reading for all Therapy? fans and for anyone with an interest in the alternative music of the era.

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There is a common misconception about KISS, one of the greatest hard-rock/heavy metal-bands of all-time: that their `non-makeup era of 1983 1996 is not as enduring as the period when they stalked stages as the Starchild, the Demon, the Spaceman, and the Cat. This is untrue. In fact, this period helped resuscitate KISS s career, as they reestablished themselves in arenas, on the charts, and via MTV, and yielded some of their most popular songs including `Lick It Up, `Heaven s On Fire, `Tears Are Falling, `Crazy Crazy Nights, `Hide Your Heart, `Forever, `Unholy, and more many of which consistently found their way into the band s setlists. While the majority of KISS books are focused on the glitz and glamor of the iconic makeup era, the non-makeup years are ripe to be explored in book form, and Take It Off! does just that, zeroing in on the eleven albums KISS issued during this period including such gold- and platinum-certified hits as Lick It Up, Animalize, Revenge, and Alive III as well the resulting tours, videos, and other escapades. Take It Off! draws on all-new interviews with KISS experts and associates, including the band s lead guitarist throughout most of this period, Bruce Kulick, plus Crazy Nights producer Ron Nevison and video director Paul Rachman (`Unholy /`I Just Wanna /`Domino ). Among the other contributors are Charlie Benante (Anthrax), K.K. Downing (ex-Judas Priest), Derek Sherinan (ex-Dream Theater), and rock music experts Eddie Trunk, Katherine Turman, and Lonn Friend. The book also includes a foreword by Fozzy frontman Chris Jericho and an afterword by acclaimed producer Andreas Carlsson, as well as rare photographs and memorabilia from the period. With KISS currently in the midst of their last ever tour, now is the time to get Truly Unmasked.

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In this intimate and revealing memoir, Lou Reed s first wife finally tells the full story of her five-year relationship with the legendary New York singer and songwriter. Bettye met Lou in 1968 as a nineteen-year-old Columbia University student; they were married, briefly, in 1973. Their relationship spanned some of the most pivotal years of his life and career, from the demise of The Velvet Underground to the writing and recording of his seminal solo masterpieces Transformer, for which Lou wrote 'Perfect Day about an afternoon they spent together in the park, and Berlin, which draws on tales from Bettye s childhood. Here, Bettye looks back on their initially idyllic life together on the Upper East Side; Lou s struggle to launch a solo career after leaving perhaps the most influential rock band of all time; his work and friendships with fellow stars David Bowie and Iggy Pop; and his descent into drink and drug abuse following the success of Transformer, which sent him spinning out from gentle soul to rock n roll animal and brought a swift and calamitous end to their relationship. A powerful and poignant meditation on love, loss, and music, Perfect Day offers a fascinating new perspective on the life and legend of one of rock n roll s finest sons.

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One chanter, three drones, three regulators, thirteen keys, too many near-extinctions to mention and 300 years of heroes: that, with a frisson of fairies on moonlit knolls, is the Irish uilleann ('ill-in') pipes. The Wheels Of The World presents an epic tale of triumph and survival, where the soulful heart of a nation has been kept alive across ages by a slender thread of guardians - blind men, eccentrics, self-aggrandisers, noble heroes, bloody-minded revivalists and at least three people compared to Jimi Hendrix. Uilleann piping is Ireland's equivalent to the story of the blues in America, save that here the trail of legends and lore is richer and deeper by far. It is the sound of 18th-century blues - a microtonal virtuoso machine wielded by misfits and geniuses, often one and the same. This is the story of a continuum, from John McSherry, a 21st-century icon, backwards in time through Paddy Keenan, Liam O'Flynn, Finbar Furey, Seamus Ennis, Willie Clancy, Johnny Doran, Leo Rowsome and Patsy Touhey - at the dawn of recorded sound - and thence to find a litany of unrecorded legends before them. It is also a snapshot of professional Irish traditional musicians, after the gold rush of the late 20th century, keeping calm and carrying on.

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On the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles in 1965 and 1966 an electrifying scene appeared out of nowhere, exploded into creativity, and then, just as suddenly, vanished. So much remarkable music, art, and social revolution came from one place at one time, it's difficult now to grasp how it all happened. This book tells the story of the astonishing time when rock'n'roll displaced movies as the centre of action in Hollywood. From the moment The Byrds debuted at Ciro's on March 26th 1965-with Bob Dylan joining them onstage-right up to the demonstrations of November 1966, Sunset Strip nightclubs nurtured and broke The Doors, Love, Buffalo Springfield (featuring Neil Young and Stephen Stills), Frank Zappa's Mothers Of Invention, Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band, The Turtles, The Mamas and The Papas, and many others. The Strip was a hotbed for garage punk bands such as The Standells, The Electric Prunes, and The Leaves. Folk-rock and psychedelia were born there, while it was also a favourite hangout and inspiration for The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and The Velvet Underground. Republished to coincide with the 50th anniversary of these incredible times, Riot On Sunset Strip: Rock'n'Roll's Last Stand In Hollywood captures the excitement of this great artistic awakening, telling how the scene came together and then fell apart at the Monterey Pop festival, the tragic grand finale of the Summer of Love. It serves as a startling evocation of the social and artistic revolution that was the 60s.

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At a time in rock and pop history where most things in music have been done before, few artists have proved as restlessly innovative over the past two decades as Beck. Since bursting onto the scene in 1994 with 'Loser', he has zigzagged his way across the contemporary music landscape, consistently remaining one step ahead of expectations and doing things his own way: shape-shifting from indie icon to pop crooner, from folk hobo to Latino-rap hipster, and dabbling in country metal, blues and rock along the way, balancing big-budget chart highs with lower-key, introspective acoustic albums. Beck hails from a family tree rich in music and performance art, which has filtered into his music, videos, and live work. Early shows included spoken word sections, songs made up on the spot, and stage clearances using his leaf-blower. His enthusiasm for the experimental has not diminished with age. In the 21st century, he founded the Record Club, which brought together disparate artists to record cover versions of whole albums in a single day for release online. Then he took a troupe of doppelganger marionettes out on tour and made the brave decision to release Song Reader as a hardcover set of sheet music, challenging buyers to record and play their own versions of his new songs. Throwing Frisbees at the Sun is the first serious study of Beck's life and work for more than a decade. Drawing on new interviews with friends, family, collaborators, producers, and band-members, Rob Jovanovic has fashioned a carefully crafted, career-spanning retrospective befitting the many twists and turns of this intriguing performer's path through life and music.

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Devo may have become synonymous with the crass commercialism of 80s new wave, but many of their inspirations and guiding principles are firmly rooted in the idealism of the 60s. They took a willfully non-traditional approach to the surprisingly conservative world of rock music, seeking inspiration instead from Dada and Pop art, comic books and homemade electronics, and in the process becoming a sort of musical Zelig, crossing paths with everything from late 60s psychedelia to punk, krautrock to new wave. Their idiosyncratic philosophy may not always have been consistent, but it served as a deep well of inspiration, and led to them working with such legendary characters as art-rock pioneer Brian Eno and Beatles/Bowie engineer Ken Scott. Published to coincide with the group's 40th anniversary in 2013, "Recombo DNA" is the first book to evaluate in the proper context the innovations and accomplishments of this truly groundbreaking band. Beginning in 1970, with the transformative effects of the Kent State University shootings - which the band-members witness firsthand - and ending a decade later with Devo on the cusp of superstardom (with "Whip It"), it traces the sounds and ideas that the group absorbed and in turn brought to prominence as unlikely rock stars. For anyone who has ever wondered where 'the band who fell to earth' came from, here it the answer.

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Chopping Wood is Pete Seeger up close and personal like never before. Derived from years of conversations between Seeger and his close friend and collaborator David Bernz, it takes readers on a uniquely personal journey through this legendary folksinger and songwriter remarkable life and career, in his own words. Listen in as Pete unabashedly shares historical and family stories; tells of learning the banjo, traveling with Woody Guthrie, and finding commercial success with The Weavers; explains how he wrote books and put together songs; delves into controversial subjects like communism and the Peekskill Riots; and highlights those he admired and respected, including Bruce Springsteen, who honoured Pete with his Seeger Sessions album in 2006. Pete and David share the heavy lifting as they tackle subjects such as the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, Pete's relationship to Greenwich Village, and the need for copyright reform. Together, they describe how Pete put his worldview into practice

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Today, Metallica are known as consummate musicians, but it wasn t always that way. Their early career is marked by a gradual evolution from garage thrash to sophisticated, progressive heights an evolution driven by their bass player, Cliff Burton, who pushed the band to new heights with his songwriting ability and phenomenal bass skills across the band s first three albums, including their undisputed masterpiece, Master Of Puppets. Cliff s life was short but influential; his death at the age of 24 in a tour bus crash on a Swedish mountain road was sudden and shocking. Following his passing, Metallica went on to huge global success, but by their own admission they never pushed the creative envelope as radically as they had done during the first four years of their career. The cult of Burton grows year on year, and so too the list of bassists acknowledging his influence in metal and beyond. Published to coincide with the 40th anniversary of Metallica s debut album, Kill Em All, this revised and updated edition of To Live Is To Die adds a new chapter on Cliff s enduring legacy as well as a preface from Testament bass master Steve Di Giorgio.

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Along with Factory, Mute, and Creation, Some Bizzare was the vanguard of outsider music in the 1980s. The label s debut release reads like a who s who of electronic music, featuring early tracks from Soft Cell, Depeche Mode, Blancmange, and The The, while over the next decade its roster would include artists such as Marc Almond, Cabaret Voltaire, Einsturzende Neubauten, Foetus, Swans, Coil, and Psychic TV. For a time, Some Bizzare was the most exciting independent record label in the world, but the music is only half of the story. Self-styled label boss Stevo Pearce s unconventional dealings with the industry are legendary. Sometimes they were playful (sending teddy bears to meetings in his place), other times less so (he and Marc Almond destroyed offices at Phonogram and terrorised staff). Despite this, he was a force to be reckoned with. His preternatural ability to spot talent meant his label was responsible for releasing some of the decade s most forward-thinking, transgressive, and influential music. The Some Bizzare story spans the globe: from ecstasy parties in early 80s New York to video shoots in the Peruvian jungle, from events in disused tube stations to seedy sex shows in Soho. There were million-selling singles, run-ins with the Vice Squad, destruction at the ICA, death threats, meltdowns, and, of course, sex dwarves. For a time, Stevo had the music industry in the palm of his hands, only for it all to slip through his fingers. But he and Some Bizzare left a legacy of incredible music that still has an influence and impact today.

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‘When I first heard about this Faith No More biography, I didn’t know what to think. But I have to give credit where it is due, it’s a quality piece. The man has done his research and it shows. It provided me with more than a few revelations … and I’m in the band.’ – Bill Gould, Faith No MoreSmall Victories: The True Story of Faith No More is the definitive biography of one of the most intriguing bands of the late twentieth century. Written with the participation of the group’s key members, it tells how such a heterogeneous group formed, flourished, and fractured, and how Faith No More helped redefine rock, metal and alternative music. The book chronicles the creative and personal tensions that defined and fuelled the band, forensically examines the band’s beginnings in San Francisco’s post-punk wasteland, and charts the factors behind the group’s ascent to MTV-era stardom.Small Victories strips away the mythology and misinformation behind their misanthropic masterpiece Angel Dust, explores the rationale behind the frequent hiring and firing of band members, and traces the unraveling of the band in the mid-1990s. It also examines the band’s breakup and hiatus, explores their unwelcome legacy as nu-metal godfathers, and gives a behind-the-scenes view of their rebirth.Based on meticulous research and hundreds of interviews with current and former band members and other key figures, Small Victories combines a fan’s passion with a reporter’s perspicacity.

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I Am Morbid tells the astounding story of David Vincent, former bassist and singer with Morbid Angel, and now outlaw-country performer and leader of the I Am Morbid supergroup. Written with the bestselling author Joel McIver, it s an autobiography that transcends the heavy metal category by its very nature. Much more than a mere memoir, I Am Morbid is an instruction manual for life at the sharp end; a gathering of wisdom distilled into ten acute lessons for anyone interested in furthering their fortunes in life. Morbid Angel redefined the term pioneers. A band of heavy-metal-loving kids from all over America who broke through a host of music industry prejudices and went on to scale huge commercial heights, they introduced a whole new form of extreme music to the world. Formed in 1984, and breaking into the limelight in 1989 with their devastating first album, Altars Of Madness, the Florida death-metal legends became the first band of their genre to sign to a major label, from which point they came to dominate the worldwide metal scene for two decades and beyond. David left Morbid Angel in 1996, and again, following a reunion, in 2015. For the first time, I Am Morbid explores the reasons behind his departure, and the transformation of his life, career, and music in the years since. This is a classic but never predictable tale of a man who has fought convention every step of the way . . . and won.

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‘I’m no stranger to failure, and I’m aware it can arrive at any minute—as it often has. You have to keep things close to your chest and be aware of what’s really important: the work, not everything around it. If you have faith in the work, then the people will come … it’s an artistic imperative, it has nothing to do with public perception or career or any of that crap. The name, Swans, it’s synonymous with who I am, but it’s how it’s achieved and it’s achieved by people—those people need to have total commitment to making this sound and to making it utterly incisive and uncompromising. The work is everything and it has to—at least at the time—appear, to me, to be stellar. That’s the prerequisite. It’s an intangible thing where it really speaks and has some truth within it.’ – Michael GiraOver a span of some three and a half decades, Michael Gira’s Swans have risen from chaotic origins in the aftermath of New York’s No Wave scene to become one of the most acclaimed rock-orientated acts of recent years. The 1980s’ infamous ‘loudest band on the planet’ morphed repeatedly until collapsing exhausted, broken, and dispirited in the late 1990s.Swans returned triumphantly in 2010 to top end-of-year polls and achieve feted status among fans and critics alike as the great survivors and latter-day statesmen of the underground scene. Throughout, Gira’s desire has remained to create music of such intensity that the listener might forget flesh, get rid of the body, exist as pure energy—transcendent—inside of the sound.Through these pages, the musicians responsible tell the tale of one of the most significant bands of the US post-punk era. Drawing on more than 125 original interviews, Swans: Sacrifice And Transcendence is the ultimate companion to Swans and their work from the 1980s to the present day.

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'Dan is a national treasure and one of America s great songwriters. Elvis Costello. 'Dan s songs were funny, serious, and entertaining, and the combo of old-timey folk, country, and jazz knocked me out. Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons. 'Dan Hicks is like lightning in a bottle. Bette Midler. Dan Hicks didn t have his heart set on a career in music. It all just sort of happened to him. It didn t hurt, of course, that he was in the right place at the right time San Francisco, 1966 and had a front-row seat for the birth and death of the counterculture. Among other things, this is a classic story of the 60s. More importantly, it s a story of musical genius. By the time the Summer of Love limped to a close in the fall of 67, Hicks had quit the Charlatans the pioneering psych-rock band with whom he played the drums and turned to jazz, the music he d secretly loved all along, as he began building his own band, the Hot Licks. 'I just started taking ingredients I liked and putting them together to see what came out, Hicks writes. What came out was an amazing blend of complex time signatures, unusual instrumentation, and intricate vocal harmonies that took him to the top of the 70s rock world but also into a downward spiral of drink and drug abuse. Emerging from a long wilderness, which he writes about here with wit and candour, the man described by Tom Waits as 'fly, sly, wily, and dry eventually returned to recording and performing, making a number of acclaimed albums, including Beatin The Heat, a set of duets with Waits, Costello, Rickie Lee Jones, and more. Along the way, his music continued to subtly permeate the culture, turning up everywhere from The Sopranos to commercials for Levi s and Bic. Hicks passed away in early 2016, but his music, and the stories he tells here, remain as fresh and irresistible as ever. I Scare Myself takes readers on a journey behind the music, and into the life and mind of the fantastic artist who created it.

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Driven to the brink of madness by cocaine, overwork, marital strife, and a paranoid obsession with the occult, David Bowie fled Los Angeles in 1975 and ended up in Berlin, the divided city on the frontline between communist East and capitalist West. There he sought anonymity, taking an apartment in a run-down district with his sometime collaborator Iggy Pop, another refugee from drugs and debauchery, while they explored the city and its notorious nightlife.In this intensely creative period, Bowie put together three classic albums—Low, “Heroes”, and Lodger—with collaborators who included Brian Eno, Robert Fripp, and Tony Visconti. He also found time to produce two albums for Iggy Pop—The Idiot and Lust For Life—and to take a leading role in a movie, the ill-starred Just A Gigolo.Bowie In Berlin examines that period and those records, exploring Bowie’s fascination with the city, unearthing his sources of inspiration, detailing his working methods, and teasing out the elusive meanings of the songs. Painstakingly researched and vividly written, the book casts new light on the most creative and influential era in Bowie’s career.

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The authorised biography of one of the most creative and colourful musicians of the 60s, featuring extracts from his previously unpublished memoirs. Reissued with new cover art and foreword.

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There were only a handful of people in the world who still really believed in Suede at the time, and five of them were in the band. Brett Anderson, Suede. Suede were Marmite at the time, and I was expecting the press to trash them. Every meeting I had with the record company, I was told they were done for. Ed Buller, Coming Up producer. How did they do that? Comeback of the century. Select magazine cover, November 1996. Here They Come with Their Make-Up On examines in exquisite detail how Suede emerged from the chaotic, ruined remnants of their career and somehow managed to conjure up their most joyously evocative and celebrated album to date. Coming Up the extraordinary record in question stumped the band s most ardent critics and hit the jackpot, with sales that eclipsed those of their first two releases combined. As the band s publicist throughout that period, Jane is uniquely placed to reveal exactly how they did it. This book is also a personal journey into the heart of an album that Jane loves if not unconditionally then as a piece of work that has ultimately survived the ravages of time and the brutish, nasty, and not-so-short nature of the media scrutiny that had threatened to confine the band to the dustbin of history. In addition, it features yet more outlandish tales from Jane s time with Suede and those around them back then, as well as new interviews with band members Brett Anderson, Richard Oakes, and Neil Codling, and Coming Up s producer, Ed Buller.

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Soul is the most powerful expression of American music -- a distinct combination of roots, migration, race, culture, and politics packaged together for your dancing pleasure. But if you thought the sounds of Motown or Stax Records died along with 8-tracks and macrame, you d be wrong. For two decades, Daptone Records has churned out hard funk and such beautiful soul that these records sparked a musical revolution. Run by a collective of soul-obsessed producers and musicians, the Brooklyn-based independent label launched the careers of artists such as Amy Winehouse, Sharon Jones and The Dap-Kings, Charles Bradley, and Bruno Mars. Their records paid homage but never lip service to the original artists, proving that soul is still culturally relevant and just as exciting. It Ain t Retro charts this revival s players, sounds, and tectonic shifts over the past twenty years, taking you from dingy clubs where soul crazed DJs packed the dancefloor, to just uptown where some of the genre s heaviest musicians jumpstarted the renaissance in a basement studio, and all the way to the White House. This definitive tale of Daptone Records soulful revolution chronicles the label s history, players, and sounds while dissecting the scene s cultural underpinnings, which continue to reverberate in pop music.

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‘This band has no past’ was the first line of the farcical biography printed on the inner sleeve of Cheap Trick’s first album, but the band, of course, did have a past—a past that straddles two very different decades: from the tumult of the sixties to the anticlimax of the seventies, from the British Invasion to the record industry renaissance, with the band’s debut album arriving in 1977, the year vinyl sales peaked.This Band Has No Past tells the story of a bar band from the Midwest—the best and weirdest bar band in the Midwest— and how they doggedly pursued a most unlikely career in rock’n’roll. It traces every gnarly limb of the family tree of bands that culminated in Cheap Trick, then details how this unlikely foursome paid their dues—with interest—night after night, slogging it out everywhere from high schools to bars to bowling alleys to fans’ back yards, before signing to Epic Records and releasing two brilliant albums six months apart.Drawing on more than eighty original interviews, This Band Has No Past is packed full of new insights and information that fans of the band will devour. How was the Cheap Trick logo created? How did the checkerboard pattern come to be associated with the band? When did Rick Nielsen start wearing a ballcap 24/7? Who caught their mom and dad rolling on the couch? What kind of beer did David Bowie drink? And when might characters like Chuck Berry, Frank Zappa, Don Johnson, Otis Redding, Eddie Munster, Kim Fowley, John Belushi, Jim Belushi, Elvis Presley, Leslie West, Groucho Marx, Robert F. Kennedy, Patti Smith, Andy Warhol, Lou Reed, The Coneheads, Tom Petty, Harvey Weinstein, Michael Mann, Linda Blair, Eddie Van Halen, Elvis Costello, Matt Dillon, and Pam Grier turn up? Read on and find out.

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We developed reputations real fast. We treated our entertainers right. We got them paid. Other agents and promoters and managers showed them the money. We got them the money. We brought respect to the African American artist in America. We brought them prestige. We really cared about our artists and those who worked for us, and it was obvious because we fought like hell for them. So when you listen to some of that music today an Otis Redding record or Percy Sledge or anyone from our shop you re not just hearing music but also the sound of iron being hammered and bricks being laid for those especially African Americans who are in the business today. Southern Man is the memoir of a life in music during one of the most racially turbulent times in American history. It presents the voice of Alan Walden a remarkable, sensitive, humble, and brilliant man; a boy from the country who, serendipitously, along with his brother Phil and best friend Otis Redding, helped to nurture a musical renaissance. It is the story of a son of Macon, Georgia, and his passion for R&B and rock n roll at a time when it took wits and a Southern persistence to overcome the obstacles on the hard scrabble road to success the tragedy of loss, disappointment, and betrayal, along with the joy of victory, optimism, and hope and taking a dream right over the mountain. That dream led him to work with and nurture the talents of a virtual who s who of Southern music, from Sam & Dave and Percy Sledge to Boz Scaggs and Lynyrd Skynyrd. Anyone who was alive during the golden age of R&B and Southern rock remembers the music, but Alan s narrative invites the reader to the centre of the story, into the studio and on the road, to backroom deals and backroom brawls. It wasn t always peaches and cream. The music business is tough, and Alan Walden was one of the toughest kids on the street. He had to be, in order to survive in a world of guitars, guts, and guns. This is rock n roll noir the story of a few pioneers who cut the rock and laid the pipe under the hard scrabble terrain so that the water of creativity can more freely flow today.

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How do you define success? If you let somebody else define what success is, you re a sucker. I m no sucker. Chuck Prophet started out as a post-punk California kid who helped kick-start the alt-country genre when he joined Dan Stuart s Green On Red, then making a name for themselves as part of the so-called Paisley Underground alongside bands like The Dream Syndicate and The Bangles. While Green On Red established a reputation for self-destruction illuminated by flashes of brilliance in the studio and on festival stages around Europe in the late 1980s, Prophet simultaneously immersed himself in roots music and forged a solo career via backroom and basement venues across his adopted home of San Francisco. He has emerged as one of the most respected musicians of his generation, admired for his talents as a songwriter, guitarist, vocalist, and live performer. He has worked with the likes of Tony Visconti and Warren Zevon, and his songs have been performed by artists as diverse as Bruce Springsteen and Solomon Burke. Those who know him through his social-media presence or his live shows are well aware that no one tells a story quite like Chuck Prophet; here, his voice rings clearly from the first page to the last as he gives his perspective on writing, recording, and performing, and talks candidly about his struggles and remarkable recovery from years of addiction. As Prophet s official archivist, author Stevie Simkin draws on over a hundred hours of interviews with his subject as well as contributions from fellow musicians, producers, friends, and associates, and unique access to unreleased songs and live recordings and scores of previously unseen photographs. Time and again, Simkin puts the reader in the room with Chuck as he talks, or in the studio as he plays, and the live experience is captured from both sides of the stage monitors. An exciting rock n roll odyssey, What Makes The Monkey Dance is essential reading for every fan of this phenomenal artist, but also for anyone with an interest in alternative music during a period seismic change, offering a fascinating portrait of how a true artist has managed to carve out a career at the sharp end of a notoriously ruthless industry.

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In this follow-up to his 2013 memoir My Life With Deth, Megadeth bassist and co-founder David Ellefson carries on where he left off, charting his mid-2000s departure from Megadeth through his triumphant return in 2010, and offering an inside look at the continuing saga of one of the world s biggest and most enduring heavy-metal bands. Co-written with his business partner, Thom Hazaert a celebrated music-industry figure, radio personality, and music journalist More Life With Deth chronicles Megadeth s record-shattering `Big 4 shows alongside Metallica, Slayer, and Anthrax, and the release of their Grammy-winning Dystopia their highest-charting record in over twenty-five years and the massive two-year world tour supporting it. Far more than your typical rock star tell-all, More Life also delves deeper into the origins of Megadeth and David s roots in rural Minnesota, and tells the stories behind the creation of his hugely successful EMP Label Group, Ellefson Coffee Co., and the relaunch of the famed metal label Combat Records, as well as his continued personal journey of spirituality and sobriety. Told through the words of Ellefson, Hazaert, and friends including Alice Cooper, Brian `Head Welch (Korn), Kristian Nairn (Game Of Thrones), Mark Tremonti, K.K. Downing (Judas Priest), Brian Slagel (Metal Blade Records), Frank Bello (Anthrax), Jason McMaster (Dangerous Toys), Dirk Verbeuren (Megadeth), Kiko Loureiro (Megadeth), Chris Adler (Lamb Of God, Megadeth), Dan Donegan (Disturbed), and many more, More Life With Deth is an insightful and personal look at one of the most revered rock musicians and preeminent heavy-metal entrepreneurs of our time.

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Phill Savidge is widely credited as being the main instigator of the Britpop music movement that swept the UK in the mid-1990s. Savidge was co-founder and head of legendary public relations company Savage & Best, the company that represented most of the artists associated with the scene, including Suede, Pulp, The Verve, Elastica, Kula Shaker, Spiritualized, Menswear, The Auteurs, and Black Box Recorder. Savidge suggests that Britpop came about 'by accident' because he refused to represent any American bands. He subsequently ended up with an extremely accessible, media-friendly roster that 'lived ’round the corner' and included the most exciting press-worthy acts of the era. His unique experience at the epicentre of Britpop led to many intimate, not entirely self-congratulatory encounters with a who’s who of popular culture — including Brett Anderson, Damon Albarn, Roy Orbison, David Bowie, Joe Strummer, Lou Reed, Michael Barrymore, Richard Ashcroft, Andre

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