The long-awaited memoir from Simple Minds' founder members and lifelong collaborators, Jim Kerr and Charlie Burchill. A candid, moving and kinetic story of self-realisation through the power of music, Our Secrets Are The Same is the remarkable joint memoir by Simple Minds' founder members, Jim Kerr and Charlie Burchill. It not only reveals the inner workings of one of the most innovative and successful British bands of the past half-century, but the deeply personal tale of an extraordinary friendship which powered teenage dreams into visionary action. Exploring key songs, places, years and events in the Simple Minds story, and told in the distinct voices of both men, Our Secrets Are The Same explores a bond which has encompassed stratospheric highs and humbling lows, marriages and divorces, fatherhood, fickle fame, tricky inter-band dynamics, the occasional explosive bust up, and a ruthless streak to rival the Sicilian Mafia.

Their connection is grounded in shared experiences and a set of values and codes so deeply ingrained they don't need to be spoken. For Our Secrets Are The Same is not just the story of two rock stars, but of two sons, brothers, partners and parents who have never forgotten where they come from. Two men who have remained deeply bonded to their roots and each other, while fulfilling a teenage dream to form a world-class live band and take their music around the globe.

Fascinating and funny, evocative and inspiring, this unforgettable memoir captures a unique journey through life and music, and a friendship like no other.

A captivating biography of Slipknot by acclaimed music writer, Dan Franklin, to coincide with the 25th Anniversary of Iowa: an album that redefined metal. Slipknot is one of metal's most iconic and recognisable bands. In late August 2001, Slipknot released their extraordinarily brutal second album, Iowa.

With it, nine masked maniacs from the American Midwest captured the zeitgeist and reimagined the genre. The album's emotional intensity and aggression was matched only by its commercial success, as it topped album charts and defined the nu metal era. Two weeks after its release, the world changed forever.

After the attacks of 9/11, Slipknot collided with history and a generation in upheaval. As the band's members struggled with their own demons, it wasn't certain that Slipknot would survive. What followed is a story that's as tumultuous, gripping, and as real as it gets.

Somewhere Between Screaming And Crying is the story of Iowa's difficult birth and its remarkable impact in a world seemingly coming apart at the seams. As nu metal is embraced by a new generation today, Dan Franklin unravels how and why this much-maligned subgenre still connects so strongly and explores the ongoing influence of Slipknot as one of the most recognisable and artistically vital bands in metal today.

Welcome to Your Life is the captivating and deeply personal memoir from Roland Orzabal, founding member and primary songwriter of the iconic English band Tears for Fears.

Known for their smash hits including "Everybody Wants to Rule the World", "Shout", "Head Over Heels" and "Mad World", Tears for Fears and their unforgettable songs have been part of the fabric of rock and roll for over forty years.

Orzabal shares the story of his band and also his life. It's a journey marked by massive fame, mental health struggles, a career that's navigated a hugely changed political and musical landscape, the creative and personal breakdown of Roland's relationship with Curt Smith, the devastating loss of his wife and the road back to fulfilment as a man, father and musician.

As he reflects on love, loss, faith and recovery, Orzabal shows how the power of music can heal even the deepest wounds.

Hitchcock's second memoir explores the formation of his seminal 1970s band the Soft Boys, and the obsessions that fuelled his early creative output'British singer-songwriter Hitchcock wistfully reflects on boarding school and the music that shaped him in this captivating chronicle of the year he credits with sculpting his artistic sensibility . . .

Readers need not be fans of Hitchcock's music to find this enchanting.' -Publishers Weekly, on 1967'Memoirists rarely begin their work with a stroke of genuine inspiration, and Robyn Hitchcock's ingenious idea to limit his account of his life to the titular year gives this sharp, funny, finely written book an unusually keen, wistful intensity without sacrificing its sense of the breathtaking sweep of time. I absolutely adored every line of 1967 and every moment I spent reading it.' -Michael Chabon, author of Telegraph Avenue, on 1967STRANDED IN THE FUTURE is a kind of dystopian self-portrait. It's about obsession, and obsessive behaviour.

Spanning from 1968 to 1978, it takes in the mythology surrounding Pink Floyd's Syd Barrett (though it doesn't name him) and hinges on Robyn Hitchcock's teenage girlfriend (she isn't named either). The book explores the way that Hitchcock, in his own head, linked these two figures to each other, although they never actually met. On the way, the story mines the incremental hangover of the 1970s as Hitchcock begins to play live, teaches himself to write songs, and eventually forms the Soft Boys.

There's a side order of trolleybuses too! Hitchcock's beautiful prose will resonate far beyond the fans of his music, and build on the literary following he established with his first book, 1967: How I Got There and Why I Never Left.

The groundbreaking oral history on one of the most legendary musicians of all time: Paul Weller. Across musical history, certain artists have transcended their craft to become cultural icons, leaving an indelible mark on the world of sound and style. Paul Weller, the legendary British musician, singer and songwriter, stands among the select few whose influence spans generations.

His enduring popularity, traversing the explosive energy of The Jam to the sophisticated sounds of The Style Council and a prolific solo career spanning over thirty years, underscores the timeless appeal of his work. Weller also holds a unique position in music history: he shares the rare distinction with Lennon and McCartney as one of the few artists to achieve Number 1 albums in five consecutive decades. Dancing Through the Fire explores the fascinating narrative of Paul Weller's musical career, weaving together never-before-told stories, intimate insights and perspectives from the man himself and those who have been integral to his remarkable journey.

With unique access to his inner circle - including family, friends, bandmates, producers, and long-time collaborators - award-winning broadcaster and journalist Dan Jennings weaves together over 200 hours of exclusive conversations, allowing exclusive access to the man behind the music, including his unparalleled drive, creative struggles and personal triumphs that have shaped his iconic career and legacy. Endlessly candid, insightful and definitive in its approach, Dancing Through the Fire captures the essence of Weller's musical evolution through the voices of those who know him best.

There is a myth that the long, dark days before punk were full of legions of British prog rock groups; that the likes of Yes, Genesis, King Crimson, Emerson Lake & Palmer and Jethro Tull roamed the land, soiling the culture like university-educated Orcs. Wrong. The mid-seventies were dense with extraordinarily sophisticated, mature rock music made by singers, songwriters and musicians who had no problem calling themselves artists.

And the records they made aspired to artistic status: everyone was trying to make their own masterpiece, and the sense of competitiveness was like something not seen since the mid-sixties. Three-minute pop singles had given way to concept albums and pop-package tours had been supplanted by rock festivals, and rock in general had a renewed sense of ambition. 1975 was the apotheosis of the adult pop, the most important year in the narrative arc of post-war music, and a year that was rich with masterpieces: Blood on the Tracks by Bob Dylan, The Who by Numbers by the Who, Young Americans by David Bowie, Another Green World by Brian Eno, The Hissing of Summer Lawns by Joni Mitchell and A Night at the Opera by Queen, amongst countless other legendary albums.

These records were magisterial; records that couldn't be bettered. Who could realistically make a more sophisticated album than The Hissing of Summer Lawns? Or a more complex hard-rock album than Physical Graffiti? Or indeed a record as unimpeachable and as prescient as Horses?1975, as Dylan Jones expertly illustrates, was the greatest year of them all.

From 1968 to 1978; from 'Say It Loud - I'm Black and I'm Proud' to Off The Wall; from the Third Harlem Cultural Festival to the P-Funk Earth Tour: Funk Is Its Own Reward plots the journey of an African American cultural movement that was always about far more than simply music. With roots in the poetry, art, theatre, intellectualism and jazz of the celebrated 1960s Black Arts Movement, and made possible by the shifts in thinking brought about by the Black Panthers, the rise of HBSUs and black political involvement, funk was the Second Great Black Renaissance. Funk Is Its Own Reward makes the connections between the literature, films, television, black arts collectives, theatre groups and media and analyses how they fed into a cultural wave that made a music confident enough to embrace the likes of Barry White, Bill Withers, 24 Carat Black, Bootsy, Mandrill, the O'Jays, the Fatback Band, Miles Davis, and the Brides of Funkenstein not just possible but inevitable.

It looks at how, once African American popular music reconnected with and fully expressed the culture that created it, it had to freedom to express itself in any way it saw fit and still be funky. The music gave itself to the scope to be acoustic, to be vocal harmony, to be brassy, to make social comment, to be orchestral, to be headed for the bedroom, to be all about the rhythm, to be electronic and still be funky. It was never about where a piece of music hoped to end up, but where, to coin a phrase, it be coming from.

By putting the music firmly in the context of the movement, Funk Is Its Own Reward drags a vibrant art from out from under the notion it only existed to help white people dance, and shines a light on the skill, experimentation, sense of community, humour, formal training, black pride, self-celebration and intellectual and musical freedoms that went into it. In doing so, it uncovers the importance of black radio, how the wah-wah pedal was a happy accident, Motown's corporate role in the Dawn of Funk, why jazz not R&B is funk's nearest living relative, how life in a hippie commune changed George Clinton, why Sesame Street was the funkiest programme on television, what blaxploitation actually meant to its intended audience, why Kool & the Gang stand apart from the pack, the immediate connection of James brown's record to his audience, what was in Barry White's mother's record collection, how the self-contained band changed everything and where Maurice White first brushed up against the cosmic pyramid. Joining author Lloyd Bradley on Funk Is Its Own Reward's epic journey are a host of I-was-there contributors including Fatback Band's Bill Curtis, Bootsy Collins, Maurice White, Lynn Mabry of the Brides of Funkenstein, Larry Mizell, Isaac Hayes, Larry Graham, Melvin Van Peebles, Overton Loyd, the Last Poets, War's Harold Brown, George Clinton, Fred Wesley, Steve Arrington, Carrie Lucas and Dexter Wansell.

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.

There is no form of American-made music that has been as critically derided, or shunned, as AOR. The blues, punk, hip-hop, alt-rock, country-rock, R&B, jazz, rock 'n' roll and soul. All are canonised.

Trad country and disco have long since been re-appraised. Even hair metal has its champions. Yet there has hardly been a positive critical word published about AOR.

But this speaks far more to the prejudices and blind spots of music critics than it does about the actual music. The plain fact is, AOR artists were responsible for some of the hugest selling and timeless records of the era. Five bands stand tall as AOR's leading lights: Journey, Boston, Foreigner, Toto and REO Speedwagon.

Between them, they have to date sold over 335 million records worldwide. Aside from these five bands, there is then a second tier of multi-platinum AOR acts and including the likes of Styx, Survivor, Pat Benatar, Heart, Kansas, Bryan Adams, Loverboy, Night Ranger, Billy Squier and more. During the period covering 1976-1986, AOR was inarguably the music of the American heartland.

AOR stood out by its luxurious productions, its sumptuous harmonies, and its lovelorn ballads. Then again, by its lyrical pre-occupations - essentially, the heartbreak of unrequited love, and/or pumped-up anthems to American positivity. Typically, AOR songs are set on long, hot summer nights, or else to a backdrop of glittering city lights.

They evoke vivid technicolour images of gleaming cityscapes and roaring down sun-scorched freeways in an open-top convertible. Like disco, but not punk, AOR was inclusive, uplifting, and appealed equally to both sexes. Its sheer romanticism, its cinematic sense of possibility, resonated as much with a huge audience of women as it did with men.

It was positive, never nihilistic. Music to be sung along with, not to break stuff to. Its songs were made to soundtrack the best of times, or at least to soothe the bad.

It's time for a definitive music history of AOR, told through some of the genre's finest contributors.

Scenic Wye Valley isn't the typical place for a rock story to begin, but when Echo & the Bunnymen hit the studio to record their ground-breaking debut album, Crocodiles, it was anything but ordinary. The album was the making of the band - cultivating a cult following which would soon evolve into staggering mainstream success. Their lives would never be the same again.

In Echoes, legendary guitarist and founding member of Echo & the Bunnymen, Will Sergeant, recounts the band's whirlwind rise to stardom with his trademark wryness and intelligence. Sharing never-before-told anecdotes - including the heady Rockfield Studio sessions and touring across the US, playing sold-out shows at Whisky a Go Go and experiencing the iconic New York club scene from dusk 'til dawn - and accompanied by snapshots of the cultural, social and political scene at the time, this is a memoir to remember.

The more I thought about it, the more I realised my career has been unusual. How did I manage to do everything wrong but still end up on the front cover of magazines, headlining world tours and achieving Top 5 albums? How did I attract such obsessive and fanatical fans, many of whom take everything I do or say very personally, which is simultaneously flattering but can also be tremendously frustrating? Even this I somehow cultivated without somehow meaning to. My accidental career.

Limited Edition of One is unlike any other music book you will ever have read. Part the long-awaited memoir of Steven Wilson: whose celebrated band Porcupine Tree began as teenage fiction before unintentionally evolving into a reality that encompassed Grammy-nominated records and sold-out shows around the world, before he set out for an even more successful solo career. Part the story of a twenty-first century artist who achieved chart-topping mainstream success without ever becoming part of the mainstream.

From Abba to Stockhausen, via a collection of conversations and thought pieces on the art of listening, the rules of collaboration, lists of lists, personal stories, professional adventurism (including food, film, TV, modern art), old school rock stardom, how to negotiate an obsessive fanbase and survive on social media, and dream-fever storytelling.

Growing up in Liverpool in the 1960s and '70s, when skinheads, football violence and fear of just about everything was the natural order of things, a young Will Sergeant found the emerging punk scene provided a shimmer of hope amongst a crumbling city still reeling from the destruction of the Second World War. From school-day horrors and mud flinging fun to nights at Liverpool's punk club, Eric's, Sergeant was fuelled by and thrived on music.

It was this devotion that led to the birth of the Bunnymen, to the days when he and Ian McCulloch would muck around with reel-to-reel recordings of song ideas in the back parlour of his parents' council estate house, and to finding a community - friends, enemies and many in between - with those who would become post-punk royalty from the likes of Dead or Alive, Frankie Goes to Hollywood and the Teardrop Explodes to name a few.

It was an uphill struggle to carve their name in the history of Liverpool music, but Echo and the Bunnymen became iconic, with songs like 'Lips Like Sugar,' 'The Cutter' and 'The Killing Moon'. By turns wry, explicit and profound, Bunnyman reveals what it was really like to be part of one of the most important British bands of the 1980s.