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Paperback. Condizione: New. 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.

Paperback. Condizione: New. Jane 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 and 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 transitioned to female after the publication of her first book, Lunch With The Wild Frontiers, and is now known as Jane Savidge. In Lunch , she suggests that Britpop came about by accident because she refused to represent any American bands. She subsequently ended up with an extremely accessible, media-friendly roster that lived around the corner and included the most exciting press-worthy acts of the era. Savidge's 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, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Mick Jagger, George Lucas, Damien Hirst, and Dave Stewart, among others. But did she really Sellotape a cassette of Suede's 'Animal Nitrate' single to a purple velvet cushion with a note that said 'another great disappointment' and then bike it to the NME? And could she and Jarvis Cocker really have fallen out simply because a journalist thought she was more glamorous than the Pulp front man? If you've ever wondered what it's like to represent Hirst, Cocker, and The Verve in the same decade, and then wake up in bed with Keith Allen in the Ritz in Paris courtesy of Mohammed Al Fayed then you should read this book. Imagine David Sedaris with a hangover and an expense account and you're halfway to appreciating the delinquent delights of Lunch With The Wild Frontiers.

Paperback. Condizione: New. 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.

Paperback. Condizione: New. 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 and 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.

Paperback. Condizione: New. 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.

Paperback. Condizione: New. '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.

Paperback. Condizione: New. 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.

Paperback. Condizione: New. 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.

Paperback. Condizione: New. 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.

Paperback. Condizione: New. 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.

Paperback. Condizione: New. If I had a name like Wyndham Wallace I would not associate or correspond with anyone with a simple name like mine. However, since you have lowered yourself to such depths, how can my old Indian heart (west not east) not respond favourably. -Lee Hazlewood, fax message to the author, Valentine's Day 1999. Lee, Myself and I is an intimate portrait of the last years of Lee Hazlewood, the legendary singer and songwriter best known for 'These Boots Are Made For Walkin', the chart-topping hit he wrote and produced for Nancy Sinatra. It begins in 1999, when Hazlewood began his comeback after many years in the wilderness, and ends with his death in 2007. In the intervening years, the author, Wyndham Wallace, became Hazlewood's friend, confidante, de-facto manager, and more, even providing the lyrics for Lee's final recording, 'Hilli (At The Top Of The World'.In the light of reissues of Hazlewood's work by the esteemed Light In The Attic label-including There's A Dream I've Been Saving: Lee Hazlewood Industries 1966-1971, an acclaimed boxed set of his work with the label he founded, LHI, as well as further releases including liner notes by Wallace-interest in Hazlewood has never been greater. Lee, Myself and I is the first book to address his life and work. Through recollections of their lengthy conversations and adventures together, Wallace captures the complex personality-charming but cantankerous, blunt but poetic-of a reclusive icon whose work helped shape the American pop cultural landscape, and who still influences countless artists today. He also sheds light on often overlooked or more obscure aspects of Hazlewood's career, including his pioneering work with Duane Eddy and Phil Spector, and the outstanding recordings he made during his self-imposed exile to Sweden in the 1970s. Lee, Myself and I is a tale of validation: both the author's and Hazlewood's. It's the story of what it's like to meet your hero, befriend him, and then watch him die.

Paperback. Condizione: New. Stereolab are one of the most fascinating guitar groups of the past fifty years, a source of constant reinvention and illuminating contrasts, where political ideology meets the sweetest pop melodies and driving guitars rub along with space-age jazz. They are perhaps the greatest Anglo-French collaboration since Concorde a hugely respected, highly influential group whose fan base grows larger by the year, stretching from chart-topping hip hop artists to underground indie stars. And yet their appeal remains elusive. What kind of music do Stereolab make? What s their best album? Their greatest song? There are no easy answers. In writing this book, Ben Cardew spoke to more than fifty people from the Stereolab universe to trace the history of the band from the depths of 90s indie London to their all-conquering reunion tour of 2025. Using twenty of their songs as jumping-off points, he examines in loving detail what makes this most fascinating band work, unpicking the cultural references, stylistic contradictions, and brilliant ideas at the heart of the group. Space Age Batchelor Pad Music is designed for dedicated fans and interested newcomers alike, going deep into a band of infinite jest, excellent fancy, and spiralling contradiction. It s a story of restless creativity and human endeavour spanning more than three decades of enigmatic artistic life.

Paperback. Condizione: New. Everything was just so intense. There was an alienation and awkwardness about Josef K, but that was actually very true to life for me. Listening today I find really difficult because it brings back so many memories, so many ghosts and characters from the past. -- Paul Haig. A lot of what Josef K were about was as much to do with what not to play as what to play. Josef K could never have anything rootsy, no blues scale. We were always looking for the modern. -- Malcolm Ross. Josef K are the great lost post-punk band. Taking their name from the haunted protagonist of Franz Kafka s existentialist novel The Trial, they posed for photographs before brutalist and gothic architecture and produced visionary, often incendiary music that felt like the product of perpetual anxiety. And it really was. Through The Crack In The Wall is the first ever biography of the band, tracing their story from their origins in the leafy suburbs of Edinburgh through to their untimely implosion four years later. It s a tale of fun and frenzy, filled with highs and lows. From their thrilling live shows, which left onlookers spellbound, to more anxious occasions confronting a baying audience of rioting anarcho-punks in Brussels; from a brief spell as press darlings of the inkies to the fateful decision to pull their debut album just as pop stardom beckoned -- one that continues to haunt them today. Drawing extensively on new interviews with the band members and those around them as well as contemporary press articles, the book explores the band s inner workings and analyses their relationships with Postcard Records supremo Alan Horne, labelmates Orange Juice, and manager Allan Campbell. It re-evaluates their position in the pantheon of post-punk greats and considers how their music helped shape the UK independent scene of the eighties. More than anything else, though, the book s primary purpose is to celebrate the incredible music Josef K made and consider what makes it more vital today than ever.

Paperback. Condizione: New. In 1972, David Ackles s third album, American Gothic, was released to a flurry of press plaudits declaring it to be the Sgt Pepper of folk and one of the greatest records ever made. Yet the album, like its two predecessors, failed to sell, and after one more record, its creator simply vanished. He found work, raised a family, and died a couple of decades later, having never made another record. Today, Ackles s music is largely consigned to the streaming netherworld. It is yet to be properly repackaged and reappraised, and he remains largely unknown. But there is no middle ground. You either love him or you ve never heard of him. His admirers range from Black Flag s Greg Ginn to indie polymath Jim O Rourke to Genesis drummer turned platinum-selling solo artist Phil Collins. In 2003, when Elvis Costello interviewed Elton John for the first episode of his television show Spectacle, the two spoke at some length, and with palpable respect, about Ackles s great talent, before performing a duet of his Down River -- the same song Collins had selected for Desert Island Discs a decade earlier. David Ackles did not make rock n roll music, and Down River is not a rock n roll story. It is a search for an artist who got lost. Not a pretty-good, I-wonder-what-happened-to-him sort of talent, but a man revered as one of the greats. Drawing on conversations with Ackles during the last year of his life as well as full access to archive material, it positions him as one of the great maverick talents of popular music -- an equal of Scott Walker and Tom Waits. It seeks to understand the disconnect between his obvious gifts and his commercial failure, and wonders about the fickleness of fame and cult status. How does this process of retrospective recognition work, and why does it happen for some but not others? Was Ackles s music just too strange, or might his time yet come? And what do the answers to these questions say about the mythmaking of the popular music industry -- and about us, the audience?

Paperback. Condizione: New. Before #MeToo, before Riot Grrl, there was Lydia Lunch. A central figure in the No Wave scene of the seventies as founder of the seminal Teenage Jesus and The Jerks Lunch has pursued a four decade long career turning the substance of her life into unapologetic, stark, and beautiful art. From the eighties onward, Lunch became a lone voice publicly calling out the patriarchal aggressions and day-to-day violence enacted by the powerful and never gave a good goddamn whether you wanted to hear it or not. Refusing to be silenced, she took to stages the world over, fearlessly speaking the truth, whether of her own life with its legacy of parental abuse, of her wild times owning the streets of New York City, or of the world she saw around her. Seeing no boundaries between creative mediums, Lydia has enacted her vision through music, spoken word, film, theatre, and more. Released as an accompaniment to Beth B s new documentary The War Is Never Over, this book is the first comprehensive overview of Lunch s creative campaign of resistance, a celebration of pleasure as the ultimate act of rebellion. Across these pages, Lunch and her numerous collaborators including Thurston Moore, Jim Sclavunos, Kid Congo Powers, Bob Bert, Richard Kern, Nick Zedd, and Vivienne Dick recount life at the frontline of the musical extremes of the seventies and eighties underground, the wild times, the disciplined productivity, life lived as a defender of the voiceless, and an unapologetic force of righteous fury.

Paperback. Condizione: New. 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.

Paperback. Condizione: New. 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.

Paperback. Condizione: New. Gliders Over Hollywood tells the exhilarating true story of a blue-collar kid nicknamed Rap who grew up in thrall to rock n roll, then found himself right in the middle of many of his heroes lives as he became the most renowned rock promotion man in the USA. Paul Rappaport enjoyed a storied thirty-three-year career at Columbia Records, where he was instrumental in the careers of everyone from Bob Dylan to Bruce Springsteen, Pink Floyd to The Rolling Stones, Elvis Costello to Billy Joel, Judas Priest to Alice In Chains, and many, many more. The music business from the late 60s through the 90s was an exciting time that mirrored the music and the musicians making it. It was also a time of new and creative ideas on how to market this groundbreaking cultural phenomenon. Eccentric characters were everywhere, and often the managers, promoters, disc jockeys, and record company staff were just as big a show as the performers themselves. This dynamic, entertaining memoir captures the magic of these times and the people who made it happen, revealing the never-before-heard secrets of the promotion and marketing that turned the music industry on its head. From creating the Pink Floyd airship to sword-fighting with Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden and receiving a guitar lesson from Keith Richards, it s a book packed full of extraordinary adventures with some of the biggest names in rock.

Paperback. Condizione: New. Growing up in the Boston suburbs, Tom Werman was deeply affected by pop music from a young age. He long dreamed of a career in music -- first as Elvis, then as the next George Harrison -- but it almost turned out very differently. Dutifully following the path his parents had laid out for him, he obtained an MBA from an Ivy League university and took a plum job in an industry he came to despise. Then, in 1970, a chance letter sent to CBS Records boss Clive Davis led to a new opportunity . . . and a place in rock and roll history. As an AandR man at Epic Records, Werman helped introduce the world to REO Speedwagon, Boston, Ted Nugent, and Cheap Trick; he also discovered KISS, Rush, and Lynyrd Skynyrd, but his record label passed on all of them. Then, as an independent producer, he oversaw landmark albums by Motley Crue (Shout At The Devil), Twisted Sister (Stay Hungry), Lita Ford (Dangerous Curves), Jeff Beck (Live With Jan Hammer), Poison (Open Up And Say . Ahh!), and many more. All in all, his record-making resume includes twenty-three gold- or platinum-selling albums and cumulative sales of more than fifty-two million copies. After bearing witness to several sea changes in the music industry, Werman retired from producing in 2001 and reinvented himself as an award-winning innkeeper in the Berkshire Hills of Massachusetts. And that might have been that, until an off-the-cuff rebuttal to a disparaging critique of his role in making the Motley Crue album Girls, Girls, Girls on a music website led to a fortnightly column and now this book -- an honest and engaging insider account on how some of the best-loved albums of the 1970s and 80s came to be. A must for anyone interested in the glory days of rock and metal, Turn It Up! offers valuable insights into the recording process, the recording studio, the role of the producer, and the production values that are essential to the creation of a hit record.

Paperback. Condizione: New. 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.

Paperback. Condizione: New. During the 1960s -- a juncture in history when music was the meeting place for the ideas of the young and questioning -- Bob Dylan stood head and shoulders in influence above all others. In telling the story of his first calendar decade as a recording artist, Decade Of Dissent provides a unique angle on an endlessly fascinating and truly peerless career. Dylan s 60s recordings constitute a dizzying run that includes such landmark albums as The Freewheelin Bob Dylan, Highway 61 Revisited, Blonde On Blonde, the so-called Basement Tapes , and John Wesley Harding, and such classic songs as Blowin In The Wind , The Times They Are A-Changin , Mr. Tambourine Man , Like A Rolling Stone , Just Like A Woman , Quinn The Eskimo , All Along The Watchtower , and Lay Lady Lay . They set the template for his genius and encompass the bulk of his greatest work. The career arc they collectively describe saw Dylan effortlessly and repeatedly instigate revolution, by turns reinvigorating folk music, turning protest song mainstream, bringing the intellectualism and social conscience of folk to rock and pop, reasserting roots music over the excesses of psychedelia, and making country music respectable. Through each of his new identities, Dylan s dazzling lyrics established him as the poet laureate of the counterculture. All during this time he was engaged in a personal voyage that saw him first embrace the blandishments of fame and then emphatically reject them. His journey during this era from ambitious nobody to cultural icon back to willing background figure makes for one of the most extraordinary narratives in the history of recorded music. It features a fascinating supporting cast of collaborators and peers, from Al Kooper and Mike Bloomfield to The Beatles and The Byrds. Dylan now occupies an unparalleled role as venerated elder statesman of music, but through the twists and turns of his long career he has never quite regained the position he held during his insurrectionary first decade, when he was the most important artist in popular music -- and, by extension, one of the most crucial figures in Western society. Drawing on exclusive interviews and packed full of fresh insights, Decade Of Dissent brings to life Dylan and his milieu at the point when he was making music that was not merely aesthetically magnificent but sociologically earthshaking.

Paperback. Condizione: New. In Shaping Sounds, visionary music producer Robert Margouleff shares his stories of pushing the boundaries of musical innovation, art and technology while helping create some of the most significant and influential music of our time. Beginning on the set of his first film, Ciao! Manhattan, with Andy Warhol superstar Edie Sedgwick, Margouleff captures the tragic beauty of New York s East Village and Warhol s Factory as he discovers a powerful new way to score his movie: the Moog synthesizer. This discovery leads him to meet a studio engineer who would become his long-time partner, Malcolm Cecil, with whom he would collaborate to invent the world s largest analog synthesizer, TONTO (The Original New Timbral Orchestra). Together, Margouleff and Cecil used TONTO to help unleash Stevie Wonder s genius on his era-defining classic albums Music Of My Mind, Talking Book, Innervisions, and Fulfillingness First Finale. In legendary studios like Electric Lady and the Record Plant, Margouleff became a pioneering producer and engineer for artists like Billy Preston, Jeff Beck, DEVO, The Isley Brothers, and David Sanborn. A true sonic innovator, he was an early adopter of immersive audio and surround, developing new mixing techniques for home theaters that brought some of Hollywood s biggest blockbusters to life. Shaping Sounds is so much more than a chronicle of music history. It s a story about creativity, collaboration, and artistic courage. Margouleff interweaves his personal experiences with the teachers, friends, mentors, and influences that shaped him, revealing how empathy and curiosity fueled his life's work. This memoir is a rich and entertaining narrative of a key period in music history that brings readers deep into the world of record and film production and will inspire new generations of music-makers and dreamers.

Paperback. Condizione: New. 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.

Paperback. Condizione: New. '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.

Paperback. Condizione: New. 'Kevin does what I pretend to do. Kevin's a proper musician.' David Bowie'Kevin Armstrong has been around, and around.' Iggy PopGrowing up in a world of punk squats and the London pub-rock scene, suburban rookie guitarist Kevin Armstrong found himself signed to EMI as a solo artist in the early 80s, but fate had other plans for him, his life and career changing in an instant when he was called for a studio date with an unnamed star at Abbey Road.That unnamed star was soon revealed to be David Bowie, and that afternoon's recording catapulted this unlikely lad onto the world's grandest stages alongside some of the biggest names in the business. Kevin has gone on to carve out a singular career as a producer, songwriter, and guitarist, performing live and recording with everyone from Grace Jones to Paul McCartney, Iggy Pop to Roy Orbison, Sandie Shaw to Alien Sex Fiend.Absolute Beginner is the story of what it takes to survive as a self-taught musician. It provides an honest and funny glimpse into the backstage world of the artists Kevin has worked with, and is packed with acerbic, laugh-out-loud observations on popular music and musicians from someone who has had a prime seat at the high table of rock'n'roll for more than forty years.

Paperback. Condizione: New. Summer 1984. I ve got the back lounge of this tour bus all to myself, partly because I m the lead singer but more likely because it means the rest of the band won t have to deal with me for the rest of the day. Just two years earlier I was flunking out at UCLA, working the day shift in a record store, living out of my father s basement. Now I m living the million-to-one reality of touring the country with my band, The Dream Syndicate, opening for up-and-coming rock darlings REM, and making a big-budget sophomore album for AandM Records. I m also untethered and unbound, drinking a fifth of Jim Beam every day, barely speaking to my best friend and guitarist, and looking for trouble in all the wrong places. How did I get from there to here? And how do I get out? Stick around and find out. I ll be here, dreaming my dream . . . I Wouldn t Say It If It Wasn t True is a tale of writing songs and playing in bands as a conduit to a world its author could once have barely imagined -- a world of major labels, luxury tour buses, and sold-out theaters, but also one of alcohol, drugs, and a low-level rock n roll Babylon. Beginning with Wynn s childhood in California in the 60s and 70s, the book builds to a crescendo with the formation of the first incarnation of The Dream Syndicate in 1981 as an antidote to the prepackaged pop music of the era. It charts the highs and lows of the band s early years at the forefront of the Paisley Underground scene alongside Green On Red, Rain Parade, and The Bangles; the seismic impact of their debut album, The Days Of Wine And Roses; the spiraling chaos of the sessions for the follow-up, Medicine Show; the dissolution of the band s first line-up and the launch of a second phase of The Dream Syndicate with Out Of The Grey and Ghost Stories; and more, culminating with the release of the landmark live album Live At Raji s. This is Wynn s story, but it also features some of the biggest and most colorful characters of the period, offering a detailed field guide to the music business that manages to both glorify and demystify in equal measure. And, ultimately, it s a tale of redemption, with music as a vehicle for artistic and personal transformation and transcendence.

Paperback. Condizione: New. 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.

Paperback. Condizione: New. 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.

Paperback. Condizione: New. One day around 1970, my father announced to me that he d like to take me to Maxwell Street Market, an open-air flea market adjacent to Downtown Chicago. He wanted to show me where his parents used to take him shopping as a child. When he parked his car in the University Of Illinois lot, the first thing I heard, long before I could see where it was coming from, was the sound of a slide guitar -- not just any guitar but a National steel resonator guitar. We followed the music and found ourselves standing on the west side of Halsted Street, midway between Roosevelt and Maxwell, where Blind Arvella Gray was playing the folk/blues song John Henry -- a song that seemed to have no beginning and no end. Sensing that his audience was generally passing by rather than gathering around, Gray kept playing that one song for his entire shift. He d even altered the lyrics to refer to the local streets. In that moment, I developed a lifelong affinity for the informality, spontaneity, and audience participation of busking. Down On The Corner is the story of music performed on the streets, in subways, in parks, in schoolyards, on the back of flatbed trucks, and beyond, from the 1920s to the present day. Drawing on years of interviews and eyewitness accounts, veteran journalist and music-industry publicist Cary Baker introduces readers to a wide range of locations and a myriad of musical genres, from folk to rock n roll, the blues to bluegrass, doo-wop to indie rock. Some of the performers he features -- Lucinda Williams, Billy Bragg, The Violent Femmes -- went on to become international stars; others settled into the curbs, sidewalks, and Tube stations as their workplace for the duration of their careers. Anyone who has lived in or travelled through a city will have encountered street musicians of one kind or another. For the first time, Down On The Corner tells the complete history of these musicians and the music they play, from tin cups and toonies to QR codes and PayPal.

Paperback. Condizione: New. 'Before there was Star Wars before there was Close Encounters there was The Man Who Fell To Earth. advertising tag line for 1981 reissue of the film. Earthbound is the first book-length exploration of a true classic of twentieth-century science-fiction cinema, shot under the heavy, ethereal skies of New Mexico by the legendary British director Nicolas Roeg and starring David Bowie in a role he seemed born for as an extra-terrestrial named Thomas Newton who comes to Earth in search of water. Based on a novel by the highly regarded American writer Walter Tevis, this dreamy, distressing, and visionary film resonates even more strongly in the twenty-first century than it did on its original release during the year of the US Bicentennial. Drawing on extensive research and exclusive first-hand interviews with members of the cast and crew, Earthbound begins with a look at Tevis s 1963 novel before moving into a detailed analysis of a film described by its director as 'a sci-fi film without a lot of sci-fi tools and starring a group of actors Bowie, Buck Henry, Candy Clark, Rip Torn later described by one of them (Henry) as 'not a cast but a dinner party.It also seeks to uncover the mysteries surrounding Bowie s rejected soundtrack to the film (elements of which later ended up his ground-breaking 1977 album Low) and closes with a look at his return to the themes and characters of The Man Who Fell To Earth in one of his final works, the acclaimed musical production Lazarus.