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Cover of SMiLE : The Rise, Fall, And Resurrection Of Brian Wilson by David Leaf.

David Leaf

SMiLE : The Rise, Fall, And Resurrection Of Brian Wilson

Omnibus Press

    The story of the Brian Wilson's legendary SMiLE album from Beach Boys authority David Leaf.

    This is the first book to tell the full story of Brian Wilson and SMiLE, including the details of the original SMiLE recording sessions and their increasingly legendary status as well as the final release of the album, the accompanying concerts and film, and its afterlife.

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    Cover of Slint's Spiderland - 33 1/3 by Scott Tennent.

    Scott Tennent

    Slint's Spiderland - 33 1/3

    Continuum Publishing Corporation

      This is a thorough history of Slint, and the Louisville scene that surrounded the band, leading up to and focusing on the creation of their masterpiece, "Spiderland". Of all the seminal albums to come out in 1991 - the year of "Nevermind", "Loveless", "Ten", and "Out of Time", among others - none were quieter, both in volume and influence, than "Spiderland", and no band more mysterious than Slint. Few single albums can lay claim to sparking an entire genre, but "Spiderland" - all six songs of it - laid the foundation for post rock in the 1990s.

      Yet for so much obvious influence, both the band and the album remain something of a puzzle. This thoroughly researched book is the first substantive attempt to break through some of the mystery surrounding "Spiderland" and the band that made it. Scott Tennent has written a long overdue look at this remarkable album and its origins, delving into the small, insular musical universe that included bands like Squirrel Bait, Maurice, Bitch Magnet, and Bastro.

      The story, helped by in-depth interviews with band members David Pajo and Todd Brashear, explores the formation of Slint, the recording of "Tweez", and the band's dramatic move into the sound of "Spiderland". For more information on the series and on individual titles in the series, check out our blog.

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      Cover of J Dilla's Donuts - 33 1/3 by Jordan Ferguson.

      Jordan Ferguson

      J Dilla's Donuts - 33 1/3

      Bloomsbury Academic USA

        From a Los Angeles hospital bed, equipped with little more than a laptop and a stack of records, James “J Dilla” Yancey crafted a set of tracks that would forever change the way beatmakers viewed their artform. The songs on Donuts are not hip hop music as “hip hop music” is typically defined; they careen and crash into each other, in one moment noisy and abrasive, gorgeous and heartbreaking the next. The samples and melodies tell the story of a man coming to terms with his declining health, a final love letter to the family and friends he was leaving behind.

        As a prolific producer with a voracious appetite for the history and mechanics of the music he loved, J Dilla knew the records that went into constructing Donuts inside and out. He could have taken them all and made a much different, more accessible album. If the widely accepted view is that his final work is a record about dying, the question becomes why did he make this record about dying?Drawing from philosophy, critical theory and musicology, as well as Dilla’s own musical catalogue, Jordan Ferguson shows that the contradictory, irascible and confrontational music found on Donuts is as much a result of an artist’s declining health as it is an example of what scholars call “late style,” placing the album in a musical tradition that stretches back centuries.

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        Cover of LYF011 - Archives 1998-2012 by WU LYF.

        WU LYF

        LYF011 - Archives 1998-2012

        LYF Recordings

          A Celebration of the glimpses of gold that characterised WU LYF’s short reign-Featuring New Essays, Original Art, Photography & Lyrics.

          Whilst preparing the 10th Anniversary Re-issue of the Singular WU LYF LP- "Go Tell Fire to the Mountain" a long forgotten hard drive was unearthed that held a pristine archive of the golden years of the LYF's creative output.
          On it we found many snapshots of early Live Performances, Scans of all the Collaged Art works and Paintings, numerous Beautiful Photos captured by Friends and Lovers.

          For those directly involved browsing over it provoked some giddy nostalgia for a well spent youth - a glorification of what was and some starry eyed speculation as to what could have been…

          The conversation then arose that it would be a real shame to leave the work of WU LYF entirely overlooked in cultural history, lost to the sands of time, left as mere digital ash decaying in discarded digital urns.

          So why not share it all?

          Featuring text by and interviews by our very own Liam with Joe, Tom, Ellery and Evans. Plus additional text by Warren (War God) Bramley, JD Beauvalet, Matt Wilkinson, Beatrice Miniconi, Mino Tristovskij & Sean Wood.

          STAFF COMMENTS

          Liam says: In 2021, I had the privilege of being able to contribute to the LYF ARCHIVES 1998-2012 by interviewing members Ellery, Joe and Tom. Fast forward to July of this year, LYF ARCHIVES saw life. Documenting the short but spirited life of this seminal band, this is a must for anyone who followed the WU in any capacity during their brief existence.

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          Cover of These Things Happen : The Sarah Records Story by Jane Duffus.

          Jane Duffus

          These Things Happen : The Sarah Records Story

          Tangent Books

            This is the definitive history of Sarah Records; the Bristol-based label that signed the acts no major label would touch but who you wanted to hear.

            Sarah put out a board game, produced cut 'n' paste fanzines and stuck two fingers up to the mainstream music industry. Sarah was your secret world and it was located in the heart of Bristol. Sarah Records lasted for seven years, nine months and 11 days.

            In These Things Happen, those who were there at the beating heart of the indie-pop world reveal the deepest, darkest secrets of what really went into making Sarah’s pop masterpieces. Featuring almost 130 interviews, including at least one member of every single band (as well as the world exclusive first interview with Christine of Christine’s Cat fame), this book is an oral history of a defining moment in pop history.

            Who stripped naked on stage to another band’s drum solo? Why did Julian Knowles sleep with his boots on his stomach in Hull? Whatever happened to Mr James C Urchin? All of these burning questions and more will be answered in this book. With no tatty old gig flyer left unturned in the pursuit of exposing the true political pop pandemonium that went on in the wonderful world of Sarah Records.

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            Cover of We All Shine On : John, Yoko, And Me by Elliot Mintz.

            Elliot Mintz

            We All Shine On : John, Yoko, And Me

            Bantam Books

              We All Shine On is the personal, intimate and, at times, heart-breaking memoir of an extraordinary friendship, which gives a first hand view of what it was like to be close to one of the most famous couples of all time. From the moment he interviewed Yoko Ono on his late night radio show in September 1971, Elliot Mintz’s life would never the same again. That phone call would lead him to an intense and revealing friendship with Yoko and her husband, John Lennon, until John’s untimely death in 1980, and beyond, to the present day.

              In 1971, then the talk host on American airwaves, Elliot Mintz was talking to all of the major figures in the burgeoning West Coast music scene when he was asked whether he would interview Yoko about her new album. Their talk quickly lead to other private calls and then to John Lennon, with whom he quickly formed a firm bond. Those conversations became hours-long epics, to the extent that Elliot had another phone line put in, for which only two people had the number - John and Yoko.

              The aftermath of The Beatles’ breakup ushered in a tumultuous decade. Elliot witnessed it, or heard all about it, at close hand including the unbearable cost of such fame when John and Yoko separated for what became known as his ‘lost weekend’. There was joy when their son Sean was born and the creative rebirth that was the multi-platinum selling triumph, Double Fantasy.

              But then there was unimaginable tragedy too when John was brutally murdered in December 1980.

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              Cover of Dreams : The Many Lives Of Fleetwood Mac by Mark Blake.

              Mark Blake

              Dreams : The Many Lives Of Fleetwood Mac

              Nine Eight Books

                Fleetwood Mac have had a chart-topping career that spans over fifty years and includes some of the biggest-selling albums and greatest hits of the 20th and 21st centuries. But the band's story is one of enormous triumph and also unimaginable tragedy. There has never been a band in the history of music riven with as much romantic drama, sexual tension and incredible highs and lows as Fleetwood Mac.

                Dreams is a must-read for casual Fleetwood Mac fans and die-hard devotees alike. In this unique collection of mini-biographies, observations and essays, Mark Blake explores all eras of the Fleetwood Mac story to explore what it is that has made them one of the most successful bands in history. Blake draws on his own exclusive interviews with Mick Fleetwood, Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham and the late Peter Green and Christine McVie, and addresses the complex human drama at the heart of the Fleetwood Mac story, including the complicated relationships between the band's main members, but he also dives deep into the towering discography that the band have built over the past half-century.

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                Cover of Street-Level Superstar : A Year With Lawrence by Will Hodgkinson.

                Will Hodgkinson

                Street-Level Superstar : A Year With Lawrence

                Bonnier Books Ltd

                  'Will has finally written his masterpiece. I'm glad I could be of assistance' LAWRENCE'

                  Essential reading' JARVIS COCKER

                  'Wonderful' BOBBY GILLESPIE'

                  A fascinating tale beautifully told' BRETT ANDERSON

                  Lawrence is the greatest pop star you have never heard of, his dreams of glory thwarted over the past five decades by bad luck and self-sabotage. At sixty-one, he set off on a new mission: to escape poverty, obscurity and the humiliation of kids at the bus stop laughing at him by writing a smash hit.

                  But what is the cost of a dream?In 1979, Lawrence formed Felt, who released ten albums and ten singles in ten years before splitting up. In 1991, he reinvented himself with novelty-pop outfit Denim. Signed to EMI, riding the wave of Britpop, in 1997, Denim's song 'Summer Smash' became Radio 1's Single of the Week and looked like a sure-fire hit.

                  Then Princess Diana was killed in a car crash. All copies were melted down. Crushing depression, addiction and homelessness followed...
                  but in the face of it all, Lawrence never gave up. In Street-Level Superstar, bestselling author and journalist Will Hodgkinson follows Lawrence as he rebuilds his life. He gets mistaken for an old lady by an amorous pensioner, is reduced to dragging sacks of 2p coins to his local bank and wanders through London's distant suburbs in search of lyrical inspiration.

                  As they walk together down rain-soaked streets, Will tells the story of Britain's most eccentric cult star. Will he write the greatest song the world has ever known before the year is out? And was it worth sacrificing everything - family, relationships, health, sanity - for art?

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                  Genre pick of the week Cover of Down With The System by Serj Tankian.

                  Serj Tankian

                  Down With The System

                  Headline Book Publishing

                    With nearly 40 million record sales, three albums topping the Billboard charts, a Grammy win and a legion of fans, System Of A Down are one of the biggest metal bands on the planet. At their core has always been Serj Tankian, whose journey from the streets of Beirut to rock superstardom is as remarkable and unlikely as you'll get. By dint of luck, circumstance, struggle, and more than a little talent, Serj has had the chance to live an extraordinary life.

                    In Down With the System, he retraces this remarkable and unlikely journey, and explores what it's taught him - about music, about art, about activism, and about himself. From teaming up with Tom Morello to push social justice causes on unsuspecting metalheads, arguing with LAPD officers over the best way to quell his rioting fans, and traveling with Anthony Bourdain through Armenia one meal at a time, Down With the System is an immigrant's tale, an activist's awakening, and rock memoir unlike any other.

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                    Cover of Issue 14 by STAT Magazine.

                    STAT Magazine

                    Issue 14

                      STAT Magazine (https://statmagazine.org/) is a culture zine for the North West of England. STAT aims to redistribute cultural focus to smaller towns in the North West, showcasing left-field, radical arts outside of Manchester – be they visual, written, fictional, or journalistic. Reviewed are music, publications, exhibitions, and live shows. Content tends toward the hopefully melancholic, darkly funny, and compassionate fringes of a modern North.

                      In this pinkified publication you're brought tales of Preston, pool tables, prison visits, and peeking into Martin Scorsese’s dressing room. Each copy comes with an original rubbing taken from the Preston Wallace & Gromit statue.

                      Pale pink cover, manilla inlay and 70-odd pages of northern culture on our lovely 100gsm grey pages. One of only two hundred.

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                      Cover of Unapologetic Expression : The Inside Story Of The UK Jazz Explosion by Andre Marmot.

                      Andre Marmot

                      Unapologetic Expression : The Inside Story Of The UK Jazz Explosion

                      Faber & Faber

                        A lively, subversive history of the new UK jazz wave, encapsulating its revolutionary spirit and tracing its foundations to birth of the genre itself. For many in the nineties, jazz was viewed as an obsolete, uncool music, a genre loved by out of touch white men with deeply questionable taste. And yet, by 2019, a new generation of UK jazz musicians were selling out major venues and appearing on festivals line ups around the world.

                        How has UK jazz regenerated its image so totally in twenty-five years? And how did it ever become uncool in the first place?Reaching back to the roots of jazz as the 'unapologetic expression' of oppressed peoples, shaped by the forces of slavery, imperialism and globalisation, Andre Marmot places this new wave within the wider context of a divided, postcolonial Britain navigating its identity in a new world order. These artists have crafted a sound which reflects the nation as it is today - a sound connected to the very origins of jazz itself. Drawing upon eighty-four interviews with key architects of this jazz renaissance and those who came before them - from Shabaka Hutchings, Nubya Garcia and Moses Boyd to Gilles Peterson, Courtney Pine and Cleveland Watkiss - Unapologetic Expression captures the radical spirit of a vital British musical movement.

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                        Cover of Excavate! : The Wonderful And Frightening World Of The Fall by Bob Stanley & Tessa Norton.

                        Bob Stanley & Tessa Norton

                        Excavate! : The Wonderful And Frightening World Of The Fall

                        Faber & Faber

                          A definitive insight into the ever-influential world of Mark E. Smith and the Fall, featuring never-before published essays and ephemera from fans, collectors and the artist and band themselves.

                          This is not a book about a rock band. This is not even a book about Mark E Smith. This is a book about The Fall group - or more precisely, their world. Over a prolific forty-year career, the Fall created a world that was influential, idiosyncratic and fiercely original; it was an education. Who wouldn't want to be armed with a working knowledge of M.R. James, contemporary dance and Manchester City? Bringing together previously unseen artwork, rare ephemera and handwritten material, alongside essays by a slate of fans, EXCAVATE! is a vivid, definitive record - an illumination of the dark corners of the Fall's wonderful and frightening world.

                          'To 50,000 Fall Fans: please buy this inspired & inspiring, profound & provocative, beautiful & bonkers Book of Revelations, choc-stock-full of loving Acts by true Apostles, simultaneously both the scrapbook you wished you'd kept and a portal to futures & pasts, known & unknown, & a Fantastic Celebration of this Nation's Saving Grace. - 'DAVID PEACE

                          'A container sized treasure trove bursting at the hinges with strangeness and wonder . . . I strongly advise you to buy it.' - MAXINE PEAKE

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                          Cover of Independent As F*** : Underground Hip Hop From 1995-2005 by Ben Pedroche.

                          Ben Pedroche

                          Independent As F*** : Underground Hip Hop From 1995-2005

                          Velocity Press

                            For a glorious ten-year period from 1995 to 2005, hip-hop music received a much-needed shot in the arm from a generation of determined and wildly creative rappers and producers. They rallied against the increasingly formulaic and shallow world of mainstream rap, as well as a music industry unwilling to listen. By releasing music on their own terms as independent artists-many adopting the mantra of being 'independent as fuck' as a mission statement-these hungry creatives reclaimed their artistic freedom and wore it as a badge of honour. Most importantly, they also made a lot of excellent hip-hop. What emerged was a vibrant underground music scene that stretched from New York to Los Angeles, with influence reaching across the world. Independent as F**: Underground Hip-hop from 1995-2005 looks back at this golden era, celebrating the most important artists, record labels, 12' records, and albums, along with the stories behind them, while also shining a light on those who have since been forgotten. Lovingly researched and curated, this book is the ultimate guide to a special time in music history, one that continues to inspire each new wave of hip-hop artists decades later.

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                            Cover of Journey To The Centre Of The Cramps by Dick Porter.

                            Dick Porter

                            Journey To The Centre Of The Cramps

                            Omnibus Press

                              Based upon work and materials compiled for the acclaimed and now much sought after 2007 Cramps biography A Short History of Rock'n'Roll Psychosis, Journey To The Centre Of The Cramps goes far beyond being a revised and updated edition: Completely overhauled, rewritten and vastly expanded, it now represents the definitive work on the group. In addition to unseen interview material from Ivy, Lux and other former band members, Journey To The Centre Of The Cramps also sees the Cramps' story through to its conclusion, recounting Lux's unexpected death in 2009, the subsequent dissolution of the group and their enduring legacy. The Cramps' history, influences and the cast of characters in and around the group are likewise explored in far greater depth. Features unseen first-hand interview material from Lux Interior and Poison Ivy. A wealth of new interview material with former band members and other key players in the band's history and never before seen/rare photographs and ephemera to help illustrate the book

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                              Cover of Cocteau Twins' Blue Bell Knoll - 33 1/3 by Chris Tapley.

                              Chris Tapley

                              Cocteau Twins' Blue Bell Knoll - 33 1/3

                              Bloomsbury Academic USA

                                In this exploration of Cocteau Twins’ quintessential album, Chris Tapley traces lines in all directions from Blue Bell Knoll to paint a revealing portrait of the enigmatic trio and their career-long struggles with self-doubt, stubborn principles, and pure experimentation. Throughout their career, Cocteau Twins sought to escape definition. Lyrics were a closely-guarded secret, their transcendent recordings sounded completely unique, and they were notoriously tight-lipped during interviews.

                                The music, they said, should speak for itself. Only nobody could agree on what the music said. Released in 1988, their fifth full-length, Blue Bell Knoll, is the pinnacle of Cocteau Twins’ legendary ambiguity.

                                The first album recorded entirely in their own studio, these dense dreamlike songs capture the band as they refined the key elements of their iconic sound while testing the limits of language and the mixing desk. From lyrics and production to artwork and interviews, everything about this influential, one-of-a-kind band stokes contradictions and uncertainty, and raises the question: can anyone ever really define what a song means?


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                                Cover of Their Generation : The Who In America 1967-69 by Tom Wright.

                                Tom Wright

                                Their Generation : The Who In America 1967-69

                                Omnibus Press

                                  Foreword by Pete Townshend. Tom Wright first met Pete Townshend at Ealing Art School in the early 60s. He became The Who's official tour photographer and manager from 1967 in the US, also managing the Grande Ballroom in Detroit where The Who's rock opera Tommy premiered.

                                  He was much more than the band's photographer, he was a friend and photographed them right up to their farewell tour in 1991. Tom's vast record collection and musical influences had a big impact on the band in their early years. Their Generation covers The Who's first tours of North America, a hugely creative time with explosive performances both on and off stage, the time of their US hit 'I Can See for Miles' and much more.

                                  Through the fabulous photographs, many of which have never been seen before, we see the band backstage, onstage, on tour, at rehearsal, at ease, in studio, at home. The photos will be accompanied by extended captions providing background details of the time, the people and the places. As well as The Who, Tom Wright toured with the Rolling Stones, the Faces, The James Gang, Elvis Costello, The Eagles and many more, documenting their performances and life on the road.

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                                  Cover of Fingers Crossed: How Music Saved Me From Success by Miki Berenyi.

                                  Miki Berenyi

                                  Fingers Crossed: How Music Saved Me From Success

                                  Nine Eight Books

                                    'Compelling, funny, vivid.' Mojo
                                    'Beautifully written.' Stylist
                                    'Remarkable, revelatory.' The Times

                                    Formed in 1988, Lush were part of the London gig scene during one of the most vibrant and creative periods in UK music. Now, Miki Berenyi tells all. From the bohemian ways of her father's social circle to the privileged glamour of her mother's acting career, Miki's young life was a blur of travel, celebrities and peripatetic schooling.

                                    But frequent relocation, parental neglect and the dark presence of her abusive grandmother resulted in crippling shyness, mental-health issues and a vulnerability to exploitation. The route out of this hole was music - a passion shared by schoolmate Emma Anderson. The teenagers began attending gigs together and would ultimately go on to form Lush.

                                    Talented and exuberant, the band became hot property, swiftly transitioning from shoegaze icons to Britpop darlings. Re-living the tours, recording sessions and music-industry madness they experienced along the way, this uncompromising memoir documents Lush's thrilling rise and untimely fall. Yet at the heart of the book are Miki's own battles: the conflict between her mouthy public persona and her thin-skinned private identity; the trials of being a woman in an infuriatingly male world; the struggle to find a middle ground between 'safe' indie obscurity and 'sell-out' international success.

                                    Miki also explores her complicated relationship with Emma - one that has fluctuated between camaraderie and rivalry over the years - and addresses the devastating tragedy that led to the band's split. Told through frank confession, wry humour and searing emotional honesty, this is the incredible tale of a trailblazing woman and a seminal band.

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                                    Cover of I Thought I Heard You Speak : Women At Factory Records by Audrey Golden.

                                    Audrey Golden

                                    I Thought I Heard You Speak : Women At Factory Records

                                    White Rabbit

                                      Factory Records has become the stuff of legend. The histories of the label have been told from many perspectives, from visual catalogues and memoirs to exhibitions. Yet no in-depth history has ever been told from the perspectives of the women who were integral to Factory's cultural significance.

                                      The untold history of Factory Records is one of women's work at nearly every turn: recording music, playing live gigs, running the label behind the scenes, managing and promoting bands, designing record sleeves, making films and music videos, pioneering sound technology, DJing, and running one of the most chaotic clubs on the planet, The Hacienda. Told entirely in their voices and featuring contributions from Gillian Gilbert, Gina Birch, Cath Carroll, Penny Henry and over fifty more interviewees, I THOUGHT I HEARD YOU SPEAK is an oral history that reveals the true cultural reach of the label and its staying power in the twenty-first century.

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                                      Cover of Unknown Pleasures: Inside Joy Division by Peter Hook.

                                      Peter Hook

                                      Unknown Pleasures: Inside Joy Division

                                      Simon & Schuster

                                        'Genuinely funny; indeed, the story will keep you entertained for a very long time' - Sunday Times

                                        Joy Division changed the face of music. Godfathers of the enduring alternative scene, they reinvented rock in the post-punk era, creating a sound - dark, hypnotic, intense - that would influence U2, Morrissey, R.E.M., Radiohead and many others. This is the rollercoaster story of Joy Division - the friendships, fights, fall-outs; the rehearsals and recording sessions; the larger than life characters - told by the band's legendary bassist, Peter Hook.

                                        'Hook has restored a flesh-and-blood rawness to what was becoming a standard tale. Few pop music books manage that' - Guardian

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                                        Cover of I Am Hated For Loving - A Morrissey Tour On The Brink by Dickie Felton.

                                        Dickie Felton

                                        I Am Hated For Loving - A Morrissey Tour On The Brink

                                        Dickie Felton

                                          Morrissey marks 40 years in music with no record label, no management, no airplay, no promotion, no new release and no media support.

                                          The legendary singer embarks on a world tour facing an uncertain future. Frenzied front-line fans rally to their under-fire hero in a series of concerts across the globe. Dickie Felton attends 16 Morrissey shows in little over a year and captures a singer and his audience bonded in history, unity and love.

                                          Focussing on gigs in iconic cities of Dublin, Liverpool and New York, Felton photographs fans and captures the world of Morrissey at a crossroads.

                                          Featuring more than 125 images, 'I AM HATED FOR LOVING' is a visual and written documentary of a unique subculture. The sanest days are mad everywhere from The Stockton Globe to the Salle Pleyel in Paris – yet the world won’t listen.

                                          The book is a collaboration between Dickie and Persian artist Iman Kakai-Lazell who has created books with Kristin Hersh, Mark Lanegan and Kirk Brandon.

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                                          Reduced Cover of Issue #4 - Pop! by RISIKO Magazine.

                                          RISIKO Magazine

                                          Issue #4 - Pop!

                                            RISIKO, an independent magazine based in Berlin that covers contemporary German underground and alternative music.

                                            This issue centres on female "POP!" artists and delves into their relationships and inspirations. Beginning with a spotlight on Malaria!, the magazine then takes a look at current young artists. Furthermore, it explores connections that transcend nations and eras, such as Anika and SQÜRL or Nina Hagen and Isolation Berlin.

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                                            Cover of Small Town Joy : From Glam Rock To Hyperpop: How Queer Music Changed The Sound Of Scotland by Carrie Marshall.

                                            Carrie Marshall

                                            Small Town Joy : From Glam Rock To Hyperpop: How Queer Music Changed The Sound Of Scotland

                                            404 Ink

                                              Queer musicians have long mined beauty from the darkest of seams – and today's artists are taking that treasure and using it to make magic. In Small Town Joy, trans writer, musician and broadcaster Carrie Marshall discovers the sometimes surprising ways LGBTQ+ artists changed Scotland's soundtrack, meeting Scots artists, industry insiders and music fans to celebrate the music and musicians that filled floors, opened minds and changed lives. Featuring interviews with Shirley Manson (Garbage), Lauren Mayberry (CHVRCHES), Sean Dickson (HIFI Sean), Maya Evan MacGregor and many more.

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                                              Cover of 1984: The Year Pop Went Queer by Ian Wade.

                                              Ian Wade

                                              1984: The Year Pop Went Queer

                                              Nine Eight Books

                                                In 1984, pop came out of the closet - even if not all of the artists felt that they could - and, in the process, charted the course of the rest of the decade. In 1984: The Year Pop Went Queer, writer and musician Ian Wade charts where these artists, including Queen, George Michael, David Bowie, Pet Shop Boys, Frankie Goes to Hollywood and Madonna - who all enjoyed chart success in 1984 - were during that epoch-making year. It studies the impact these groundbreaking musicians had before, during and after on the gay community and popular culture, and it demonstrates how they were able to break down barriers, raise consciousness and set in motion the first nascent ripples in a pond that are still being felt today. As a backdrop, it explores the strides made in the name of the cause and how the wider surrounding culture reacted with equal parts glee, bafflement and disgust.

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                                                Cover of Welcome To The Club: The Life And Lessons Of A Black Woman DJ by DJ Paulette.

                                                DJ Paulette

                                                Welcome To The Club: The Life And Lessons Of A Black Woman DJ

                                                Manchester University Press

                                                  In Welcome to the club, Manchester legend DJ Paulette shares the highs, lows and lessons of a thirty-year music career, with help from some famous friends. One of the Haçienda’s first female DJs, Paulette has scaled the heights of the music industry, playing to crowds of thousands all around the world, and descended to the lows of being unceremoniously benched by COVID-19, with no chance of furlough and little support from the government. Here she tells her story, offering a remarkable view of the music industry from a Black woman’s perspective.

                                                  Behind the core values of peace, love, unity and respect, dance music is a world of exclusion, misogyny, racism and classism. But, as Paulette reveals, it is also a space bursting at the seams with powerful women. Part personal account, part call to arms, Welcome to the club exposes the exclusivity of the music industry while seeking to do justice to the often invisible women who keep the beat going.

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                                                  Cover of Oasis The Masterplan : Photographs By Kevin Cummins by Kevin Cummins.

                                                  Kevin Cummins

                                                  Oasis The Masterplan : Photographs By Kevin Cummins

                                                  Cassell

                                                    How does a band come into being? What are the myriad forces that shape the sound, look, and identity of an emerging band?In 1993, Oasis signed to Creation Records and were shortly to begin recording their first album. Unknown, and unknowing what was ahead, the following year began with a masterplan - the creation of Oasis. At the centre of this enterprise was Kevin Cummins, brought on board to help the band find a look that fitted their sound.

                                                    As chief photographer of Joy Division depicting that band on a snowy bridge and in the chilly environs of Manchester with a backdrop of the black stone of a gothic cathedral, Cummins was well aware of the intersection between the visual and the sonic. Oasis The Masterplan tells the story of how Oasis cemented their identity. Drawing on the first six months of the year, we follow Cummins as he photographs the band in various locations such as London, Manchester and the Netherlands.

                                                    Using many unseen images as well as more well-known iconic shots, Cummins guides us through the ways a band can be shaped and designed, such as the famous photographs of the Gallagher brothers in Manchester City shirts - emblazoned with the Brother logo (a Japanese electronics company) which helped provoke worldwide interest in the band. With input from Noel Gallagher, we see how they played with fashion, were taught how to pose, and present themselves as they approached the summer of that year when their first album, Definitely Maybe was released on 29 August. The story from that moment on is well-known.

                                                    This book reveals just how effective the masterplan was to get them to that point.

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                                                    Cover of The Chronicles Of DOOM : Unravelling Rap's Masked Iconoclast by S.H. Fernando Jr..

                                                    S.H. Fernando Jr.

                                                    The Chronicles Of DOOM : Unravelling Rap's Masked Iconoclast

                                                    Faber & Faber

                                                      On December 31st, 2020, the world was shocked to learn about the death of hip-hop legend MF DOOM. Born in London and raised in the suburban enclave of Long Beach, New York, Daniel Dumile Jr.'s love of cartoons and comic books would soon turn him into one of hip-hop's most enigmatic, prolific and influential figures. Sweeping and definitive, The Chronicles of Doom: Unraveling Rap’s Masked Iconoclast recounts the rise, fall, redemption and untimely demise of MF DOOM. Broken down into five sections: The Man, The Myth, The Mask, The Music and The Legend, journalist SH Fernando, or SKIZ, chronicles the life of Daniel Dumile Jr., beginning in the house he grew up in in Long Beach, into the hip-hop group KMD, onto the stage of his first masked show, through the countless collabs and across the many different cities Daniel called home.

                                                      Centring the music, SKIZ deftly lays out the history of east-coast rap against DOOM's life story and dissects the personas, projects, tracks, and lyrics that led to his immortality. Including exclusive interviews with those who worked closely with DOOM and providing an unknown, intimate, behind the scenes look into DOOM’s life, The Chronicles of DOOM is the definitive biography of MF DOOM, a supervillain on stage and hero to those who paid attention.

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                                                      Cover of Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works Volume II - 33 1/3 by Marc Weidenbaum.

                                                      Marc Weidenbaum

                                                      Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works Volume II - 33 1/3

                                                      Bloomsbury Academic USA

                                                        Extravagantly opaque, willfully vaporous — Aphex Twin’s Selected Ambient Works Volume II, released by the estimable British label Warp Records in 1994, rejuvenated ambient music for the Internet Age that was just dawning. In the United States, it was Richard D. James's first full length on Sire Records (home to Madonna and Depeche Mode) under the moniker Aphex Twin; Sire helped usher him in as a major force in music, electronic or otherwise.

                                                        Faithful to Brian Eno’s definition of ambient music, Selected Ambient Works Volume II was intentionally functional: it furnished chill out rooms, the sanctuaries amid intense raves. Choreographers and film directors began to employ it to their own ends, and in the intervening decades this background music came to the fore, adapted by classical composers who reverse-engineered its fragile textures for performance on acoustic instruments. Simultaneously, “ambient” has moved from esoteric sound art to central tenet of online culture.

                                                        This book contends that despite a reputation for being beatless, the album exudes percussive curiosity, providing a sonic metaphor for our technologically mediated era of countless synchronized nanosecond metronomes.

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                                                        Cover of Good Pop, Bad Pop by Jarvis Cocker.

                                                        Jarvis Cocker

                                                        Good Pop, Bad Pop

                                                        Vintage

                                                          What if the things we keep hidden say more about us than those we put on display?

                                                          We all have a random collection of the things that made us - photos, tickets, clothes, souvenirs, stuffed in a box, packed in a suitcase, crammed into a drawer. When Jarvis Cocker starts clearing out his loft, he finds a jumble of objects that catalogue his story and ask him some awkward questions: Who do you think you are? Are clothes important? Why are there so many pairs of broken glasses up here?

                                                          From a Gold Star polycotton shirt to a pack of Wrigley's Extra, from his teenage attempts to write songs to the Sexy Laughs Fantastic Dirty Joke Book, this is the hard evidence of Jarvis's unique life, Pulp, 20th century pop culture, the good times and the mistakes he'd rather forget. And this accumulated debris of a lifetime reveals his creative process - writing and musicianship, performance and ambition, style and stagecraft.

                                                          This is not a life story. It's a loft story.

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                                                          Cover of Nobody's Empire by Stuart Murdoch.

                                                          Stuart Murdoch

                                                          Nobody's Empire

                                                          Faber & Faber

                                                            The life-affirming debut novel by the Belle and Sebastian frontman.

                                                            It’s the early 1990s in Glasgow, and Stephen - music loving romantic - has emerged from a lengthy hospital stay diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome, a littleunderstood disease that has robbed him of any prospects of work, a social life or independent living. Meeting fellow strugglers, who the world seems to care less and less for, they form their own support group and try to get by as cheaply and as painlessly as possible.

                                                            Finding that he has the ability to write songs, albeit in a slow and fledgling way, Stephen wakes to the possibility of a spiritual life beyond the everyday. Leaving Glasgow in search of a cure in the mythic warmth of California, Stephen and his friend Richard float between hostels, sofas, and park benches. Could the trip really offer them both a new-world reinvention?

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                                                            Reduced Cover of Too Much Too Young: The 2 Tone Records Story Rude Boys, Racism And The Soundtrack Of A Generation by Daniel Rachel.

                                                            Daniel Rachel

                                                            Too Much Too Young: The 2 Tone Records Story Rude Boys, Racism And The Soundtrack Of A Generation

                                                            White Rabbit

                                                              In 1979, 2 Tone exploded into the national conscience as records by The Specials, The Selecter, Madness, The Beat, and The Bodysnatchers burst onto the charts and a youth movement was born.

                                                              2 Tone was black and white: a multi-racial force of British and Caribbean island musicians singing about social issues, racism, class and gender struggles. It spoke of injustices in society and took fight against right wing extremism.

                                                              The music of 2 Tone was exuberant: white youth learning to dance to the infectious rhythm of ska and reggae; and crossed with a punk attitude to create an original hybrid. The idea of 2 Tone was born in Coventry, masterminded by a middle-class art student raised in the church. Jerry Dammers had a vision of an English Motown. Borrowing £700, the label's first record featured 'Gangsters' by The Specials' backed by an instrumental track by the, as yet, unformed, Selecter. Within two months the single was at number six in the national charts. Dammers signed Madness, The Beat and The Bodysnatchers as a glut of successive hits propelled 2 Tone onto Top of the Pops and into the hearts and minds of a generation. However, soon infighting amongst the bands and the pressures of running a label caused 2 Tone to bow to an inevitable weight of expectation and recrimination.

                                                              Still under the auspices of Jerry Dammers, 2 Tone entered in a new phase. Perhaps not as commercially successful as its 1979-1981 incarnation the label nevertheless continued to thrive for a further four years releasing a string of fresh signings and a stunning endpiece finale in '(Free) Nelson Mandela'.

                                                              Told in three parts, Too Much Too Young is the definitive story of a label that for a brief, bright burning moment, shaped British culture.

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                                                              Reduced Cover of Too Much Too Young: The 2 Tone Records Story Rude Boys, Racism And The Soundtrack Of A Generation by Daniel Rachel.

                                                              Daniel Rachel

                                                              Too Much Too Young: The 2 Tone Records Story Rude Boys, Racism And The Soundtrack Of A Generation

                                                              White Rabbit

                                                                In 1979, 2 Tone exploded into the national conscience as records by The Specials, The Selecter, Madness, The Beat, and The Bodysnatchers burst onto the charts and a youth movement was born.

                                                                2 Tone was black and white: a multi-racial force of British and Caribbean island musicians singing about social issues, racism, class and gender struggles. It spoke of injustices in society and took fight against right wing extremism.

                                                                The music of 2 Tone was exuberant: white youth learning to dance to the infectious rhythm of ska and reggae; and crossed with a punk attitude to create an original hybrid. The idea of 2 Tone was born in Coventry, masterminded by a middle-class art student raised in the church. Jerry Dammers had a vision of an English Motown. Borrowing £700, the label's first record featured 'Gangsters' by The Specials' backed by an instrumental track by the, as yet, unformed, Selecter. Within two months the single was at number six in the national charts. Dammers signed Madness, The Beat and The Bodysnatchers as a glut of successive hits propelled 2 Tone onto Top of the Pops and into the hearts and minds of a generation. However, soon infighting amongst the bands and the pressures of running a label caused 2 Tone to bow to an inevitable weight of expectation and recrimination.

                                                                Still under the auspices of Jerry Dammers, 2 Tone entered in a new phase. Perhaps not as commercially successful as its 1979-1981 incarnation the label nevertheless continued to thrive for a further four years releasing a string of fresh signings and a stunning endpiece finale in '(Free) Nelson Mandela'.

                                                                Told in three parts, Too Much Too Young is the definitive story of a label that for a brief, bright burning moment, shaped British culture.

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                                                                Cover of Weighted Down : The Complicated Life Of Skip Spence by Cam Cobb.

                                                                Cam Cobb

                                                                Weighted Down : The Complicated Life Of Skip Spence

                                                                Omnibus Press

                                                                  Foreword by Robin Spence.

                                                                  Skip Spence was a soldier, a rock star, a folkie, an innovator, an addict, a cult phenomenon and a ward of the state. The cast of characters in his story include some of the biggest stars in music: Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Neil Young and many more. His life is the story of the Sixties - it's the story of San Francisco, the biggest bands in America and rock'n'roll mayhem.

                                                                  Although Spence spent much of his life battling addiction and mental illness, during his lucid moments he performed in several bands and is best known for his work with Jefferson Airplane and as the co-founder of Moby Grape. Tracks from his cult solo album Oar has been covered by Tom Waits, Beck and Robert Plant. With family photos, a foreword by Robin Spence, and accounts from his friends, bandmates and family, Weighted Down is the first book to tell his story in full.

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                                                                  Cover of Tales From The Dancefloor : Manchester / The Warehouse Project / Parklife / Sankeys / The HacIenda by Sacha Lord.

                                                                  Sacha Lord

                                                                  Tales From The Dancefloor : Manchester / The Warehouse Project / Parklife / Sankeys / The HacIenda

                                                                  HarperNorth

                                                                    The must-read memoir from the visionary figure behind Manchester's legendary music scene, from The Haçienda to The Warehouse Project. Tales From the Dance Floor is an electrifying journey into the heart of Manchester’s music culture with its most influential promoter. Over the past three decades, Sacha Lord has hosted countless iconic parties, booked legendary DJs, and shaped an underground scene that influenced a generation.

                                                                    Working with iconic acts including the Prodigy, New Order, the Chemical Brothers, Snoop Dogg, Fat Boy Slim, Andrew Weatherall, Aphex Twin, Four Tet, the Gallagher brothers and Jamie XX, he has thrown some of the biggest parties that the UK has ever seen. But it wasn’t an easy road to get there. As this no-holds-barred account makes clear, Manchester’s music revolution was fuelled by raw energy, creativity, enterprise and a number of other unidentified substances.

                                                                    From drive-by shootings to gang turf wars and nights out that never ended, Sacha Lord reveals, at 130bpm, the highs – and lows – of life bringing some of the planet’s biggest stars to the world’s greatest city. Featuring makeshift helipads, oysters with Grace Jones and more drugged-up rats than you could shake a big stick at, Tales From the Dance Floor is an absolute banger of a book.

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                                                                    Cover of Studio Electrophonique : The Sheffield Space Age, From The Human League To Pulp by Jamie Taylor.

                                                                    Jamie Taylor

                                                                    Studio Electrophonique : The Sheffield Space Age, From The Human League To Pulp

                                                                    Manchester University Press

                                                                      The amazing story of the home studio that helped launch some of Britain’s most beloved bands. The Sheffield space age began in 1961, when local mechanic Ken Patten won a tape-recording competition by recreating the sound of a rocket launch using a pencil and a bicycle pump. In the decades that followed, the makeshift home studio he constructed became the launch pad for a group of young musicians who would shape the futuristic sound of 1980s pop.

                                                                      The Human League, Heaven 17, Pulp, ABC and others made their early recordings with Ken, whose DIY ethic was the perfect fit for a city facing industrial decline but teeming with ideas. Studio Electrophonique tells the story of a generation seeking new frontiers in music, using everything they could lay their hands on – from science fiction novels to glam rock, Dada art and cheap electronics – to get there. Drawing on original interviews with Jarvis Cocker, Martyn Ware, Mark White and others, it brings to light a world of humour, charm, creativity and unfounded yet undaunted self-belief.

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                                                                      Cover of Bright Young Things : The Art And Philosophy Of El Records by Mark Goodall.

                                                                      Mark Goodall

                                                                      Bright Young Things : The Art And Philosophy Of El Records

                                                                      Ventil Verlag

                                                                        el records was created in 1984 by Mike Alway. Alway was A&R man for Cherry Red signing artists such as Everything But the Girl, The Monochrome Set and Felt. Alway left Cherry Red to help run Blanco Y Negro (an offshoot of WEA) but soon felt constrained but the conservativism of the commercial music sector and left to set up his own label. el was once described as 'the most innately English record label there has ever been' and yet had a global appeal. Alway must be the only record label boss to have had four songs written about him... Alway's mercurial approach was to take complete control of the repertoire, the philosophy of the label's releases and even the titles of songs in the manner of pop impresarios of the past. Alway became a curator, selecting, shaping and overseeing the records issued on el. He employed songwriters proficient in classical pop techniques such as Nicholas Currie (AKA Momus) and Philippe Auclair (AKA Louis Philippe) who in addition to issuing their own records wrote, arranged and performed for other el artistes and used creative talents such as photographer Nick Wesolowski and designer Jim Phelan to create the el 'look'. el had a unique flavour eschewing the traditions of rock and indie music of the mid 1980s, exhibiting instead a taste for 1960s bubbelgum and chamber pop, the European chanson tradition, Latin rhythms and film scores (one of el's key players was child prodigy Simon Turner who wrote music for the films of Derek Jarman). The ethos of the label was decidedly un-macho and many of el's key artists were female. El's first single 'I, Bloodbrother Be' by Shock Headed Peters was an uncompromising gay anthem. Alway saw el as a celebration of elegance and beauty, in his own words, 'a pop world beyond leather jackets and jeans'. While record sales were disappointing, this unique blend was critically acclaimed in the UK and popular in America and mainland Europe while in Japan el had a profound effect, directly influencing the Shibuya-kei phenomenon that included Pizzicato Five, Cornelius and Kahimi Karie. Bright Young Things is the first book to tell the fascinating story of el, one of the most influential indie labels of all time.

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                                                                        Cover of Madvillain's Madvillainy - 33 1/3 by Will Hagle.

                                                                        Will Hagle

                                                                        Madvillain's Madvillainy - 33 1/3

                                                                        Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

                                                                          This book celebrates Madvillainy as a representation of two genius musical minds melding to form one revered supervillain. A product of circumstance, the album came together soon after MF DOOM's resurgence and Madlib's reluctant return from avant-garde jazz to hip-hop. Written from the alternating perspectives of three fake music journalist superheroes—featuring interviews with Wildchild, M.E.D., Walasia, Daedelus, Stones Throw execs, and many other real individuals involved with the album's creation—this book blends fiction and non-fiction to celebrate Madvillainy not just as an album, but as a folkloric artifact.

                                                                          It is one specific retelling of a story which, like Madvillain's music, continues to spawn infinite legends.

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                                                                          Cover of Songs In The Key Of MP3 : The New Icons Of The Internet Age by Liam Inscoe-Jones.

                                                                          Liam Inscoe-Jones

                                                                          Songs In The Key Of MP3 : The New Icons Of The Internet Age

                                                                          White Rabbit

                                                                            It's 2013. You're a teenager squinting at your laptop in the dead of night, flicking between iTunes and YouTube and PirateBay.Endless reams of artists unspool at the click of a button. New forms of musical discovery open up before your very eyes.

                                                                            This evolving digital landscape exists beyond the radio, HMV and even the most extensive record collection. You've entered a whole new world and, suddenly, just about everything feels possible. In Songs in the Key of MP3: The New Icons of the Internet Age, Liam Inscoe-Jones explores five contemporary artists who broke the old rules of sound, style and the music industry at large: Devonté Hynes (of Blood Orange), FKA Twigs, Oneohtrix Point Never, Earl Sweatshirt and SOPHIE.

                                                                            Each began their careers as obscure outsiders but, over time, they helped to re-shape pop culture in their image. Through these five extraordinary figures and an eclectic supporting cast of dozens more, Inscoe-Jones paints a picture of the sonic landscape of the last ten years, exploring the influence of their dazzling music on pop culture, the internet and ourselves. An unorthodox mix of criticism, biography and music history - and featuring interviews with the likes of Caroline Polachek, Daniel Lopatin and Nicolás Jaar - Songs in the Key of MP3 is a book of endless curiosity and wonder; a salutary attempt to define pop culture in a fast and ephemeral age.


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                                                                            Cover of From Manchester With Love : The Life And Opinions Of Tony Wilson by Paul Morley.

                                                                            Paul Morley

                                                                            From Manchester With Love : The Life And Opinions Of Tony Wilson

                                                                            Faber & Faber

                                                                              THE TIMES & UNCUT MUSIC BOOK OF THE YEARCritically-acclaimed and bestselling author Paul Morley's long-awaited biography of Factory Records co-founder and Manchester icon Tony Wilson. A BOOK OF THE YEARSUNDAY TIMES, NEW STATESMAN, MOJO, LOUDER THAN WAR'Compelling . .

                                                                              . befitting its extraordinary subject.'BRIAN ENO'Bracing and often surprisingly tender . .

                                                                              . the perfect monument.'SUNDAY TIMES'Via Morley's magical prose Tony Wilson comes back to life . .

                                                                              . inspiring.'RICHARD RUSSELLTony Wilson was a man who became synonymous with his beloved city. As the co-founder of the legendary Factory Records and the Hacienda, he appointed himself a custodian of Manchester's legacy of innovation and change, becoming a cultural pioneer for the North.

                                                                              To Paul Morley, he was this and much more: bullshitting hustler, flashy showman, inventive broadcaster, self-deprecating chancer, publicity seeker, loyal friend. It was Morley to whom Wilson left a daunting final request: to write this book. From Manchester with Love is the biography of a man who changed the world around him through sheerforce of personality.

                                                                              In the cultural theatre of Manchester, Tony Wilson broke in and took centre stage. 'An immersive experience . .

                                                                              . very moving indeed.'MIRANDA SAWYER, OBSERVER'Not just a "biog" but the story of a city's history and culture and a unique and disappearing figure.'STUART MACONIE, NEW STATESMAN'Morley's biography is as illuminating on Wilson's strange ability to hold others in his orbit, even after his death, as it is on the story of his life.'THE SPECTATOR'The man/myth Wilson died aged 57 in 2006, but here he burns on fantastically bright.'UNCUT

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                                                                              Cover of My Bloody Valentine's Loveless - 33 1/3 by Mike McGonigal.

                                                                              Mike McGonigal

                                                                              My Bloody Valentine's Loveless - 33 1/3

                                                                              Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

                                                                                This epoch-making record of the late '80s effortlessly combines dense swathes of guitar noise and dance music. This turned out to be their last record, guitarist and studio maestro Kevin Shields having set their standards so high it was impossible to surpass them. Shields is now playing with Primal Scream.


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                                                                                Cover of To Hell With Poverty! : A Class Act: Inside The Gang Of Four by Jon King.

                                                                                Jon King

                                                                                To Hell With Poverty! : A Class Act: Inside The Gang Of Four

                                                                                Constable

                                                                                  TO HELL WITH POVERTY! documents Jon King's story from a South London slum and impoverished working-class background to international success as core musician, lyricist, writer, and producer in legendary post-punk/funk band Gang of Four. The reader is taken on an episodic and kaleidoscopic journey full of adventures from childhood to the end of Gang of Four's 'golden period' in 1984. Thrown off Top of the Pops, truncheoned by police at an anti-Nazi rally, being at the heart of Leeds music scene and the UK post-punk movement in the 1970s, fraternising with Hell's Angels and other undesirables, supported by bands like REM and playing with the likes of the Police and Talking Heads, King's times with Gang of Four are rich with stories.


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                                                                                  Cover of High And Rising : A Book About De La Soul by Marcus J. Moore.

                                                                                  Marcus J. Moore

                                                                                  High And Rising : A Book About De La Soul

                                                                                  Hodder & Stoughton

                                                                                    The first book about De La Soul, High and Rising is a stunning cultural biography of the era-defining hip-hop trio that touched millions of lives and changed rap forever. De La Soul burst onto the scene with the release of their groundbreaking 1989 album 3 Feet High & Rising, an "anything goes" hip-hop masterpiece. Between their dusty drums and obscure samples, De La's debut was received as a new masterwork from a bygone era of Black experimentation.

                                                                                    Formed in Long Island in 1988 by Kelvin "Posdnuos" Mercer, Dave "Trugoy the Dove" Jolicoeur, and Vincent "Maseo" Mason, De La Soul rebuked classification and appealed to the Black alternative. Their music was positive and psychedelic, their album art and music videos were full of flowers and peace signs. It was rap with a broad sonic palette, which would set a blueprint for artists like The Roots, Pharrell, Kid Cudi, Kanye West, and Kendrick Lamar.

                                                                                    But as quickly as De La ascended, they were faced with the pressures of a changing industry and legal battles around sampling. Written by the acclaimed journalist Marcus J. Moore, author of The Butterfly Effect: How Kendrick Lamar Ignited the Soul of Black America, High and Rising tells the whole story of one of the most influential rap groups of all time.

                                                                                    In the process the book unpacks the birth of hip-hop and the evolution of alternative rap. Marcus also weaves in a deeply personal coming-of-age story about his journey through life with De La as a backdrop. Completed in the wake of Dave's passing and the group's arrival on streaming platforms after a long and bitter legal fight, High and Rising is not just a hip-hop tale, it's a triumphant book about staying the course, and how moving with integrity can lead to dynamic results.

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                                                                                    Cover of Never Understood: The Story Of The Jesus And Mary Chain by William And Jim Reid.

                                                                                    William And Jim Reid

                                                                                    Never Understood: The Story Of The Jesus And Mary Chain

                                                                                    White Rabbit

                                                                                      For 5 years after they'd swapped sought-after apprenticeships for life on the dole, brothers William and Jim Reid sat up till the early hours in the front room of their parents' East Kilbride council house, plotting their path to world domination over endless cups of tea, with the music turned down low so as not to wake their sleeping sister. They knew they couldn't play in the same band because they'd argue too much, so they'd describe their dream ensembles to each other until finally they realised that these two perfect bands were actually the same band, and the name of that band was The Jesus and Mary Chain.

                                                                                      The rest was not silence, and picking up those conversations again more than 40 years later, William and Jim tell the full story of one of Britain's greatest guitar bands for the very first time - a wildly funny and improbably moving chronicle of brotherly strife, feedback, riots, drug and alcohol addiction, eternal outsiders and extreme shyness, that also somehow manages to be a love letter to the Scottish working-class family.

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                                                                                      Cover of What Art Does : An Unfinished Theory by Brian Eno & Bette A..

                                                                                      Brian Eno & Bette A.

                                                                                      What Art Does : An Unfinished Theory

                                                                                      Faber & Faber

                                                                                        Why do we need art? What Art Does is an invitation to explore this vital question. It is a chance to understand how art is made by all of us. How it creates communities, opens our worlds, and can transform us.

                                                                                        Curious and playful, richly illustrated, full of ideas and life, it is an inspiring call to imagine a different future.

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                                                                                        Cover of Fahrenheit-182 : A Memoir by Mark Hoppus.

                                                                                        Mark Hoppus

                                                                                        Fahrenheit-182 : A Memoir

                                                                                        Sphere

                                                                                          A smart, funny, anarchic and gripping memoir from Mark Hoppus, the vocalist, bassist, and founding member of pop-punk band blink-182. This is a story of what happens when an angst-ridden kid who grew up in the desert experiences his parents' bitter divorce, moves around the country, switches identities from dork to goth to skate punk, and eventually meets his best friend who just so happens to be his musical soulmate. Bassist, songwriter, and vocalist for renowned pop-punk trailblazers blink-182, Mark Hoppus, tells his story in Fahrenheit-182.

                                                                                          A memoir that paints a vivid picture of what it was like to grow up in the 1980s as a latchkey kid hooked on punk rock, skateboards, and MTV; Mark Hoppus shares how he came of age and forms one of the biggest bands of his generation. Threaded through with the very human story of a constant battle with anxiety and Mark's public battle and triumph over cancer, Fahrenheit-182 is a delight for fans and also a funny, smart, and relatable memoir for anyone who has wanted to quit but kept going.

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                                                                                          Cover of What’s The Story : The Little Guide To Oasis by Orange Hippo!.

                                                                                          Orange Hippo!

                                                                                          What’s The Story : The Little Guide To Oasis

                                                                                          OH

                                                                                            Emerging from the gritty streets of Manchester, Oasis ignited the Britpop movement and defined a generation with their raw energy and insightful lyrics. From their explosive debut album Definitely Maybe to the iconic (What's the Story) Morning Glory?, the Gallagher brothers - Noel and Liam - cemented their place as rock legends with their rebellious attitude, confrontational sibling rivalry and unforgettable anthems that captured the spirit of an era. Packed with blistering quotes, fascinating facts and classic rock-star moments, from the formation of Oasis in 1992 to the long-awaited reunion tour in 2025, this little guide is the perfect companion for fans - old and new - reliving the story and the glory of the band's supersonic 30-year journey.

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                                                                                            Cover of Issue #7 by Disco Pogo.

                                                                                            Disco Pogo

                                                                                            Issue #7

                                                                                              Disco Pogo's Spring/Summer ‘25 issue features a deep dive on Madonna’s New York nightclub roots and her links with the dancefloor ever since plus a rare interview and photo shoot in LA with DJ Harvey and our third cover is the super cool Marie Davidson.

                                                                                              Plus we have features on Auntie Flo, Pan Amsterdam, Ela Minus, Tryouts, Mark Pritchard & Thom Yorke, DJ Koze, Andy Bell, Everything Is Recorded, The Sabres of Paradise, The Wild Bunch, Kevin Saunderson, HAAi and lots more.

                                                                                              184 pages of quality music journalism by the world’s best music writers plus beautiful photography and design in a glossy print magazine.

                                                                                              Issue 6 is completely sold out and we expect this issue to do the same so please order asap to secure copies.

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                                                                                              Cover of Aphex Twin - A Disco Pogo Tribute by Disco Pogo.

                                                                                              Disco Pogo

                                                                                              Aphex Twin - A Disco Pogo Tribute

                                                                                              Above Board Distribution

                                                                                                The next instalment in the Disco Pogo Tribute series is the legendary electronic artist Aphex Twin.

                                                                                                This follows the hugely successful Disco Pogo Tribute to Daft Punk. Like Daft Punk, the people behind Disco Pogo have had a long-standing relationship with Richard D. James for over 30 years via their 90s magazine Jockey Slut.

                                                                                                The book is edited by Disco Pogo editor Jim Butler and features interviews, essays and features from the best music journalists working today.

                                                                                                The book features an iconic cover portrait of Aphex by seminal photographer Wolfgang Tillmans, plus a huge amount of great photography of Richard since the very beginning from some of the best music photographers in the world.

                                                                                                Thanks also to the designer of Aphex's logo Paul Nicholson who has opened up his archives to us and also the assistance and support from the label homes of Aphex - Warp, R&S and Rephlex. Thanks also to the people behind Aphex fan website Lanner Chronicle.

                                                                                                The book is hardback, 250 plus pages and is beautifully designed and printed of course.

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                                                                                                Cover of Issue Two by SEEN.

                                                                                                SEEN

                                                                                                Issue Two

                                                                                                  Issue Two of SEEN focuses on decolonising electronic music and features photography from Alina Akbar and writing from Iyunoluwanimi Yemi-Shodimu, Amelia Fearon, Dhruva Balram, Jessica Rogers, Jad Ghazali, Dr Zakiya Mckenzie, Sashwati Mira Sengupta and Stephanie Ewurama (aka SCAPA).

                                                                                                  Articles include a project linking Mancunian and Palestinian artists, an interview with AFRODEUTSCHE, the ethics of sampling and a reggae orchestra led by a visually impaired Jamaican. Long reads include a look at a Ghanaian festival, a thinkpiece on solidarity and protest sounds in South Asia and the diaspora and the role of social media platforms in framing beauty standards in electronic music.
                                                                                                  --------
                                                                                                  SEEN is an independent music magazine and platform which celebrates Global Majority and marginalised artists, journalists, communities, music scenes and audiences.

                                                                                                  Founded by Tunde Adekoya, Kamila Rymajdo and Balraj Samrai SEEN's central concept champions unheard voices representative of cultural landscapes in the UK and globally – but not usually included in mainstream music publications due to systemic lack of representation in the music industry and journalism.

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                                                                                                  Cover of Bukowski On Bukowski by Charles Bukowski.

                                                                                                  Charles Bukowski

                                                                                                  Bukowski On Bukowski

                                                                                                    Bukowski on Bukowski booklet is a great introduction to the wild world of cult author Charles Bukowski. It features Bukowski's views on various topics including Drinking, Writing, Sex, Death, Loneliness and fame and is interspersed with lively illustrations and a bonus CD to boot!

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                                                                                                    Cover of Volcanic Tongue: A Time-Travelling Evangelist’s Guide To LateTwentieth-Century Underground Music by David Keenan.

                                                                                                    David Keenan

                                                                                                    Volcanic Tongue: A Time-Travelling Evangelist’s Guide To LateTwentieth-Century Underground Music

                                                                                                    White Rabbit

                                                                                                      Volcanic Tongue presents the first ever collection of multi-award-winning author David Keenan's music writings. Keenan has been writing about music since publishing his first fanzine, inspired by The Pastels and by Glasgow (and Airdrie's) DIY music scene, in 1988. Since then, he has written about music for Melody Maker, NME, Uncut, Mojo, The New York Times, Ugly Things, The Literary Review, The Social and, most consistently, The Wire. Volcanic Tongue was also the name of the record shop and mail order that Keenan ran with his partner Heather Leigh in Glasgow from 2005-2015.

                                                                                                      Volcanic Tongue features the best of his reviews, interviews and think pieces, with exclusive in-depth conversations between Keenan and Nick Cave, members of legendary industrial bands Coil and Throbbing Gristle, krautrock legends like Faust, Shirley Collins, the first lady of English folk, Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine, German autodestructives Einstürzende Neubauten, as well as discographical analysis of the back catalogues of groups like Sonic Youth and musicians like John Fahey, extensive writings on free jazz and obsessive in-depth digs into favourites like Pere Ubu, Metal Box-era Public Image Ltd, Lou Reed, Bob Dylan, guitarist and vocalist John Martyn and many more. It is an essential addition to any music fan's bookshelf.

                                                                                                      This first collection of his legendary criticism functions as an extended love letter to the revolutionary music of the 20th century and the incredible culture that sustained it.


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                                                                                                      Cover of Selling The Night : When Club Culture Meets Brands, Advertising & The Creative Industries by Andy Crysell.

                                                                                                      Andy Crysell

                                                                                                      Selling The Night : When Club Culture Meets Brands, Advertising & The Creative Industries

                                                                                                      Velocity Press

                                                                                                        They say nothing good happens after midnight, but in the case of creativity, that's just not so. The night fosters a different kind of creativity: something urgent, spontaneous, carved out of necessity. Tracking the past, present and future of this complex, often contradictory dynamic. Selling The Night explores what happens when this creativity influences wider culture and converges with everything from media, advertising, design and to gaming, fashion, hospitality, alcohol, beauty, tourism and far beyond. Also, as importantly, the implications of brands taking space within dance music as sponsors and supporters. Selling The Night speaks to DJs, promoters, marketers, academics, activists, archivists, policy makers, photographers, writers and designers. It samples KFC through to Fiorucci, Absolut and Red Bull, and moves from New York disco to the modern global underground. It witnesses how ideas migrate from subculture to influence the creative industries. It goes in search of lessons in improving the value exchange between dance music and brands, seeking something more symbiotic and less parasitic. All the while, it celebrates what makes after-dark ideas so special - the unique and democratising role they play.

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                                                                                                        Cover of FEELING SUPERSONIC : From Madchester To Britpop by Simon Spence.

                                                                                                        Simon Spence

                                                                                                        FEELING SUPERSONIC : From Madchester To Britpop

                                                                                                        Backstage Books

                                                                                                          "No - one's been brave enough to write the real story " Noel Gallagher

                                                                                                          Features contributions from Noel Gallagher, Ian Brown, GioGoi, New Order, Reni, Happy Mondays, Pulp, Primal Scream, The Farm and John Squire plus many more.

                                                                                                          Includes a brand new and exclusive extract from an unpublished biography of Liam Gallagher, stellified in the white-hot heat of Knebworth 996

                                                                                                          Feeling Supersonic is a compendium, a celebration and a roadmap to the remarkable career of Oasis: including never-before-seen coverage of Britain’s most notable band of the past three decades

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                                                                                                          Cover of The Stone Roses : War And Peace by Simon Spence.

                                                                                                          Simon Spence

                                                                                                          The Stone Roses : War And Peace

                                                                                                          Penguin Books Ltd

                                                                                                            The definitive story of The Stone Roses by Simon Spence, with an updated final chapter covering the reunion rollercoaster ride. From the Manchester backwaters to the worldwide 2012 tour, War and Peace lays bare the irresistible tale of the last of the great bands. .

                                                                                                            Based on 400 hours of interviews with over seventy of The Stone Roses' closest associates, including six former band members, War and Peace is the first major biography of the band that defined a generation. Originally planned in collaboration with Reni, the reclusive drummer, this book had been a year in the making when the Roses, against all odds, announced their re-formation. It is a remarkable coda to an astonishing story.

                                                                                                            In 1989 their debut album and the single 'Fools Gold' made them the most exciting British export since the Sex Pistols. With their incendiary aura the Roses became figureheads of the 'Madchester' movement. War and Peace traces the band's genesis, studded with violent gigs and abandoned recordings, and shaped by their infamous manager Gareth Evans.

                                                                                                            The Roses' legendary gigs culminated in the era-defining Spike Island show in 1990. From this pinnacle the unravelling was spectacular. But the true story behind their rise and fall - and resurrection - has never been told.

                                                                                                            Until now.

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                                                                                                            Reduced Cover of I See You - Crack Magazine Present (A Zine) Curated By Thom Yorke by Thom Yorke.

                                                                                                            Thom Yorke

                                                                                                            I See You - Crack Magazine Present (A Zine) Curated By Thom Yorke

                                                                                                              WAREHOUSE FIND!!!!

                                                                                                              As a companion piece to the 100th Issue of CRACK Magazine, which featured Thom Yorke on the cover, the magazine have worked with Thom on a limited edition zine, entitled I See You.

                                                                                                              Centred around resistance, pressure and panic in 2019, Crack Magazine and Thom Yorke have collaborated on a special limited-edition zine which unites the thoughts and messages of eight artists and activists chosen by Thom. All eight are asked the same set of questions written by Thom and the disparate answers are presented together alongside a patchwork of visual fragments from each interviewee’s world.

                                                                                                              The zine features pioneering synth legend Laurie Spiegel, prominent global warming activist George Monbiot, Edinburgh poet and writer Harry Josephine Giles, New York contemporary artist Amy Cutler, fashion designer Jun Takahashi, director and screenwriter Luca Guadagnino, experimental musician Kali Malone and Brooklyn-based artist Christian Holstad.

                                                                                                              Featuring an exclusive foreword note from Thom, as well as artwork from Stanely Donwood and Dr Tchock the zine serves as an expansion on the themes explored in his cover story for Issue 100 of Crack Magazine – an assessment of anxieties, futures, sustainability and opposition.

                                                                                                              All profits from the zine go to Greenpeace. Approx 100pg.

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                                                                                                              Cover of In One Ear : Cocteau Twins, Ivor Raymonde And Me by Simon Raymonde.

                                                                                                              Simon Raymonde

                                                                                                              In One Ear : Cocteau Twins, Ivor Raymonde And Me

                                                                                                              Bonnier Books Ltd

                                                                                                                As one-third of seminal band Cocteau Twins, Simon Raymonde helped to create some of the most beautiful and memorable albums of the '80s and '90s - music that continues to cast a spell over millions. This is the story of the band, in his words. Beginning with Simon's remarkable childhood and exploring his relationship with his father, Ivor Raymonde (the legendary producer, musician and arranger for acts such as the Walker Brothers and songwriter for artists including Dusty Springfield), the book will journey through the musician's rise to prominence and his time with Cocteau Twins and This Mortal Coil.

                                                                                                                It will also chart the successful career he has forged running his own label, Bella Union, for the past twenty-seven years, discovering and developing globally renowned artists like Beach House, Fleet Foxes, Father John Misty and John Grant. And the narrative will lead us back to the present day, reflecting on Simon's most recent experiences in the music industry - all while going deaf in one ear. A must-read for music fans, this is the incredible tale of Simon's life and legacy.

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                                                                                                                Cover of Uncommon People : Britpop And Beyond In 20 Songs by Miranda Sawyer.

                                                                                                                Miranda Sawyer

                                                                                                                Uncommon People : Britpop And Beyond In 20 Songs

                                                                                                                John Murray Publishers Ltd

                                                                                                                  When Miranda Sawyer interviewed Noel Gallagher in 1995, his gag wishing Damon Albarn would die of AIDS became front-page news. This fascinating pop history, exploring the mid-90s moment when British music suddenly meant everything, explains why. Picking out twenty key songs, delving into the surprising stories behind them and their unlikely creators, Uncommon People takes us back to when Jarvis Cocker became a national hero, Trainspotting was a global hit, fire-starting seemed like a good night out - and it felt as though the revolution was happening.

                                                                                                                  Initially a music press nickname, Britpop became an unexpected musical movement centred around outsiders and misfits, drop-outs and weirdos who refused to compromise on their ideas, even when they were thrust into the international spotlight. Not just a scene for white guys with guitars, but something wilder and more interesting, with songs that have proved timeless. Exploring the era's key artists - Oasis, Blur, Tricky, Pulp, Underworld, Manic Street Preachers, The Prodigy, Suede, Chemical Brothers, Garbage, Supergrass, Radiohead, PJ Harvey and more - through their definitive anthems, Miranda Sawyer transports us back to the beating heart of the nineties.

                                                                                                                  Uncommon People re-lives the mad exhilaration of what it was like to hear these songs for the very first time - and what it was like to make them. With amazing new interviews, and I-was-there insights, this book offers a backstage pass to all the most interesting bits of Britpop's Greatest Hits. Forget New Labour, forget earnest trend theories, this book is all about the music, the people and being right there, right now.

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                                                                                                                  Cover of CUREPEDIA: An A-Z Of The Cure by Simon Price.

                                                                                                                  Simon Price

                                                                                                                  CUREPEDIA: An A-Z Of The Cure

                                                                                                                  White Rabbit

                                                                                                                    The Cure are arguably the biggest alternative rock band in the world. Their popularity is not limited to any one country, or even continent. Between 1985 and 2000 every album they released went to at least Gold in the UK, the US or both. In America they have earned four Platinum albums, and they are estimated to have sold 30 million albums worldwide. Their iconic status as elder statesmen of Alternative Rock remains undiminished - if anything, their tireless touring has ensured that it has grown with every passing year - and lead singer Robert Smith is an endlessly fascinating figure to successive generations of fans. The Cure's influence reverberates through genres including Emo, Goth, Industrial and Indie Rock.

                                                                                                                    The book is an encyclopaedic A-Z of The Cure examining and riffing on miscellaneous trivia, biographies of the band members past and present, summaries of each album and selected songs, details of the band's various tours and films, and essays on broader topics such as their image, their politics and their influences. Playful, eccentric and irreverent - true to the spirit of the band itself - CUREPEDIA is a comprehensive biography of one of the biggest alternative rock bands in the world.

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                                                                                                                    Cover of Songbird : An Intimate Biography Of Christine McVie by Lesley-Ann Jones.

                                                                                                                    Lesley-Ann Jones

                                                                                                                    Songbird : An Intimate Biography Of Christine McVie

                                                                                                                    John Blake Publishing Ltd

                                                                                                                      Christine McVie - born Christine Perfect - was the quintessentially English rock star, as both the backbone and the beating heart of Fleetwood Mac. Straddling the band's incarnations to achieve global fame alongside Stevie Nicks, Mick Fleetwood, Lindsey Buckingham and John McVie, the classic line-up, she wrote and performed many of their greatest hits. As famous for their occasionally life-threateningly decadent lifestyles as for their musical brilliance, they were held together by this strong, constant figure whom they dubbed 'the mother' of the band.

                                                                                                                      It was Christine who contained the flock, regrouped them when they went AWOL, focused and blended their talents and always got them back on track. And yet, as the 'engine' of the band during their Rumours era - an album which charted the complete romantic disintegration within the band - Christine's personal life was every bit as tempestuous as those of her bandmates, weathering affairs, divorce, addiction and fiery passion, all of which bled into her now iconic song-writing. Told by an author who herself was friends with Christine, and with new contributions from those who knew her best, Songbird offers a true insider's view, and deep psychological insight into Christine as a both a woman and a musician - the first, the only, the ultimate picture of a rock legend and a national treasure.

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                                                                                                                      Cover of The Little Book Of Oasis Insults : The Hilarious And Unofficial Book Of Gallagher Brothers' Quotes by Jake James.

                                                                                                                      Jake James

                                                                                                                      The Little Book Of Oasis Insults : The Hilarious And Unofficial Book Of Gallagher Brothers' Quotes

                                                                                                                      Spruce

                                                                                                                        Welcome to The Little Book of Oasis Insults, now kindly p*ss off. Or stay - if you've got the backbone to handle some of the most savage, side-splitting, and downright brutal takedowns ever unleashed by Noel and Liam Gallagher. This is your one-stop shop for the funniest, most outrageous insults ever fired.

                                                                                                                        Whether it's roasting pop royalty like Adele ('music for f*cking grannies'), Prince Harry ('asshole'), their old mate Gary Neville ('he looks like an estate agent'), or anyone else who dared cross the Gallagher firing line, this book captures the brothers at their sharpest - taking no prisoners and offering zero apologies. It's part wit, part war, and 100% Oasis. With more insults than Liam's had parkas, and packed with hilarious illustrations, this is the perfect gift for Oasis fans, insult enthusiasts, or anyone who appreciates the art of a perfectly delivered burn.

                                                                                                                        So, crack it open, have a laugh, and then get out of here, you muppet!

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                                                                                                                        Cover of Issue 494 - April 2025 + Wire Tapper 67 Free CD by The Wire.

                                                                                                                        The Wire

                                                                                                                        Issue 494 - April 2025 + Wire Tapper 67 Free CD

                                                                                                                          On the cover: Raven Chacon: The Diné/Navajo composer foregrounds unheard and silenced voices in his radical works for ensembles, electronics and noise. By Esi Eshun. Inside: Ingrid Laubrock: The New York based reedist creates settings for koans and poems as part of a unique new compositional practice. By Stewart Smith; Bastard Assignments: The radical new music ensemble get lost in the woods with their satire of the English countryside. By Robert Barry; Infinity Knives: From Tom And Jerry to sociopolitics, rapper Tariq Ravelomanana keeps it unreal. By Lucy Thraves; Cleaners From Venus: Martin Newell’s songcraft and wordplay across many DIY albums evidence a uniquely wired mind. By Mike Barnes; Lukas De Clerck: Brussels musician extends ancient pipe instruments into the present moment. By Antonio Poscic; Penelope Trappes: Australian artist voices griefs past and present. By Spenser Tomson; Ciaran Mackle: Sample manipulator twists folk song into cubist forms. By Daryl Worthington; Invisible Jukebox: Jeff Mills: Will Detroit techno’s great conceptualist be a wizard IDing The Wire’s mystery record selection? Tested by Chal Ravens; Unlimited Editions: Robert Ridley-Shackleton’s Cardboard Club cutouts. By Spenser Tomson; The Inner Sleeve: Loraine James on Circa Survive’s On Letting Go; Global Ear: Osaka’s proto-industrialists revitalise the city’s experimental music scene. By Jere Kilpinen; Epiphanies: Golem Mecanique rewinds to a treasured VHS tape of Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Accattone; Against The Grain: Mosi Reeves takes on underground hiphop’s gender imbalance. Plus 40 pages of reviews including Backxwash: Done and dusted. By Claire Biddles; Labyrinthe Des Esprits: Therapeutic settings. By Spenser Tomson; The Texas Chain Saw Massacre OST: Pleasures of the flesh. By Philip Brophy; BEAM SPLITTER x Xiu Xiu: Pan-Asian improv. By Daniel Glassman; and much, much more.

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                                                                                                                          Cover of Turn My Head Into Sound : A History Of Kevin Shields And My Bloody Valentine by Andrew Perer.

                                                                                                                          Andrew Perer

                                                                                                                          Turn My Head Into Sound : A History Of Kevin Shields And My Bloody Valentine

                                                                                                                          Jawbone

                                                                                                                            Turn My Head Into Sound: A history of Kevin Shields and My Bloody Valentine tells the story of one of the great sonic innovators of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. My Bloody Valentine have released only three albums in their forty-year career, but each of them has made a seismic impact. Isn t Anything (1988) is often cited as one of the Ur-texts of shoegaze and dream rock; Loveless (1991) is an undisputed masterpiece heralded by many as the best album of the 1990s; m b v (2013) is one of the best-loved comeback albums in recent memory.

                                                                                                                            For those who know Kevin Shields and his work already, he is an indie-rock icon, but by other measures he s still a relatively obscure figure in the musical mainstream, and to date there has been no full-length appraisal of his work or his band s career. Until now. Shields is truly a one-of-a-kind musician, and this book which fills in the gaps, corrects errors, and takes an objective look at the band s entire career, warts and all paints the full picture of one of the most revolutionary sonic artists of our time.

                                                                                                                            Turn My Head Into Sound is based on numerous interviews with people who were there (some of them speaking on the record for the first time) as well as an exhaustive archive of band-related material that the author has been assembling since 1990. Longtime fans of the band will find plenty of new information here, including the full story of the tumultuous period at Island Records following the release of Loveless. The lost years that followed would see Shields employed as engineer, producer, and remixer while also becoming an auxiliary member of Primal Scream.

                                                                                                                            This book s analysis of this diverse but lesser-known work offers reader a much fuller picture of the relentless creativity and perfectionism at the center of his process.


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                                                                                                                            Cover of John And Paul : A Love Story In Songs by Ian Leslie.

                                                                                                                            Ian Leslie

                                                                                                                            John And Paul : A Love Story In Songs

                                                                                                                            Faber & Faber

                                                                                                                              A majestic biography of two young geniuses who merged their talents to create one of the greatest bodies of music in history. John & Paul begins in 1957, when two teenagers in suburban Liverpool meet and decide to play rock n'roll together.

                                                                                                                              It ends twenty-three years later, when one of them is murdered. In between, we see them become global stars, create countless indelible songs, and play a central role in shaping the modern world. Lennon and McCartney were more than friends, rivals or collaborators.

                                                                                                                              They were intimates who both had the fabric of their world ruptured at a young age, and who longed to make emotional connections; with each other, and with audiences. The pop song was a vessel into which they poured feelings of grief and euphoria and everything in between. When they couldn't speak what they felt, they sang it.

                                                                                                                              After the break-up of their group, they maintained a musical dialogue at a distance, in songs full of recrimination, regret, and affection. Ian Leslie traces the twists and turns of their relationship through the music it produced and offers rich insights into the nature of creativity, collaboration and human connection. Drawing on recently released footage and recordings, this is a startlingly fresh take on two of the greatest icons in music history.

                                                                                                                              Leslie's majestic and wildly enjoyable biography will make us see and hear Lennon and McCartney anew.

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                                                                                                                              Cover of Love And Fury : The Life, Death And Legacy Of Joe Meek by Darryl W Bullock.

                                                                                                                              Darryl W Bullock

                                                                                                                              Love And Fury : The Life, Death And Legacy Of Joe Meek

                                                                                                                              Omnibus Press

                                                                                                                                Joe Meek. Wayward genius; the British Phil Spector,the first producer to treat the recording studio as an instrument; head of oneof the earliest independent record labels; creator of some of the mostincredibly influential pop music ever, including ‘Telstar’, the first Americannumber one single by a British band; and a man tormented by mental healthissues and financial battles. He was all these and more, as author Darryl W. Bullockreveals through numerous original interviews with friends and colleagues in hiscompelling biography of the legendary producer.

                                                                                                                                Love and Fury takes readers on a guided tour ofMeek’s fabled Holloway Road studio, examines the recordings issued during hislifetime, looks at the wealth of unreleased material he left behind - thelegendary Tea Chest tapes, rumoured to include recordings by David Bowie, MarcBolan, Ray Davies of the Kinks and others – and examines that events whichultimately led to murder and suicide.

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                                                                                                                                Cover of Where We Come From : Rap, Home & Hope In Modern Britain by Aniefiok Ekpoudom.

                                                                                                                                Aniefiok Ekpoudom

                                                                                                                                Where We Come From : Rap, Home & Hope In Modern Britain

                                                                                                                                Faber & Faber

                                                                                                                                  A stunning social history of British rap and grime by one of the nation's foremost cultural chroniclers. 'A stunning exploration of a genre, a movement and a world. It's every bit as lyrical as the rap Ekpoudom has documented.'CANDICE CARTY-WILLIAMS, author of Queenie'Illuminating and intimate.

                                                                                                                                  Ekpoudom's prose is rhythmic and deft but also crackles with joy. I know I'll be reading it for years to come.'CALEB AZUMAH NELSON, author of Small Worlds'A rousing, inspiring, often breathtaking history that reads with the flow of a magnificent novel. Ekpoudom is one of the very finest chroniclers of black British culture.'MUSA OKWONGA, author of One Of Them***I met people who never quite fit in where they were supposed to, who found solace, salvation and meaning in these sounds, these words.

                                                                                                                                  Something is happening in Britain, trembling the tracks as it unfolds. Recent years have borne witness to underground genres leaking out from the inner cities, going on to become some of the most popular music in the nation. In this groundbreaking social history, journalist Aniefiok Ekpoudom travels the country to paint a compelling portrait of the dawn, boom and subsequent blossoming of UK rap and grime.

                                                                                                                                  Taking us from the heart of south London to the West Midlands and South Wales, he explores how a history of migration and an enduring spirit of resistance have shaped the current realities of these linked communities and the music they produce. These sounds have become vessels for the marginalised, carrying Black and working-class stories into the light. Vividly depicted and compassionately told, Where We Come From weaves together intimate stories of resilience, courage and loss, as well as a shared music culture that gave refuge and purpose to those in search of belonging.

                                                                                                                                  Ekpoudom offers a rich chronicle of rap, identity, place and, above all, the social and human condition in modern Britain. ***'A landmark work that will undoubtedly shape conversations about not just UK rap and grime, but British music for years to come.'YOMI ADEGOKE, author of The List'Phenomenal - this is the book we've all been waiting for. Like the heroes he chronicles, Ekpoudom acts as torchbearer, his book a beacon, for the story that follows..'GUY GUNARATNE'Essential .

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                                                                                                                                  Cover of Rebel Girl: My Life As A Feminist Punk by Kathleen Hanna.

                                                                                                                                  Kathleen Hanna

                                                                                                                                  Rebel Girl: My Life As A Feminist Punk

                                                                                                                                  William Collins

                                                                                                                                    An electric, searing memoir by the original riot grrrl and legendary frontwoman of Bikini Kill and Le Tigre Hey girlfriend I got a proposition, goes something like this: Dare ya to do what you want. Kathleen Hanna’s rallying cry to feminists echoed far and wide through the punk scene of the 1980s, ’90s, and beyond. Her band, Bikini Kill, embodies this iconic time, and today their gutsy, radical lyrics of anthems like ‘Rebel Girl’ and ‘Double Dare Ya’ are more powerful than ever.

                                                                                                                                    But where did this transformative voice come from? In Rebel Girl, Hanna’s raw and insightful new memoir, she takes us from her tumultuous childhood home, to her formative college years in Olympia, Washington, and on to her first years on tour, fighting hard for gigs and for her band. As Hanna makes blindingly clear, being in a ‘girl band’, especially a punk girl band, in those years was not a simple or a safe prospect. Male violence and antagonism threatened at every turn, and surviving as a singer who was a lightening rod for controversy took limitless amounts of determination.

                                                                                                                                    But the relationships she developed during those years buoyed her – including with her bandmates Tobi Vail, Kathi Wilcox, and Billy Karren; her friendship with Kurt Cobain; and her introduction to Joan Jett – and they were a testament to how the true punk world nurtured and cared for its own. Hanna opens up about falling in love with Ad-Rock of the Beastie Boys and her debilitating battle with Lyme disease, and she brings us behind the scenes of her later bands, Le Tigre and The Julie Ruin. She also writes candidly about the Riot Grrrl movement and its decline, documenting with love its grassroots origins but critiquing its later exclusivity.

                                                                                                                                    In an uncut voice all her own, Hanna reveals the darkest, hardest times along with the most joyful – and how it all fuelled her revolutionary art, from the 1980s to today.

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                                                                                                                                    Cover of Sonic Life : The New Memoir From The Sonic Youth Founding Member by Thurston Moore.

                                                                                                                                    Thurston Moore

                                                                                                                                    Sonic Life : The New Memoir From The Sonic Youth Founding Member

                                                                                                                                    Faber & Faber

                                                                                                                                      'Were you there? Well this is as close as it gets! Thurston Moore's compelling and spirited account of the streets, the songs, the clothes, the clubs and the contenders! A sensitive and authentic testimony to Moore's life lived through art and music. Beats with the heart of a true artist and mutineer.' Viv Albertine'Downtown scientists rejoice! For Thurston Moore has unearthed the missing links, the sacred texts, the forgotten stories, and the secret maps of the lost golden age. This is history-scuffed, slightly bent, plenty noisy, and indispensable.' Colson WhiteheadA music-obsessed retrospective, beginning with his childhood epiphany of rock 'n' roll in the early 1960s into an infatuation with the subversive world of 1970s punk and no wave blasting forth from New York City - where he eventually runs off to join a band in 1978.

                                                                                                                                      By 1981 Moore would form the legendary and notorious experimental rock group Sonic Youth, who proceeded to record and tour relentlessly for almost 30 years, always progressing, always exploring. Along the way we meet a constellation of artists and musicians who colluded and collided with Sonic Youth including Velvet Underground, Stooges, Patti Smith, Television, Sex Pistols, Clash, Nirvana, Hole, Beastie Boys, Neil Young and a cavalcade of other musical visionaries, as well as figures from the art world - Jean Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring and Gerhard Richter. Simply put, Thurston Moore and Sonic Youth changed the sound of modern alternative rock music and opened the minds of a generation of artists to new possibilities within the form.

                                                                                                                                      This is essential reading. 'I thoroughly enjoyed Thurston Moore's trip down the gauntlet of memory lane, dodging beer bottles and pools of blood as he balances the demands of art and survival. Plus I'm a sucker for anyone who name-checks Saccharine Trust.

                                                                                                                                      A raw, rollicking document.' Nell Zink

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                                                                                                                                      Reduced Cover of Neu Klang: The Definitive History Of Krautrock by Christoph Dallach.

                                                                                                                                      Christoph Dallach

                                                                                                                                      Neu Klang: The Definitive History Of Krautrock

                                                                                                                                      Faber & Faber

                                                                                                                                        West Germany, 1968. Like everywhere else in the Western world, the young generation is pushing for radical change, still suffering the after-effects of the Second World War. Many stream out of the lecture halls and onto the streets.

                                                                                                                                        Some into the underground. And some into the practice basements, in search of the soundtrack of the movement. The unique and adventurous sounds that German bands like Can, Neu!, Amon Düül, Popul Vuh, Tangerine Dream, Faust, Cluster or Kraftwerk produced back then, now known as Krautrock, are considered a blueprint for modern rock music.

                                                                                                                                        And the stream of their creative admirers and continuators has been constantly widening since the first fans like David Bowie and Iggy Pop: whether Blur, Aphex Twin, Sonic Youth, Radiohead or the Red Hot Chilli Peppers. In Neu Klang, Christoph Dallach interviewed its pioneers, including Irmin Schmidt, Jaki Liebezeit and Holger Czukay of CAN; Neu!'s Michael Rother; Dieter Moebius of Cluster; Klaus Schulze of Tangerine Dream; Karl Bartos of Kraftwerk, Brian Eno and many others. Their answers combine to form an oral history that points far beyond the individual band histories: on the one hand, into the past, to Nazi teachers, post-war parental homes, free jazz, terrorism, LSD and extremely long hair; but just as much into the future, to global recognition, myth-making, techno or post-rock.

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                                                                                                                                        Reduced Cover of Neu Klang: The Definitive History Of Krautrock by Christoph Dallach.

                                                                                                                                        Christoph Dallach

                                                                                                                                        Neu Klang: The Definitive History Of Krautrock

                                                                                                                                        Faber & Faber

                                                                                                                                          West Germany, 1968. Like everywhere else in the Western world, the young generation is pushing for radical change, still suffering the after-effects of the Second World War. Many stream out of the lecture halls and onto the streets.

                                                                                                                                          Some into the underground. And some into the practice basements, in search of the soundtrack of the movement. The unique and adventurous sounds that German bands like Can, Neu!, Amon Düül, Popul Vuh, Tangerine Dream, Faust, Cluster or Kraftwerk produced back then, now known as Krautrock, are considered a blueprint for modern rock music.

                                                                                                                                          And the stream of their creative admirers and continuators has been constantly widening since the first fans like David Bowie and Iggy Pop: whether Blur, Aphex Twin, Sonic Youth, Radiohead or the Red Hot Chilli Peppers. In Neu Klang, Christoph Dallach interviewed its pioneers, including Irmin Schmidt, Jaki Liebezeit and Holger Czukay of CAN; Neu!'s Michael Rother; Dieter Moebius of Cluster; Klaus Schulze of Tangerine Dream; Karl Bartos of Kraftwerk, Brian Eno and many others. Their answers combine to form an oral history that points far beyond the individual band histories: on the one hand, into the past, to Nazi teachers, post-war parental homes, free jazz, terrorism, LSD and extremely long hair; but just as much into the future, to global recognition, myth-making, techno or post-rock.

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                                                                                                                                          Cover of Dressed In Black : The Shangri-Las And Their Recorded Legacy by Lisa MacKinney.

                                                                                                                                          Lisa MacKinney

                                                                                                                                          Dressed In Black : The Shangri-Las And Their Recorded Legacy

                                                                                                                                          Big Nickel Publications

                                                                                                                                            Sisters Mary and Betty Weiss, together with twins Mary Ann and Marguerite Ganser, were schoolgirls when they formed the Shangri- Las in 1963, and had a meteoric rise to fame with songs like 'Leader of the Pack' and 'Remember (Walking in the Sand).' Their career was cut short for reasons largely beyond their control, derailed by the machinations of Mafia-linked record executives, and heartbreak and tragedy followed. Historian Lisa MacKinney marshals an impressive array of new evidence to tell the Shangri-Las' story, dispelling many myths and long-standing mysteries along the way. Equally importantly, Dressed in Black radically rewrites the accepted narrative of the Shangri-Las' place in rock history. As young women, they were permitted little agency within a male-dominated industry that viewed teenagers as fodder to be manipulated and exploited by producers, songwriters, and label owners. This has long served as an excuse for critics to deny the musical input of the group members, to trivialize the Shangri-Las as a 'girl group,' and to assign their work a lesser rank in the canon of 'authentic' rock and roll. MacKinney's achievement here is to foreground the Shangri-Las' considerable abilities, and establish the centrality of their performance of their songs to the group's underappreciated artistic achievement. This is not to deny the critical role in the group's success of the legendary writer/producer George 'Shadow' Morton, but MacKinney's clear-sighted account reveals Morton as part of a complex ecosystem of musical relationships. He crafted highly emotional material specifically for the Shangri-Las because he knew they had the skills to make his mini-operas both believable and enthralling. The group members channeled personal anguish into their extraordinary performances, which are central to the songs' impact-no less so than for such classic singers as Ella Fitzgerald and Elvis Presley, who also relied on producers and songwriters for their material. The Shangri-Las' impassioned delivery elicited a massive response from their audience of fellow teenagers at the time and has continued to connect profoundly with audiences ever since. MacKinney backs up these arguments with in-depth analysis of key recordings, and makes a powerful case that their achievements warrant a far more prominent place for the Shangri-Las in the history of popular music.

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                                                                                                                                            Cover of Krautrock Eruption by Wolfgang Seidel.

                                                                                                                                            Wolfgang Seidel

                                                                                                                                            Krautrock Eruption

                                                                                                                                            Ventil Verlag

                                                                                                                                              Krautrock as an escape from post-war Germany. Krautrock Eruption is a rousing counter-narrative to the usual depictions of Krautrock, written by Wolfgang Seidel, member of Conrad Schnitzler's band Eruption and co-founder of Ton Steine Scherben. His groundbreaking book, which includes unique historical photographs, paints a vivid picture of the old Federal Republic of Germany, with all of its contradictions and struggles. What is now celebrated as Krautrock emerged in this environment, and at the time was an attempt to contribute the soundtrack to the revolution. As a fly on the wall, Seidel recounts the squats, demos and first concerts of bands such as Cluster, Tangerine Dream and Ash Ra Tempel. Just as precisely and vividly, he recapitulates the influence of minimal music composers such as Steve Reich and Philip Glass, the origins of many Krautrock musicians in jazz and the role of the synthesiser. Wolfgang Seidel delivers a captivating account on Krautrock that dispels many of the founding myths of the first genuinely German pop culture, which above all did not want to be German. In addition, the book is supplemented by a discography of the 50 most important Krautrock records, written by music journalist and Krautrock expert Holger Adam. Translated from German by Alexander Paulick (member of influential Dðsseldorf based avant-garde band Kreidler).

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                                                                                                                                              Cover of David Bowie By Denis O'Regan : From The Man Who Photographed Him Most by Denis O'Regan.

                                                                                                                                              Denis O'Regan

                                                                                                                                              David Bowie By Denis O'Regan : From The Man Who Photographed Him Most

                                                                                                                                              ACC Art Books

                                                                                                                                                Official photographer to music legend David Bowie, Denis O'Regan presents a personal edit from his unrivalled collection of photographs. Accompanying Bowie on two world tours and enjoying a decades-long relationship with the star, no one photographed Bowie more than Denis O'Regan. As Bowie himself once remarked, 'Denis, Rock 'n' Roll is in your blood'.

                                                                                                                                                From the door of Olympic Studios, where Bowie recorded Diamond Dogs in 1974, to live stadium shows in the 1990s, Denis's full archive is at last opened and many unseen images revealed for the first time. David Bowie by Denis O’Regan tells Bowie's musical story in pictures, with O'Regan's own words relaying his experience of documenting that incredible journey. Author of the hugely successful Ricochet: David Bowie 1983 (Particular Books, 2018), O'Regan has toured with the biggest stars from The Rolling Stones and Queen to Pink Floyd and Duran Duran, to name a few.

                                                                                                                                                But it is his photographs of David Bowie, taken over two decades at over 200 concerts worldwide, that he is best known for. David Bowie the showman and David behind-the scenes, O'Regan has captured it all in this showcase of one of the world's most talented performers.

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                                                                                                                                                Cover of Grime : Documenting The Scene’s Rise And Reign by Roony Keefe.

                                                                                                                                                Roony Keefe

                                                                                                                                                Grime : Documenting The Scene’s Rise And Reign

                                                                                                                                                Pavilion

                                                                                                                                                  This is the extensive legacy of grime, as told by a pioneer of the scene. With vivid imagery from Roony’s archive and firsthand accounts from MC’s, designers and artists, this illustrated guide invites you to experience the 140BPM beating heartbeat of grime – not just as a music genre, but as a living, breathing culture that continues to thrive, inspire, and boldly challenge the status quo. “Grime to some is a just a genre; a specific form of music.

                                                                                                                                                  But, to those involved, and anyone brought up in London around the early 2000’s, it’s way more than a BPM. Grime is a way of life, a voice for the ambitions and dreams of the inner-city youth. It’s a vessel for our creativity and a way to express ourselves.

                                                                                                                                                  It’s a rebellion to the system; to those who said we can’t or don’t deserve to be involved, be better, or to want more. Grime is the way you carry yourself, the way you talk, the way you wear your clothes. It’s a culture, it’s the heartbeat of the UK’s underdog story for this generation; it’s our punk.

                                                                                                                                                  It’s acceptance across the world for the music we make and the respect we’ve commanded. It’s the evolution of the sounds brought to England and the culmination of cultures: the black, the white, the Turkish and the Asian, the working classes, the poor and the wanting more. It’s that little voice inside you that says, ‘go the extra mile and don’t give up’.” Roony ‘Risky Roadz’ Keefe stands as a trusted chronicler of the grime scene's early days.

                                                                                                                                                  Starting as a fan armed with a handy cam, his RiskyRoadz series captured the buzz of the time, and blew up when YouTube emerged. He later directed iconic music videos that defined the genre's visual identity – from Skepta's "Man" and "It Ain't Safe," to Chip's "Scene," and Kano's "3 Wheel-ups." Legendary status runs in his bloodline; his grandmother is non other than 80-year-old viral sensation, Grime Gran. GRIME spotlights the people and places across East London that shaped the genre: from its inception in the early 2000s, to today.

                                                                                                                                                  It's a portal into the gritty, authentic world of grime, offering a front-row seat to modern history; the beef, the social history, the personalities, the tracksuits, the tunes – and the reality of a revolution that reshaped a generation. Contents: What is Grime?LondonPioneersMarginalisation and CensorshipYouTube & The Quiet TimeGoing MainstreamIconic Artwork & VideosFashionGentrification& How We SpeakGirls of GrimeFriendshipsA-Z of Artists

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                                                                                                                                                  Cover of Live Forever : The Rise, Fall And Resurrection Of Oasis by John Robb.

                                                                                                                                                  John Robb

                                                                                                                                                  Live Forever : The Rise, Fall And Resurrection Of Oasis

                                                                                                                                                  HarperNorth

                                                                                                                                                    The finest book on Britain's most celebrated rock 'n' roll band – and why they were destined to reform.

                                                                                                                                                    Think Oasis was just Britpop and brawls? Think again. In this, the definitive book on Britain’s biggest band, John Robb peels back the layers of Manchester's best known musical export, revealing a tale of ambition, ego, talent, and a whole lot of attitude. From the gritty pubs of Manchester to the dizzying heights of global stardom, this unauthorized biography is a rollercoaster ride through the Gallagher brothers' turbulent lives and the music that defined a generation.

                                                                                                                                                    But it is also a portrait of Britain around the turn of the millennium and the cultural forces and places that shaped, and were shaped by, two cocksure autodidacts from Burnage – from art to fashion, and from football to politics. Playful, funny and irreverent, and drawing on dozens of interviews and first-hand stories, Live Forever puts Oasis squarely in the Pantheon of Rock ‘n Roll royalty as the last great band of the pre-internet age. So, grab your parka and shades, perfect your swagger, and prepare to be amazed, amused, and maybe even just a little bit shocked.

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                                                                                                                                                    Cover of Looking For The Perfect Beat : Remixing And Reshaping Hip-Hop, Rock And Rhythms by Arthur Baker.

                                                                                                                                                    Arthur Baker

                                                                                                                                                    Looking For The Perfect Beat : Remixing And Reshaping Hip-Hop, Rock And Rhythms

                                                                                                                                                    Faber & Faber

                                                                                                                                                      Beginning his career as a club DJ and disco producer in the early-70s in his native Boston, Arthur Baker moved to New York City in 1981 and in the summer of 1982 produced one of the genre-defining early hip-hop tracks "Planet Rock" by Afrika Bambaataa and Soulsonic Force. This began an illustrious career that has seen him work with artists including Bruce Springsteen, Diana Ross, the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Al Green, Pet Shop Boys, Quincy Jones, New Order, New Edition, Hall & Oates, Neneh Cherry and Damon Albarn. Looking for the Perfect Beat will tell Arthur's unique and inspiring story in his own words and features unheard stories about many of the world's best and most successful musicial figures, which together form a portrait of a man who has been quietly influencing the sound of popular music for over fifty years.

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                                                                                                                                                      Cover of Me And Mr Jones : My Life With David Bowie And The Spiders From Mars by Suzi Ronson.

                                                                                                                                                      Suzi Ronson

                                                                                                                                                      Me And Mr Jones : My Life With David Bowie And The Spiders From Mars

                                                                                                                                                      Faber & Faber

                                                                                                                                                        From the stylist behind David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust look, an electrifying peek behind the curtains during a legendary chapter of pop culture history. 'Suzi Ronson was there as Bowie transitioned from suburban folkie to world superstar and genius. Few can offer such insight, and tell this fascinating story with such verve.' HANIF KUREISHISuzi Ronson was working in a Beckenham hair salon in the early seventies when Mrs Jones came in for her weekly shampoo and set.

                                                                                                                                                        After being introduced to her son David and his wife Angie, Suzi finds herself at the Bowies' bohemian apartment and is soon embroiled in their raucous world. Having crafted his iconic Ziggy Stardust hairstyle, Suzi becomes the only working woman in David's touring party and joins the Spiders from Mars as they perform around the globe. Amid the costume blunders, parties and groupies she meets her husband-to-be, Mick Ronson, and together they traverse the absurdities of life in show business, falling in with the likes of Iggy Pop, Bob Dylan and Lou Reed along the way.

                                                                                                                                                        Dazzling and intimate, Me and Mr Jones provides not only a unique perspective on one of the most beguiling stars of our time but also a world on the cusp of cultural transformation, charting the highs and lows of life as one of the only women in the room as it happened.

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                                                                                                                                                        Cover of 3 Shades Of Blue : Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bill Evans & The Lost Empire Of Cool by James Kaplan.

                                                                                                                                                        James Kaplan

                                                                                                                                                        3 Shades Of Blue : Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bill Evans & The Lost Empire Of Cool

                                                                                                                                                        Canongate Books

                                                                                                                                                          1959 saw Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bill Evans and the other members of Miles's sextet come together to record the bestselling jazz album of all time: Kind of Blue. 3 Shades of Blue follows the paths of Miles, Coltrane and Evans to the mountaintop of 1959 and their roads on from there. It's a book about music and business, race and heroin, and an astonishing meditation on creativity and the strange hothouses that can produce its full flowering.

                                                                                                                                                          But above all this is the story of three very different men - their struggles, their choices, their inspiration. The tapestry of their lives is, in James Kaplan's hands, an American Odyssey.


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                                                                                                                                                          Cover of Wales - 100 Records by Huw Stephens.

                                                                                                                                                          Huw Stephens

                                                                                                                                                          Wales - 100 Records

                                                                                                                                                          Y Lolfa

                                                                                                                                                            DJ Huw Stephens analyses the highlights of the careers of the most important recording artists that Wales has ever produced, singing in English or Welsh - favourites such as Tom Jones, Shirley Bassey, Dafydd Iwan, Max Boyce, Manic Street Preachers, Super Furry Animals, Adwaith and Kelly Lee Owens. -- Cyngor Llyfrau Cymru

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                                                                                                                                                            Cover of Over The Rainbow : Tales From An Unexpected Year by Alex James.

                                                                                                                                                            Alex James

                                                                                                                                                            Over The Rainbow : Tales From An Unexpected Year

                                                                                                                                                            Particular Books

                                                                                                                                                              There is nothing that can touch the sound made by a close-knit group of people who have been playing together for years and years and years, playing as though their lives depended on it. For many years, all our lives did, and actually, I’d suddenly realised, they did still. One winter’s night, Alex James received an unexpected call.

                                                                                                                                                              Blur had been invited to play their biggest gig ever: Wembley Stadium. The only trouble was, he and his bandmates hadn’t spoken to – or even shouted at – each other for years. And he now had five children, an out-of-control menagerie of cats, and a sprawling farm to run.

                                                                                                                                                              This is the story of what happened next. Taking us behind the scenes of a raucous, rollercoaster year, Alex describes how the band made a surprise – and emotional – return, recording an acclaimed album and playing sold-out shows around the world, from Colchester to Colombia and beyond. Plus: how he went on a crash diet to fit back into his ‘Britpop Trousers,’ somehow organised an entire festival of his own, and tried to perfect the recipe for a giant Frazzle.

                                                                                                                                                              Over the Rainbow is a heartfelt and hilarious account of what it feels like to be catapulted back into the limelight with one of the world’s biggest bands. It is a love letter to Blur, to friendship and to music. And it shows us all that, however old – or hungover – we might feel, nothing’s ever truly over: it’s always just the start of the next thing.

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                                                                                                                                                              Cover of Goth: A History by Lol Tolhurst.

                                                                                                                                                              Lol Tolhurst

                                                                                                                                                              Goth: A History

                                                                                                                                                              Quercus

                                                                                                                                                                GOTH is an entertaining and engaging historical memoir of the genre of Goth music and culture, exploring creative giants like The Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Bauhaus, Joy Division and many more great bands that offered a place of refuge for the misfits of the 80s and ever since. Written by Lol Tolhurst, co-founder of The Cure, this book offers a fascinating deep dive into the movers and shakers of goth with stories and anecdotes from Tolhurst's personal memories as well as the musicians, magicians and artists who made it all happen - the people, places and events that made goth an inevitable and enduring movement .

                                                                                                                                                                Starting with the Origins of Goth, Tolhurst explores early art and literature that inspired the genre and looks into the work of T.S Eliot, Edgar Allan Poe, Sylvia Plath, Albert Camus and more. He also outlines the path of Gothic forebears and shows how many musicians played in punk bands before transitioning into goth endeavours. Next, he introduces readers to the 'Architects of Darkness' - Bauhaus, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Joy Division and The Cure - the godfathers of goth who established the genre's roots. Following these early bands, Tolhurst discusses a group he calls the 'Spiritual Alchemists', consisting of bands like Depeche Mode, Cocteau Twins and more, who helped the darkness expand into the culture. He also tracks the expansion of the genre overseas, from England to New York, Los Angeles and beyond. Gothic fashion was an important part of the movement as well and Tolhurst discusses the clothing that accompanied and complemented the music. Finally, Tolhurst examines the legacy of goth music and shows how its influence can still be seen to this day across music, film, TV, visual arts, social media and so much more, finally concluding with 'Why Goth matters!'

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                                                                                                                                                                Cover of Supersonic : The Complete, Authorised And Unabridged Interviews by Oasis.

                                                                                                                                                                Oasis

                                                                                                                                                                Supersonic : The Complete, Authorised And Unabridged Interviews

                                                                                                                                                                Headline

                                                                                                                                                                  'We are the biggest band in Britain of all time, ever. The funny thing is, all that fucking mouthing off three years ago about how we were going to be the biggest band in the world - we actually went and did it.' Noel Gallagher

                                                                                                                                                                  Oasis are one of the biggest bands the word has ever seen. Here, in Supersonic, they tell the story of the their beginnings from dive-bar hopefuls to global superstars.They themselves talk us through the pivotal moments in their phenomenal trajectory, from the day Noel Gallagher joined his brother Liam's band, through their first crucial five years culminating at their landmark gigs at Knebworth Park in 1996 - the pinnacle of their success.

                                                                                                                                                                  With over thirty hours of interviews with Liam, Noel and those closest to them, this book documents in unprecedented depth and with their trademark candour and humour, the story behind one of the world's greatest bands, all told in their own words and fully illustrated with exclusive photographs and ephemera throughout.

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                                                                                                                                                                  Cover of WHAT by John Cooper Clarke.

                                                                                                                                                                  John Cooper Clarke

                                                                                                                                                                  WHAT

                                                                                                                                                                  Picador

                                                                                                                                                                    'Nothing short of dazzling' - Alex Turner

                                                                                                                                                                    Dr John Cooper Clarke's dazzling, scabrous voice has reverberated through pop culture for decades, his influence on generations of performance poets and musicians plain for all to see. In WHAT, the original 'People's Poet' comes storming out of the gate with an uproarious new collection, reminding us why he is one of Britain's most beloved writers and performers. James Brown, John F.

                                                                                                                                                                    Kennedy, Jesus Christ: nobody is safe from the punk rocker's acerbic pen - and that's just the first poem. Hot on the heels of The Luckiest Guy Alive and his sprawling, encyclopaediac memoir I Wanna Be Yours, the good Doctor returns with his most trenchant collection of poems yet. Vivid and alive, with a sensitivity only a writer with a life as varied and extraordinary as Cooper Clarke's could summon, WHAT is an exceptional collection from one of our foremost satirists.

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                                                                                                                                                                    Cover of Soul Music Of Illinois - An Illustrated Catalog Of Records by Various Artists.

                                                                                                                                                                    Various Artists

                                                                                                                                                                    Soul Music Of Illinois - An Illustrated Catalog Of Records

                                                                                                                                                                    Numero Group

                                                                                                                                                                      A comprehensive overview of soul music from the great state of Illinois, this 732-page, two volume set chronicles over 3200 artists, 1200 record companies, and 10,000 individual releases between the years of 1960 and 1990. From Chicago to Cairo, East St. Louis to Kankakee, from The Accents to Ze-Majestiks, Soul Music Of Illinois serves as discography, field manual, atlas, telephone directory, and coffee table book, all presented in glorious full-color and wrapped in handsome woven linen.

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                                                                                                                                                                      Cover of Jeff Buckley's Grace - 33 1/3 by Daphne A. Brooks.

                                                                                                                                                                      Daphne A. Brooks

                                                                                                                                                                      Jeff Buckley's Grace - 33 1/3

                                                                                                                                                                      Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd.

                                                                                                                                                                        The power and influence of Grace increases with each passing year. Here, Daphne Brooks traces Jeff Buckley's fascinating musical development through the earliest stages of his career, up to the release of the album. With access to rare archival material, Brooks illustrates Buckley's passion for life and hunger for musical knowledge, and shows just why he was such a crucial figure in the American music scene of the 1990s.

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                                                                                                                                                                        Cover of Travelling : On The Path Of Joni Mitchell by Ann Powers.

                                                                                                                                                                        Ann Powers

                                                                                                                                                                        Travelling : On The Path Of Joni Mitchell

                                                                                                                                                                        HarperCollins

                                                                                                                                                                          Celebrated music critic Ann Powers explores the life and career of the legendary Joni Mitchell What you are about to read is not a standard account of the life and work of Joni Mitchell. Instead, it’s a tale of long journeying through a life that changed popular music: of a homesick wanderer forging ahead on routes of her invention, and of me on her trail, heading toward the ringing of her voice. One of the most celebrated artists of her generation, Joni Mitchell has inspired countless musicians and writers, while never stopping still herself.

                                                                                                                                                                          In Travelling, celebrated music critic Ann Powers seeks to understand the paradox of Mitchell – at once both elusive and inviting – through her myriad journeys. Drawing on extensive inter­views with Mitchell’s peers and deep archival research, Powers takes readers to rural Canada, charts the course of Mitchell’s musical evolution, follows the winding road of Mitchell’s collaborations with other greats and explores the loves that fed her songwriting. Kaleidoscopic in scope and intimate in detail, Travelling is a fresh and fascinating addition to the Joni Mitchell corpus – and one that questions whether an artist can ever truly be known to their fans.

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                                                                                                                                                                          Cover of The Stone Roses' The Stone Roses - 33 1/3 by Alex Green.

                                                                                                                                                                          Alex Green

                                                                                                                                                                          The Stone Roses' The Stone Roses - 33 1/3

                                                                                                                                                                          Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

                                                                                                                                                                            The Stone Roses shows a band sizzling with skill, consumed with drive and aspiration and possessing an almost preternatural mastery of the pop paradigm. This book explores the political and cultural zeitgeist of England in 1989 and attempts to apprehend the magic ingredients that made The Stone Roses such a special and influential album.

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                                                                                                                                                                            Cover of Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures - 33 1/3 by Chris Ott.

                                                                                                                                                                            Chris Ott

                                                                                                                                                                            Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures - 33 1/3

                                                                                                                                                                            Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

                                                                                                                                                                              33 1/3 is a series of short books about critically acclaimed and much-loved albums of the last 40 years. Focusing on one album rather than an artist's entire output, the books dispense with the standard biographical background that fans know already, and cut to the heart of the music on each album. The authors provide fresh, original perspectives - often through their access to and relationships with the key figures involved in the recording of these albums.

                                                                                                                                                                              By turns obsessive, passionate, creative, and informed, the books in this series demonstrate many different ways of writing about music. (A task which can be, as Elvis Costello famously observed, as tricky as dancing about architecture.) What binds this series together, and what brings it to life, is that all of the authors - musicians, scholars, and writers - are deeply in love with the album they have chosen.

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                                                                                                                                                                              Cover of The Yardbirds : The Most Blueswailing Futuristic Way-Out Heavy Beat Sound by Peter Stanfield.

                                                                                                                                                                              Peter Stanfield

                                                                                                                                                                              The Yardbirds : The Most Blueswailing Futuristic Way-Out Heavy Beat Sound

                                                                                                                                                                              Reaktion Books

                                                                                                                                                                                The Yardbirds were trailblazers in the rapid development of pop music in Britain between 1963 and 1968. With members including Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page, they helped to set the basic template of what has been known ever since as rock music, and gave rise to one of the most commercially successful bands of all time: Led Zeppelin. Peter Stanfield situates the band in the rise of British R&B and the tumult of the psychedelic era.

                                                                                                                                                                                Obsessively detailed about both the band and 1960s pop culture, this is the book fans of The Yardbirds have always needed.

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                                                                                                                                                                                Cover of Issue 1 by Louder Than War.

                                                                                                                                                                                Louder Than War

                                                                                                                                                                                Issue 1

                                                                                                                                                                                  Thought-pieces about the scythe-wielding, artist-starving tyrants perched atop Mount Spotify, with a dovetailing of deliciously sardonic opinions about band life on the DIY circuit by post-rock musician Francis Atkinson, Los Angeles art rock missile Qween Kwong and ‘sasswave’ group Fashion Tips that sweeps up just about everyone and anyone, from promoters to punters in their furious, vitriolic spurt.

                                                                                                                                                                                  Within, readers can hope to spot interviews with Gez Varley from LFO about bass music and jeep culture, a thrillingly weird, totally wired tale about doll collections, accounts of mental-health melting before our eyes, and the hijacking activities or ‘fragments of testimony’ belonging to rogue youth traversing across the world in search of UK Decay by Discontented Youth author Ian Trowell, and the occasional flash of an image to visually manifest the tone pulsating from the heart and through the body of each page.

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                                                                                                                                                                                  Cover of In The Jingle Jangle Jungle : Keeping Time With The Brian Jonestown Massacre by Joel Gion.

                                                                                                                                                                                  Joel Gion

                                                                                                                                                                                  In The Jingle Jangle Jungle : Keeping Time With The Brian Jonestown Massacre

                                                                                                                                                                                  White Rabbit

                                                                                                                                                                                    The Brian Jonestown Massacre are one of the great contemporary cult American rock and roll bands. At the peak of their anarchic reign in the San Francisco underground of the mid '90s their psychedelic output was almost as prodigious and impressive as their narcotic intake. Immortalised in one of the most unforgettable rock and roll documentaries of all time, DIG! alongside their friends/rivals/nemeses, The Dandy Warhol's, in their early years when the US were obsessed with grunge, the BJM felt like a '60s anachronism.

                                                                                                                                                                                    But with albums like Their Satanic Majesties Second Request and Thank God for Mental Illness, and incendiary, often chaotic, live shows, they burnished their legend as true believers and custodians of the original west coast flame; a privilege and responsibility which continues to this day when the band have a bigger and more dedicated audience than ever. Joel Gion's memoir tells the story of the first ten years of the band from the Duke Seat. A righteous account of the hazards and pleasures of life on and off the road, In the Jingle Jangle Jungle takes use behind the scenes of the supposed behind the scenes film that cemented the band's legend.

                                                                                                                                                                                    Funny as hell, shot through with the innocence and wonder of a 'percussionist' whose true role is that of the band's 'spirit animal', In the Jingle Jangle Jungle is destined to take its place alongside cult classics in the pantheon of rock and roll literature like Playing the Bass with Three Left Hands, Head On, and 45 by Bill Drummond. It will also feature a foreword by Anton Newcombe, fellow member and founder of The Brian Jonestown Massacre.

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                                                                                                                                                                                    Cover of The Hacienda: Threads - Foreword By Peter Hook by Rebecca Hook.

                                                                                                                                                                                    Rebecca Hook

                                                                                                                                                                                    The Hacienda: Threads - Foreword By Peter Hook

                                                                                                                                                                                    Welbeck

                                                                                                                                                                                      The people. The love. These are the threads that came together to make the Haçienda great.

                                                                                                                                                                                      Celebrate the magic of the club that changed everything in this official book, told through evocative photographs and eye-witness accounts of the people who were there, from musicians, DJs and fashion designers to performers, clubbers and staff. Featuring contributions from Peter Hook, John Cooper Clarke, Bez, Noel Gallagher, Rowetta, Mani, Irvine Welsh, Andrew O'Hagan, Mike Pickering, DJ Paulette, Todd Terry and Roger Sanchez - as well as Haçienda staff, club-goers and many more.

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                                                                                                                                                                                      Cover of Freaks Out! : Weirdos, Misfits And Deviants - The Rise And Fall Of Righteous Rock 'n' Roll by Luke Haines.

                                                                                                                                                                                      Luke Haines

                                                                                                                                                                                      Freaks Out! : Weirdos, Misfits And Deviants - The Rise And Fall Of Righteous Rock 'n' Roll

                                                                                                                                                                                      Nine Eight Books

                                                                                                                                                                                        The followers - this book is not for you. The salt of the earth - this book is not for you. The worthy - this book is not for you.

                                                                                                                                                                                        The ideologists - this book is not for you. Hedonists and bohemians - this book is not for you. The middlebrow - this book is not for you.

                                                                                                                                                                                        The highbrow - this book is not for you. Dilettantes - this book is not for you. 1970s middle school RE teachers - this book is not for you.

                                                                                                                                                                                        The England football team (women's and men's) - this book is not for you. The litanists - this book is not for you. Gatekeepers - this book is not for you.

                                                                                                                                                                                        Gamekeepers - this book is not for you. (Not even for the poachers...)The curators - this book is not for you. The left, the right - this book is not for you.

                                                                                                                                                                                        The list-makers - lists are for shoppers not rockers, and this book is not for you. This is not a list - this is a manifesto, and this book is for ... the Freaks.

                                                                                                                                                                                        Musician and author Luke Haines embarks on an odyssey through the ages, exploring how the 'freaks' infiltrated modern culture - and almost won the rock 'n' roll wars - only to lose to the rise of Cool Britannia and TV 'talent' shows that turned the strange and the outsiders into fodder for laughter. In this ultimate celebration of freakdom, Haines tells the story of pivotal freaks - including Johnnie Ray, Gene Vincent, Hank Marvin, Syd Barrett, the Incredible String Band and Big Youth - through the prism of rock 'n' roll and explains how freaks infiltrated wider culture through history in the form of the Cathars, the Ranters, Hells Angels and the Yippies. Part memoir, part manifesto, Freaks Out! is a righteous alternate history of rock 'n' roll.

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                                                                                                                                                                                        Cover of I Was There : Dispatches From A Life In Rock And Roll by Alan Edwards.

                                                                                                                                                                                        Alan Edwards

                                                                                                                                                                                        I Was There : Dispatches From A Life In Rock And Roll

                                                                                                                                                                                        Simon & Schuster Ltd

                                                                                                                                                                                          Alan Edwards, the godfather of British music PR, has worked with some of the most legendary artists of our time, from David Bowie to the Spice Girls via the Rolling Stones, the Stranglers, Prince and Amy Winehouse. In I Was There, he describes getting his break in the mid-'70s as a scruffy, stoned 20-year-old just back from the hippie trail; his encounter with London's thriving punk scene, which inspired him to set up his own PR company; broadening his horizons as his work with the likes of Blondie takes him to the US and beyond; and his move into the world of pop with the Spice Girls during the tabloid-crazed '90s.

                                                                                                                                                                                          At the centre of this story sits the defining relationship of Edwards' career: his close, thirty-year collaboration with David Bowie. He guides us through a series of vivid, funny, always insightful behind-the-scenes reports, whether he's playing a spontaneous game of football with Bob Marley, listening to Prince discuss the future of civilisation in a nightclub VIP area, or being used as a pawn in the power struggle between Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. Above all, we're treated to Edwards' fascinating observations about the brilliant artists he has worked with and what makes them tick, as he looks back on his role in the last five decades of music and culture.

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                                                                                                                                                                                          Cover of The Light Pours Out Of Me : The Authorized Biography Of John McGeoch by Rory Sullivan-Burke.

                                                                                                                                                                                          Rory Sullivan-Burke

                                                                                                                                                                                          The Light Pours Out Of Me : The Authorized Biography Of John McGeoch

                                                                                                                                                                                          Omnibus Press

                                                                                                                                                                                            John McGeoch was the unsung hero of the post-punk era. Blazing a trail with some of Britain’s biggest bands and most revered artists – Magazine, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Armoury Show and Public Image Ltd. – John left an undeniable and indelible mark on music.

                                                                                                                                                                                            The Light Pours Out of Me examines John’s life and legacy, drawing on original interviews with the likes of Siouxsie Sioux, Howard Devoto, Johnny Marr, Billy Idol, John Frusciante, Keith Levene, Jonny Greenwood, Nick Launay, Ed O’Brien, Peter ‘Hooky’ Hook and many others.

                                                                                                                                                                                            Illustrated with unseen photographs, this moving biography – authorised by the family – celebrates the remarkable guitarist who helped provide the soundtrack to a generation.

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                                                                                                                                                                                            Cover of Winter 2024 by The Face.

                                                                                                                                                                                            The Face

                                                                                                                                                                                            Winter 2024

                                                                                                                                                                                              Leading this Winter 2024 issue are a typical Face mix of actor Nicholas Alexander Chavez, model Amelia Gray, rapper Yeat and the queer soldiers of Ukraine.

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                                                                                                                                                                                              Cover of Love And Some Verses : A Collection Of Lyrics, Photos, Art, And Ephemera From Iron & Wine by Sam Beam.

                                                                                                                                                                                              Sam Beam

                                                                                                                                                                                              Love And Some Verses : A Collection Of Lyrics, Photos, Art, And Ephemera From Iron & Wine

                                                                                                                                                                                              Weldon Owen, Incorporated

                                                                                                                                                                                                This gorgeous collection of never-before-seen artwork, behind-the-scenes photos, handwritten lyrics, exclusive commentary, and personal ephemera from Grammy Award-nominated artist Iron & Wine (aka Sam Beam) is a must-have collector’s item for every Iron & Wine fan. Accompanied by commentary from Sam himself, Love and Some Verses compiles the lyrics of more than 160 iconic Iron & Wine songs, capturing a distinctive musical legacy. Whether you're a devoted fan or a newcomer to the spellbinding world of Iron & Wine, within these pages you will form an intimate connection to the songs that have touched millions around the world.

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                                                                                                                                                                                                Cover of Mates' Crates: 100 Stories Behind The Songs by Andrei Sandu.

                                                                                                                                                                                                Andrei Sandu

                                                                                                                                                                                                Mates' Crates: 100 Stories Behind The Songs

                                                                                                                                                                                                Melodic Distraction

                                                                                                                                                                                                  Starting as a column for Melodic Distraction Radio, Mates' Crates brings together the stories behind a hundred records, whether the story of how the music came about or how we came to love it. Born out of an infectious curiosity about the who and the why, it’s a journey through funk, soul, disco and beyond. With full-colour album art and a QR code to the audio for each record, dive in to explore samples, covers, collaborations, cultural crossovers and more. Ever wondered about the most influential bassist you've never heard of, or the first record to go big through play by nightclub DJs? Do you want to hear an incredible Brazilian track which found fame through a Disney film, or a New York dance floor classic that’s been beamed into space? Do you know about the disputed disco origins of Madonna’s “Vogue”, or the French House sample that didn’t sit right with legendary US actress Jane Fonda? Mates’ Crates is a fantastic collection of stories behind the songs, with support from the likes of Colleen 'Cosmo' Murphy, Mr. Scruff, Greg Wilson, Charlie Dark, DJ Gilla, Zag Erlat (My Analog Journal), Andrew Ashong and others.

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                                                                                                                                                                                                  Cover of The Harder I Fight The More I Love You by Neko Case.

                                                                                                                                                                                                  Neko Case

                                                                                                                                                                                                  The Harder I Fight The More I Love You

                                                                                                                                                                                                  Headline Book Publishing

                                                                                                                                                                                                    An unforgettable portrait of an extraordinary life-one forged through a poverty-stricken childhood in 'slummy, one-horse towns'; obsessive desire; bursts of comedy; and indispensable friendships, reflecting on the way art, music, and a deep connection to nature helped her on a singular journey to become a beloved, Grammy-nominated artist. Neko Case has long been revered as one of music's most influential artists, whose authenticity, lyrical storytelling, and sly wit have endeared her to a legion of critics, musicians, and lifelong fans. In The Harder I Fight The More I Love You, Case brings her trademark candour and precision to a memoir that traces her evolution from an invisible girl 'raised by two dogs and a space heater' in rural Washington state to her improbable emergence as an internationally-acclaimed talent.

                                                                                                                                                                                                    In luminous, sharp-edged prose, Case shows readers what it's like to be left alone for hours and hours as a child, to take refuge in the woods around her home, and to channel the monotony and loneliness and joy that comes from music, camaraderie, and shared experience into art. The Harder I Fight The More I Love You is a rebellious meditation on identity and corruption, and a manifesto on how to make space for ourselves in this world, despite the obstacles we face.

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                                                                                                                                                                                                    Reduced Cover of Spaceships Over Glasgow - Indie Record Store Edition by Stuart Braithwaite.

                                                                                                                                                                                                    Stuart Braithwaite

                                                                                                                                                                                                    Spaceships Over Glasgow - Indie Record Store Edition

                                                                                                                                                                                                    White Rabbit

                                                                                                                                                                                                      Signed & slipcase with exclusive colourway. Plus, bonus hardback folio ‘Photographic Evidence’, featuring previously unseen photographs from throughout the band’s career.

                                                                                                                                                                                                      Born the son of Scotland’s last telescope-maker, Stuart Braithwaite was perhaps always destined for a life of psychedelic adventuring on the furthest frontiers of noise in MOGWAI, one of the best loved and most groundbreaking post-rock bands of the past three decades.

                                                                                                                                                                                                      Modestly delinquent at school, Stuart developed an early appetite for ‘alternative’ music in what might arguably be described as its halcyon days, the late 80s. Discovering bands like Sonic Youth, My Bloody Valentine, and Jesus and Mary Chain, and attending seminal gigs (often incongruously incognito as a young girl with long hair to compensate for his babyface features) by The Cure and Nirvana, Stuart compensated for his indifference to school work with a dedication to rock and roll … and of course the fledgling hedonism that comes with it.

                                                                                                                                                                                                      After an initial outing in the unfortunately (and provocatively named), Pregnant Nun, Stuart – alongside teenage friends Dominic Aitchison and Martin Bulloch - upgrades the band name to MOGWAI. They release their first single ‘Tuner/Lower’ in 1996. Championed by the legendary John Peel, and making a name for themselves for tinnitus-inducing live shows, MOGWAI’S subsequent single ‘Summer’ is named Single of the Week in NME. Their first album, Mogwai Young Team, follows to significant critical acclaim.

                                                                                                                                                                                                      Spaceships Over Glasgow is a lovesong to live rock and roll; to the passionate abandon we’ve all felt in the crowd (and some of us, if lucky enough, from the stage) at a truly incendiary rock and roll show. It is also the story of a life lived on the edge; of the high-times and hazardous pit-stops of international touring with a band of misfits and miscreants.

                                                                                                                                                                                                      Lee Brackstone, Publisher at White Rabbit said: ‘MOGWAI have blown my head apart live on many occasions; Stuart’s book has the equivalent impact on the page. A chronicle of a life lived on the stage making truly contemporary psychedelic music, Spaceships Over Glasgow is the first book told from the source about a band who have truly lived the rock n roll lifestyle, survived, and thrived, to create some of the most powerful post-rock music of the past two decades plus.’

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                                                                                                                                                                                                      Cover of Bob Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited - 33 1/3 by Mark Polizzotti.

                                                                                                                                                                                                      Mark Polizzotti

                                                                                                                                                                                                      Bob Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited - 33 1/3

                                                                                                                                                                                                      Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd.

                                                                                                                                                                                                        "Highway 61 Revisited" resonates because of its enduring emotional appeal. Few songwriters before Dylan or since have combined so effectively the intensely personal with the spectacularly universal. In "Like a Rolling Stone", his gleeful excoriation of Miss Lonely (Edie Sedgwick? Joan Baez? A composite "type"?) fuses with the evocation of a hip new zeitgeist to produce a veritable anthem.

                                                                                                                                                                                                        In "Ballad of a Thin Man", the younger generation's confusion is thrown back in the establishment's face, even as Dylan vents his disgust with the critics who laboured to catalogue him. And in "Desolation Row", he reaches the zenith of his own brand of surrealist paranoia, that here attains the atmospheric intensity of a full-fledged nightmare. Between its many flourishes of gallows humour, this is one of the most immaculately frightful songs ever recorded, with its relentless imagery of communal executions, its parade of fallen giants and triumphant local losers, its epic length and even the mournful sweetness of Bloomfield's flamenco-inspired fills.

                                                                                                                                                                                                        In this book, Mark Polizzotti examines just what makes the songs on "Highway 61 Revisited" so affecting, how they work together as a suite, and how lyrics, melody, and arrangements combine to create an unusually potent mix. He blends musical and literary analysis of the songs themselves, biography (where appropriate) and recording information (where helpful). And he focuses on Dylan's mythic presence in the mid-60s, when he emerged from his proletarian incarnation to become the American Rimbaud.

                                                                                                                                                                                                        The comparison has been made by others, including Dylan, and it illuminates much about his mid-sixties career, for in many respects "Highway 61" is rock 'n' roll's answer to "A Season in Hell".

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                                                                                                                                                                                                        Cover of Tarantula by Bob Dylan.

                                                                                                                                                                                                        Bob Dylan

                                                                                                                                                                                                        Tarantula

                                                                                                                                                                                                        HarperPerennial

                                                                                                                                                                                                          Written in 1966, Tarantula is a collection of poems and prose that evokes the turbulence of the times in which it was written, and gives a unique insight into Dylan’s creative evolution. ‘The good samaritan coming in with the words “round & round we go” tattoed on his cheek / he tells the senator to stop insulting the lawyer.’ Tarantula captures Bob Dylan’s preoccupations at a crucial juncture in his artistic development, showcasing the antic imagination of a folk poet laureate who was able to combine the humanity and compassion of his country roots with the playful surrealism of modern art. Angry, funny and strange, the poems and prose in this collection reflect the concerns we find in Dylan’s most seminal music: a sense of protest, a verbal playfulness and spontaneity, and a belief in the artistic legitimacy of chronicling everyday life and eccentricity on the street.

                                                                                                                                                                                                          ‘Tarantula’ never made its publication date in Autumn 1966. To the delays added by Dylan’s constant revisions was added the greater complication of his motorcyle accident – which left him with still undisclosed injuries and kept the book from publication until 1971. In the interim, it became a cult phenomenon, with ‘bookleg’ editions photocopied from reviewer proofs circulating throughout the musical and literary demi-mondes.

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