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Clem Burke

The Other Side Of The Dream : My Life In And Out Of Blondie

For anyone who loves music this is a backstage pass to a life lived fully as one of rock's greatest heroes. Clem was not just a drummer; he was the heartbeat of Blondie. His talent, energy, and passion for music were unmatched, and his contributions to our sound and success are immeasurable.

Beyond his musicianship, Clem was a source of inspiration both on and off the stage. His vibrant spirit, infectious enthusiasm and rock solid work ethic touched everyone who had the privilege of knowing him – Debbie Harry and Chris Stein. Clem began writing The Other Side of the Dream more than 20 years ago, often setting it aside amid relentless touring and recording schedules.

When cancer treatment and illness forced his retirement in 2024, completing the book became a priority. As a founding member of Blondie, Clem went on to influence a wide number of musicians, effortlessly moving between genres, bands and countries. In The Other Side of the Dream, Clem Burke reflects on his extraordinary journey from the gritty streets of New York City to global superstardom.

With candour and wit, he recounts the explosive punk scene that gave rise to Blondie, the creative partnerships that defined their music and the challenges of navigating fame in a constantly evolving industry. It's a rock and roll memoir like no other.

Dominic Mohan

1996 : My Backstage Pass To The Wildest Year Of Britain’s Wildest Decade

I was in the right place at exactly the right time. I was handed a precious backstage pass to this magical period, as a chronicler of some of its most significant moments, of its wild protagonists, whether in music, entertainment, fashion, football, art or politics. I had a front-row seat for that insane decade, but it was 1996 that was the period’s stunning apex.

Oasis at Maine Road and Knebworth, the births of Robbie Williams the solo star and the Spice Girls, the Euro 96 football tournament and ‘Three Lions’, the rise of New Labour and Tony Blair. I was there for the lot. 1996.

Britpop ruled the airwaves. The tabloids framed reality long before Instagram. Football was finally coming home.

Tony Blair was learning to play rock star – and rock stars were learning they could play politics. Everyone was partying hard, and Britain was the coolest place on earth. Showbiz reporter Dominic Mohan wasn’t watching the party from afar – he was in the room.

Backstage at Knebworth with Oasis. In strip clubs with Robbie Williams. On the phone to Bowie.

On the receiving end of Spice Girls gossip, Gallagher gobbiness and tabloid-era chaos. From Euro ’96 euphoria to Brit Awards anarchy, from rave culture to New Labour, Mohan witnessed the moment the UK went from scruffy indie island to global cultural powerhouse. Part memoir, part cultural autopsy and part riotous tour through the 90s and its greatest year, 1996 is a jaw-dropping front-row seat to the madness, the music, the football, and the politics that reshaped Britain – and created legends along the way.

Three decades on, Mohan returns to the year everything peaked, and asks: what the hell happened, why did it matter, and can it ever happen again? If you were there – this book will feel like going home. If you weren’t – you’ll wish you had been.

Ann Powers

Travelling : On The Path Of Joni Mitchell

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.

Jeff Pearlman

Only God Can Judge Me : The Many Lives Of Tupac Shakur

Scrutinized in life, mythologized in death, Tupac Shakur remains a subject of immense cultural significance and speculation nearly thirty years after his murder. Despite a multitude of books, documentaries, and even a feature film, much about Tupac’s story remains shrouded and misunderstood.

Like many icons who died tragically young, Tupac the man has long been obscured—his edges sanded down, his complexity numbed—by the competing agendas that surround his legacy. In Only God Can Judge Me, accomplished biographer and New York Times bestselling author Jeff Pearlman tackles his most nuanced subject, telling the definitive story of Tupac Shakur in unprecedented depth. In this authoritative look at Tupac’s life, Pearlman skillfully recreates West Coast hip hop in all its glory, going inside Death Row Records and on the sets of movies like Juice and Poetic Justice to offer the most clear-eyed rendering to date of the man who still casts a shadow over modern hip hop.

But more than just a biography of a complicated figure, Only God Can Judge Me also captures the time and place in which Tupac rose, a singular moment in music history when West Coast hip hop became a phenomenon and transformed popular music. Featuring nearly seven hundred original interviews and never-before-published details from every corner of Tupac’s life, the result offers a truly singular portrait of one of modern pop culture’s most towering figures. Guided by the voices of those who knew and lived life alongside him, Only God Can Judge Me captures the layers of a man who, even thirty years after his death, remains as elusive as ever. 


Jonathan Gould

Burning Down The House : Talking Heads And The New York Scene That Transformed Rock

On the 50th anniversary of Talking Heads, acclaimed music biographer Jonathan Gould presents the long-overdue, definitive story of this singular band, capturing the gritty energy of 1970s New York City and showing how a group of art students brought fringe culture to rock’s mainstream, forever changing the look and sound of popular music. “Psycho Killer.” “Take Me to the River.” “Road to Nowhere.” Few musical artists have had the lasting impact and relevance of Talking Heads. One of the foundational bands of New York’s downtown 1970s music scene, Talking Heads have endured as a musical and cultural force for decades. Their unique brand of transcendent, experimental rock remains a lingering influence on popular music—despite their having disbanded over thirty years ago. Now New Yorker contributor Jonathan Gould offers an authoritative, deeply researched account of a band whose sound, fame, and legacy forever connected rock music to the cultural avant-garde.

From their art school origins to the enigmatic charisma of David Byrne and the internal tensions that ultimately broke them apart, Gould tells the story of a group that emerged when rock music was still young and went on to redefine the prevailing expectations of how a band could sound, look, and act. At a time when guitar solos, lead-singer swagger, and sweaty stadium tours reigned supreme, Talking Heads were precocious, awkward, quirky, and utterly distinctive when they first appeared on the ragged stages of the East Village. Yet they would soon mature into one of the most accomplished and uncompromising recording and performing acts of their era. More than just a biography of a band, Gould masterfully captures the singular time and place that incubated and nurtured this original music: downtown New York in the 1970s, that much romanticized, little understood milieu where art, music, and commerce collided in the urban dystopia of Lower Manhattan.

What emerges is an expansive portrait of a unique cultural moment and an iconoclastic band that shifted the paradigm of popular music by burning down the house of mainstream rock.

Alex Van Halen

Brothers

In this intimate and open account - nothing like any rock-and-roll memoir you've ever read - Alex Van Halen shares his personal story of family, friendship, music and brotherly love in a remarkable tribute to his beloved brother and band mate. Told with acclaimed New Yorker writer Ariel Levy Brothers is seventy-year-old drummer Alex Van Halen's love letter to his younger brother, Edward, (maybe "Ed," but never "Eddie"), written while still mourning his untimely death.In his rough yet sweet voice, Alex recounts the brothers' childhood, first in the Netherlands and then in working class Pasadena, California, with an itinerant musician father and a very proper Indonesian-born mother - the kind of mum who admonished her boys to "always wear a suit" no matter how famous they became - a woman who was both proud and practical, nonchalant about taking a doggie bag from a star-studded dinner. He also shares tales of musical politics, infighting, and plenty of bad-boy behaviour.

But mostly his is a story of brotherhood, music, and enduring love."I was with him from day one," Alex writes. "We shared the experience of coming to America and figuring out how to fit in. We shared a record player, an 800 square foot house, a mom and dad, and a work ethic.

Later, we shared the back of a tour bus, alcoholism, the experience of becoming famous, of becoming fathers and uncles, and of spending more hours in the studio than I've spent doing anything else in this life. We shared a depth of understanding that most people can only hope to achieve in a lifetime."There has never been an accurate account of them or the band, and Alex wants to set the record straight on Edward's life and death.Brothers includes never-before-seen photos from the author's private archives.

Geezer Butler

Into The Void : From Birth To Black Sabbath

With over 70 million records sold, heavy metal pioneers Black Sabbath are one of the most influential bands of all time. From the very beginning, Geezer Butler was at the heart of their success. He named the group, provided the bass behind their distinctive sound and wrote the lyrics that resonated so powerfully with fans around the world.

At long last, Geezer is ready to tell his side of the Sabbath story, from early days as a scrappy blues quartet through to the many lineup changes, the record-breaking tours and the international hell-raising with Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi and Bill Ward. Featuring Geezer’s candid reflections on his working-class childhood in Luftwaffe-battered Birmingham, his almost-life as an accountant and his fascination with horror, religion and the occult, Into the Void reveals the softer side of the heavy metal legend, while holding nothing back. Like Geezer’s bass lines and the story of Black Sabbath themselves, Into the Void is original, dramatic and one hell of a ride.


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