A definitive discographic guide to the resurgent wave of British Jazz music over the last 15 years, compiled by the DJ and broadcaster Gilles Peterson, one of the most significant figures in British Jazz in modern times.

The last fifteen years have seen a renaissance in British Jazz as a new young and diverse generation of players fusing jazz music with a wide-array of cultural influences to be found uniquely in London and around the UK - including afrobeat, hip-hop, reggae, dubstep, grime, future soul and electronic music. Artists such as Ezra Collective, Shabaka Hutchings, Nubya Garcia, Sons of Kemet, Moses Boyd and Yussef Dayes blend technical skills with a new-found cultural energy to give 21st Century British Jazz a new identity that nonetheless draws upon the lineage and pantheon of the great modern American jazz artists - John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Pharoah Sanders, Herbie Hancock, Elvin Jones et al. Gilles Peterson has been the entry point into the careers of many of the musicians featured in this book and is in a unique position to tell this story. Aside from his position as a trusted BBC radio broadcaster and club DJ, he is also an avid record collector and most of the records featured here have been personally given to him by the artists. In this book he has brought together a definitive and unparalleled collection of new wave British Jazz releases. The book features 100s of stunning and striking artworks, often uniquely designed specifically for him. This book is a near-complete guide to the record releases of every new British Jazz artist to emerge in the last fifteen years lovingly brought together by perhaps the most-important figure in bringing this music to a global audience.

A book about creative genius from the Talking Heads co-founder and author of How Music Works.

A 'Sleeping Beauty' is a brilliant idea that is ahead of its time.

So many breakthroughs in arts or science were like this, lost on their initial audience and only later revived and acknowledged to be great.

This book asks, why do some ideas fall asleep? And how do they wake up?

We love to believe in a meritocracy of ideas - that greatness is always recognised, innovation always seized upon and rewarded. Yet so many of the people we now recognise as the world's great creators initially got little traction for their work. It was only later, often much later, that their work comes roaring back to life and made a lasting impact.

Discoveries as diverse as dark matter to continental drift, technologies from solar panels to the steam...

SUPER LIMITED SIGNED COPIES

A book about creative genius from the Talking Heads co-founder and author of How Music Works.

A 'Sleeping Beauty' is a brilliant idea that is ahead of its time.

So many breakthroughs in arts or science were like this, lost on their initial audience and only later revived and acknowledged to be great.

This book asks, why do some ideas fall asleep? And how do they wake up?

We love to believe in a meritocracy of ideas - that greatness is always recognised, innovation always seized upon and rewarded. Yet so many of the people we now recognise as the world's great creators initially got little traction for their work. It was only later, often much later, that their work comes roaring back to life and made a lasting impact.

Discoveries as diverse as dark matter to continental drift, technologies from solar panels to the steam...

There are pop stars, and then there is Prince. In this kaleidoscopic, freewheeling biography, John McKie examines the remarkable life and career of one of the most mysterious figures in music through the prism of the record most widely considered his masterpiece, 1987's Sign o' the Times. Drawing on more than 200 interviews with friends, ex-girlfriends, bandmates, recording engineers, bodyguards, personal assistants, wardrobe designers and hairdressers, accomplished music writer John McKie examines the life of this musical polymath with the help of many of the people who knew him best.

Family members and friends discuss his childhood when he learned to master several instruments, there is new information on how he made the soundtrack to Purple Rain, the full story about why he decided to stop using his name, the now legendary Super Bowl half-time show and that guitar solo at the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame which has been viewed on YouTube 100 million times. McKie also dives into the personality of the man: what made him laugh, the way he hired and fired colleagues, what he was like to live with, how his relentless drive to make music led to him recording for hours without sleep, how he changed his car stereo to road test his new hits and even booked his guitar and album sleeves their own seats on flights. Prince: A Sign o' the Times is the most comprehensive book ever written about one of the most enigmatic and talented pop stars of all time.

David Bowie was the original influencer. For five decades, his songs helped shape the landscape of popular music. But what did he listen to? Which artists, songs and albums did Bowie tune in to throughout his life?This book, the first of its kind, reveals more than 100 artists that made it onto Bowie’s turntable.

David Bowie: Music Lover is a compelling mix of personal insight and expert commentary, jointly written by Bowie’s lifelong friend, collaborator and listening companion, Geoff MacCormack, and Jérôme Soligny, author of the seminal Rainbowman, who knew Bowie for 25 years. From Classical to Britpop, Electronica to Delta Blues, the book explores Bowie’s eclectic playlist, redolent of the decades he lived through but also of his deep interest in all genres and eras of music. It’s a story that begins with Little Richard on Bowie’s childhood Dansette record player, and ends with Kendrick Lamar, a go-to listen during the recording of Blackstar, released just two days before he died.

An indispensable guide for Bowie fans and all Music Lovers.

Some of the stories featured in this stunning 176-page, matt-laminated, hard-back book have previously only been available to readers of the Tales From The Wedding Present comic book series. This new collected edition comes with over 137 pages of never-before-seen additional material and an introduction by Will Potter from the band CUD.

David writes the Tales From The Wedding Present narrative together with long-time musical associate Terry de Castro, and then the stories are illustrated by virtuoso artist Lee Thacker.

What Have I Said Now? is presented in chronological order; it charts the inexorable rise of The Wedding Present as they sign to RCA Records, release the hit albums Bizarro and Seamonsters, tour North America, appear on Top Of The Pops and meet people as diverse as Steve Albini and Status Quo. On the way, we also learn about some of the romantic experiences that may have informed David’s writing.

What Have I Said Now? will be launched at the At The Edge Of The Sea festival in Brighton on 7 August. This will be followed by a Tales From The Wedding Present concert tour of seated venues in Great Britain which will also feature Darren Hayman (Hefner).

It's Time The Tale Were Told - A People's History of The Smiths is the story of one of the UK's most influential indie bands in the words of over 500 fans. From memories of their earliest club shows through to the last ever gig at London's Brixton Academy, this is a portrait of The Smiths as painted by the fans. With personal photographs, memorabilia, anecdotes and first-hand accounts of more than 100 gigs, readers will get a front row view of the indie music legends.

Based on the songwriting partnership of Morrissey and Marr, The Smiths' 1985 album Meat Is Murder topped the UK album charts and their other three studio albums reached No 2. The band broke up in 1987 and have resisted invitations to reunite.

Who lasts in the music industry — and why?The music business is defined by volatility. For every artist who sustains a career, many more fall away, despite talent, acclaim, or early success. Riding the Rollercoaster examines why some musicians endure while others fade away.

Drawing on in-depth interviews with more than seventy artists and industry insiders, Keith Jopling provides a clear-eyed, behind-the-scenes account of how careers in music are built, tested, and sustained. These are artists who have been dropped by labels, lost bandmates, experienced both commercial failure and success, broken up and re-formed — and still found ways to continue. Looking beyond individual stories, Riding the Rollercoaster situates artistic longevity within the wider structures of the modern music industry, from the attention economy to the growing concentration of power among platforms and corporations.

Why do so few musicians retain control over long-term careers in a global industry worth hundreds of billions of dollars?An insider’s guide to survival in modern music, Rollercoaster offers a grounded, accessible account of what it really takes to last.

Thanks to a thrown beer bottle and a fan letter to a P.O. box, Melissa Auf der Maur's first band scored an opening slot for the Smashing Pumpkins in her bohemian home town, Montreal. Sensing Melissa's talent, Billy Corgan recommended her to Courtney Love.

Whisked from her local scene, Melissa joined Hole just after the deaths of Kurt Cobain and Hole's prior bassist, Kristen Pfaff, with the just-widowed Courtney Love at the centre of it all. That was only the beginning of Melissa's journey through alternative rock, a trip she undertook alongside 90s luminaries including Rufus Wainwright, Michael Stipe and her former boyfriend, Dave Grohl. Even the Good Girls Will Cry is a vivid dispatch from the last analogue decade, capturing that bygone era in all its messy, angsty glory.

Since 1999, the album has been declared dead more times than we can count—yet it refuses to disappear. Body of Work traces its turbulent journey through the digital era and asks why listening in forty-minute chunks still matters. Weaving insider accounts with cultural history and personal reflection Jopling tells the story of the album’s unlikely survival.

From bloated CD culture to Napster’s atomization, from Apple’s unbundling to Spotify’s shuffle wars (and Adele’s famous intervention), the album has not only endured, it has re-emerged stronger than ever. Body of Work makes the case that the album remains the perfect vessel for the art of song—the format every artist aspires to, even after decades of digital disruption. As producer and artist Jack Antonoff (Bleachers) put it: “the album is God.” It is the defining artform of popular music, and it always will be.

In November 1969, the Rolling Stones toured the United States for the first time in three years. Gone from the band was founder member Brian Jones, replaced by Mick Taylor from John Mayall's Bluesbreakers. Gone too were the Top Ten-laden 30-minute sets played over inadequate PA systems to crowds of screaming, gawping teenagers.

In their place was a fully-fledged 75-minute rock show drawing heavily on the new Stones albums Beggar's Banquet and Let It Bleed, utilising innovative lighting andstaging. Led by the Glimmer Twins - Mick Jagger and Keith Richards - the Rolling Stones rocked across America on a 24-date tour whose essence iscaptured in the live album Get Yet Ya-Ya's Out, heralded by many as the finestlive rock album of all time. From an unpublicised opening night in Fort Collins, Colorado through to the tragic events at Altamont, California a month later, Everybody Seems To Be Ready(taking its title from Chip Monck's nightly stage introduction for the band) mixes contemporaneous press reports with previously unpublished first-hand accounts to present the story of a tour that has gone down in history as the first rock tour of the modern era in the words of the people who were there.

In early nineties Manchester, Pete and Jim are high on music, sarcasm and dreams of success. With Devon and Steve they form a band, play four gigs, then suddenly implode.

Thirty years later, Jim is a warehouse worker with a wife, two kids and back trouble. Threats of medical retirement loom over his future.

Cult singer Pete is gone, leaving behind five albums, a history of belligerence and a daughter, Lauren, who wonders why the last 45 spinning on her father’s turntable is a record by a group she’s never heard of and no one wishes to speak about.

At Moran’s funeral, Lauren reunites his old bandmates, leading them on a booze-fuelled odyssey through Manchester in search of a secret they would rather remained buried…

A tale of working class dreams realised and unfulfilled, and the easy hit nostalgia can provide but also what it can bury, the scars that don’t show and conversations never had.

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.

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.

Many famed music producers are known for a particular sound that has its day and then ages out. Rick Rubin is known for something else: creating a space where artists of all different genres and traditions can home in on who they really are and what they really offer. He has made a practice of helping people transcend their self-imposed expectations in order to reconnect with a state of innocence from which the surprising becomes inevitable.

Over the years, as he has thought deeply about where creativity comes from and where it doesn't, he has learned that being an artist isn't about your specific output; it's about your relationship to the world. Creativity has a place in everyone's life, and everyone can make that place larger. In fact, there are few more important responsibilities.

The Creative Act is a beautiful and generous course of study that illuminates the path of the artist as a road we all can follow. It distils the wisdom gleaned from a lifetime's work into a luminous reading experience that puts the power to create moments - and lifetimes - of exhilaration and transcendence within closer reach for all of us.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

This is Northumberland songwriter, poet, raconteur and old friend of Piccadilly Records, Peter Alexander Jobson's debut solo album and it's an absolute treat.

Recorded at his home studio and produced by Ben Christophers, the album is an extraordinary collection that blends genres as diverse as country-flavoured psychedelia and cocktail jazz with the spirit of the Northern variety circuit. His vocals answer the question: what if Serge Gainsbourg had been born in the North East of England? Inspirations include Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits and Scott Walker, blues and country legends like Robert Johnson and Hank Williams, and Northern entertainers of days past like Les Dawson and the great Jake Thackray.

Jobson made his name as bass guitarist and keyboard player in I Am Kloot. After six albums and 16 successful years together the cult trio of Jobson, drummer Andy Hargreaves and singer/guitarist John Bramwell broke up after a final triumphant performance at the Royal Festival Hall as part of the 2016 Meltdown Festival on London's South Bank. I Am Kloot were noted for their distinctive sound, the jazzy swing of Jobson and built a fervent following both in the UK and across Europe, culminating in a Mercury Music Prize nomination for their lavish fifth album, 'Sky At Night' - produced by Elbow's Guy Garvey and Craig Potter in 2010.

Heavily autobiographical in inspiration, the songs on 'Burn The Ration Books Of Love' are deeply rooted in Jobson's lived experience, and in his geographical roots in Northumberland, with its wild, windswept coastline, rugged hills and moors, and extensive agricultural farmland where his family have worked the land for generations.

TRACK LISTING

Holiday (Live)
Mountain
The Night Of The Fire
Taxi Supplies
Go Go
Foolish Boy
Please Please Please
Home
Kesta
Just 'Cause I'm Dead
Burn The Ration Books Of Love

Step into the tumultuous world of music stardom with this collection of obituaries from The Times. From the rock’n’roll pioneers of the 1950s, to the pop superstars of the 21st century, and lesser-known innovators with undeniable influence, this book brings to life the enduring spirits of music’s brightest stars. Discover the untold stories behind the music, the triumphs, the tragedies and the unforgettable songs that have shaped our cultural landscape.

With era-defining obituaries and behind-the-scenes photos from The Times archive, this collection is a captivating journey through the lives and legends of rock and pop’s most iconic figures.

The Cure "Stills" follows the changing faces of one of the leading British rock bands during the post-punk and new-wave movements of the late '70s and '80s. As the band has continued over a period of nearly 50 years, front man and only constant member Robert Smith has maintained the band's popularity throughout the changing musical eras, while staying true to their individualistic style and quirkiness. Instrumental in the creation of the varying incarnations of The Cure is photographer Paul Cox, who first encountered the group on Top of the Pops in 1980.

Having established a creative, productive and trusting relationship with the band, Cox's resulting work is The Cure in all their glory. Including over 200 colour and 75 black-and-white images, with accompanying captions selected and written by Cox and Smith, this book is a celebration of a seminal band through the lens of a skilled photographer. 

'Elliott was one of the best songwriters of our day and a formidable musician.' - Beck'There's an undercurrent of real sadness in a lot of his music ... and that's just really the way he was.' - Steve Drozd, Flaming Lips'I'm the wrong kind of person to be really big and famous.' - Elliott Smith, speaking in 1997In 2003, Steven 'Elliott' Smith died from two stab wounds to the heart. To this day, the autopsy evidence remains inconclusive as to whether the wounds were self-inflicted or the result of homicide.

Either way, this tragic end to Elliott's short-lived though prodigiously talented life became the dark denouement of a story riddled with depression, mental illness, addiction and chronic substance abuse. Yet it is also a story of worldwide critical acclaim, of Oscar nominations and of some of the finest recorded music of the late twentieth century. Now, two decades after Elliott's death, Shooting Star seeks to encapsulate the many complexities of this shy, funny, engaging, enigmatic musician and his desperately troubled soul.

With contributions from those closest to Elliott who have not previously spoken about their friend, this masterful biography places the singer-songwriter's vulnerabilities and decline within the broader context of all that he achieved: the sheer, stark beauty of the records he made and the resounding impact they went on to have across a whole spectrum of contemporary music. This is the definitive account of Elliott Smith - a once-in-a-generation artist.

Everyone has their favourite era of the Bee Gees' career, but so much is still unclear about this celebrated but often misunderstood band. This book will provide the perfect route in, pulling together every fascinating strand to tell the story of these pioneering, melancholic masters of pop. Uniquely, the Bee Gees' tale spans the entire modern pop era - they are the only group to have scored British top-ten singles in the '60s, '70s, '80s and '90s - and includes world-conquering disco successes like 'Stayin' Alive' and 'More Than a Woman', both from the soundtrack of hit film Saturday Night Fever.

But the Bee Gees' extraordinary career was one of highs and lows. From a vicious but temporary split in 1969 to several unreleased albums, disastrous TV and film appearances, and a demoralising cabaret season, the group weren't always revelling in the glow of million-selling albums, private jets and UNICEF concerts. Yet, even in the Gibbs' darkest times, their music was rarely out of the charts, as sung by the likes of Al Green, Kenny Rogers & Dolly Parton and Diana Ross.

To this day, they were, their fans believe, the best band in the world. Critics and sales figures told a similar story. Yet for all their brilliance and adoration – their famously energetic live shows routinely interrupted by stage invasions – The Smiths were continually plagued by their reticence to play the game, and by the time of 1987’s Strangeways Here We Come, they had split.

Tony Fletcher's A Light That Never Goes Out - part celebration, part paean – moves from Manchester in the nineteenth-century to the present day to tell the complete story of The Smiths. The product of extensive research and unprecedented access, it will serve to confirm The Smiths as one of the most important and influential rock groups of all time.

Cutting his musical teeth in a Puerto Rican jazz club in the 1960s, Carli Munoz came of age during the countercultural flowering of that era; he lived for music, knowledge, and the mind-expanding magic of LSD. Wanting to expand creative horizons for his successful psychedelic rock band, Munoz flew to New York on a whim with 11 dollars in his pocket and embarked on a deep dive into the gritty scene of gigs, girls, and trips, struggling to fill his pockets with dollars and his belly with food. Free-falling into the dark underbelly of the city, Munoz ended up homeless and penniless until an epiphany on the subway brought him back to the surface. On the cusp of a new decade, Munoz moved to LA to fight for a new life and a second chance. Hanging out in Houdini's old mansion in Laurel Canyon, he watched the free-loving idealism of the '60s melt into the disco-and-cocaine-saturated hedonism of the '70s, until one day he found himself on tour with the Beach Boys. He became close friends with Dennis Wilson - a friendship that ranged from pranking each other to working on an album together to watching him spiral irretrievably into self-destruction. He witnessed the feud between Mike Love and the Wilsons firsthand, as well as the unchecked instability of Brian Wilson. Despite the chaos and power struggles within the band, Munoz was able to create enthralling music with them, as well as with some of the other popular musicians of the '70s, including Wilson Pickett, the Association, George Benson, and Peter Cetera. Populated with an eclectic cast of artists, musicians, clairvoyants, record producers, hippies, hobos, and superstars, A Fool's Journey is a vivid snapshot of an era-defining moment that will never be repeated. Although Munoz toured with the Beach Boys for ten years and partied with rock stars, he was also just an island kid from Puerto Rico, forever in exile, forever 'the other.' The story of his journey is as compelling as it is timely.

We've Got A Bigger Problem Now is the latest volume in Glen E. Friedman’s remarkable run of archive photo books. This time the focus is on Dead Kennedys, the incendiary punk band who have inspired and politicised generations since their first record landed in 1979.

Their debut became the first punk album to top the charts after the 1977 UK punk explosion, while the band’s name alone sparked controversy across the US. Fronted by Jello Biafra, their sharp political satire, unmistakable voice and wild live presence made them essential viewing.

Between 1980 and 1982, Friedman photographed the band in Los Angeles, then home to the country’s biggest punk scene. Shot mostly on colour film while he was still working for SkateBoarder magazine, many images remained unseen, as punk publications at the time could only print in black and white. Includes text from Shepard Fairey, Zack de la Rocha and Jello Biafra.

Like so many of the most essential rock bands, The Gaslight Anthem have a rare gift for finding glory in the inescapable pain of being alive. On their new album History Books—their first new music in over nine years—the New Jersey-bred four-piece bring their soulful breed of punk to ten thrilling songs exploring everything from mortality to mental illness to the more precarious dimensions of human connection. In the tradition of their seminal sophomore album The ’59 Sound, The Gaslight Anthem’s sixth full-length ultimately achieves the tremendous feat of hitting every raw nerve while endlessly inspiring wildly triumphant singing-along.

“A lot of this record is questioning all the bad stuff we see in the world and the difficult things we go through in life, and asking how to deal with it,” says vocalist/guitarist Brian Fallon, whose bandmates include drummer Benny Horowitz, bassist Alex Levine, and lead guitarist Alex Rosamilia. “I think the answer is that we’re all in this together and that somehow makes it okay, even when it’s anything but easy. The main message of the album is empathy.”

The first release from their own Rich Mahogany Recordings (a label distributed via Thirty Tigers), History Books finds The Gaslight Anthem working with acclaimed producer/engineer Peter Katis (The National, Interpol, Death Cab for Cutie) and recording at his Bridgeport, CT-based Tarquin Studios. Featuring a guest appearance from longtime Gaslight Anthem champion Bruce Springsteen, History Books matches its unfussy yet gracefully crafted sound with the force-of-nature energy that’s defined the band since getting their start playing basement shows back in the mid-aughts.

“Making this album clarified that we want to keep doing what we’ve always done—because no one else can do it in quite the same way, and that’s something I’ve started to become very proud of,” says Fallon. “At the end of the day it’s just rock-and-roll music, but I really do believe it can have a positive impact on people’s lives. I think there’s so much beauty and magic in that.”

TRACK LISTING

1. Spider Bites
2. History Books
3. Autumn
4. Positive Charge
5. Michigan, 1975
6. Little Fires
7. The Weatherman
8. Empires
9. I Live In The Room Above Her
10. A Lifetime Of Preludes

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.

the remarkable account of Paul McCartney's time in Wings and ascent into solo stardom, by renowned music biographer Lesley-Ann JonesNo comprehensive biography of the time Paul McCartney spent with Wings has ever been published, until now. A period often dismissed as McCartney's 'missing' years, in fact the band lasted for a decade: two years longer than the Beatles, and wielded such impact and influence that they at one point achieved the status as the biggest live band in the world. Band on the Run sold over 6 million copies worldwide and became EMI's biggest selling album of the 1970s in the UK.

Music biographer Lesley-Ann Jones has met McCartney many times and knew his late wife Linda. Here she shows how crucial Linda was to the evolution of Wings - at great cost to herself given the ridicule she was to encounter. But Linda saw that McCartney needed the band in the wake of the break up of the Beatles.

Drawing on extensive interviews and her trademark meticulous research, the author shows how this period in Paul McCartney's career was to become crucial not only to his development as an artist, but to his very survival.

"An expertly-researched, densely detailed, and likely definitive bio ... The book that finally tells the full story of the music and madness that was the relatively brief--but era-defining--lifespan of the Mamas and the Papas."--Houston Press

"Given the personal lives of these singers, Scott Shea's book might qualify for the horror genre rather than history or biography. But then there's the music--which was startling, distinctive, and unforgettable. For a generation, these songs have served as monuments to major moments in life. All the Leaves Are Brown is a hard read for its sorrow, but rewarding for its insights into the art of a unique and profoundly influential band."-- Mike Aquilina, songwriter, TV host, and co-author of Dion: The Wanderer Talks Truth

"Scott Shea takes us on the wild ride that was The Mamas & The Papas with terrific detail, refreshing honesty, and perhaps best of all, a true love of their music. All the Leaves Are Brown had me from page one."--Sheila Weller, author of New York Times bestseller Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon and the Journey of a Generation

"The Mamas & The Papas' story is wilder than any work of fiction and Scott Shea is the first author to tell it objectively and in full. This is a book I could not put down."--Bill Flanagan, author of Fifty in Reverse: A Novel

Drawing on previously published memoirs of band members and new interviews with those who knew them, radio producer Shea crafts an impersonal but intriguing compilation of the accounts, song development, and relationship entanglements that led to the fast rise and extraordinary fall of the Mamas & the Papas. The book primarily focuses on John Phillips, from his troubled childhood as the son of an abusive, alcohol-addicted parent, to his complicated first marriage and his attempts to become a serious folk musician. Then Phillips met aspiring model Michelle Gilliam, and their relationship became the catalyst for his best-known songs, "California Dreamin'" and "Monday, Monday." Phillips soon brought Cass Elliot into the group, along with tenor Dennis Doherty. As a band, the Mamas & the Papas recorded five albums, with 10 hits, in the 1960s. Drugs, affairs, jealousies as Mama Cass becomes the breakout star, and an embarrassing set as the closing act for Phillips's Monterey International Pop Festival soon led to the band's demise. VERDICT Shea's matter-of-fact journalistic style prevents sensationalism from overtaking this study of the Mamas & the Papas' powerful influence and importance.

'An adventurer, an entrepreneur, a buccaneer, a visionary' - BONOAs the founder of Island Records, fabled music producer Chris Blackwell has discovered and worked with some of the most important musicians of the second half of the twentieth century - from Steve Winwood to Cat Stevens, Bob Marley to Grace Jones, U2 to Roxy Music, plus countless others. He is also widely credited with having brought reggae music to the world stage. Now, as reflects on his life, Blackwell takes us back to the island where it all began: Jamaica - the place where his family once partied with the likes of Noel Coward, Ian Fleming and Errol Flynn and where, as Jamaican local music began to adopt contemporary American trends, Blackwell's burgeoning musical instincts flourished.

It was also the birthplace of the now-legendary Island Records, founded by Blackwell in 1959. Five years later, while living in London selling Jamaican records to Caribbean immigrants, Blackwell came across the vocal talents of teenager Millie Small, who he paired with the song 'My Boy Lollipop'. The producer added a ska beat and released what would be a worldwide hit.

But this was just the beginning of a truly remarkable career. In this fascinating memoir, including up to fifty photos supplied by Blackwell's team, the music icon will discuss the many artists he's worked with over the years, as well as unpicking the initiatives, decisions and risks that ultimately brought such success to both Blackwell and his esteemed musical collaborators.

The Sick Bag Song chronicles Cave's 22-city journey around North America in 2014. Racked by romantic longing and exhaustion, Cave teases out the significant moments - the people, the books and the music - that have influenced and inspired him, and drops them into his sick bag. The book began its life scribbled onto airline sick bags and later evolves into a restless contemporary epic, exploring love, loss, inspiration and memory.

The world is full of Bee Gees fans. Yet, for a band of such renown, little is known about Barry, Maurice and Robin Gibb. Weren't two of them twins? Didn't one of them marry Lulu? Where does Andy fit into the Gibb family tree? And why did they storm out of that Clive Anderson interview?People tend to have their favourite era of the Bee Gees' career, but many listeners are also conscious that there is more to uncover about the band.

This book will provide the perfect route in, pulling together every fascinating strand to tell the story of a group with the imagination of the Beatles, the pop craft of ABBA, the drama of Fleetwood Mac and the emotional heft of the Beach Boys. Uniquely, the Bee Gees' tale spans the entire modern pop era - they are the only group to have scored British top-ten singles in the '60s, '70s, '80s and '90s - and includes world-conquering disco successes like 'Stayin' Alive' and 'More Than a Woman', both from the soundtrack of hit film Saturday Night Fever. But the Bee Gees' extraordinary career was one of highs and lows.

From a vicious but temporary split in 1969 to several unreleased albums, disastrous TV and film appearances, and a demoralising cabaret season, the group weren't always revelling in the glow of million-selling albums, private jets and UNICEF concerts. Yet, even in the Gibbs' darkest times, their music was rarely out of the charts, as sung by the likes of Al Green, Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton, and Destiny's Child. Capturing the human story at the heart of the Bee Gees, this book will be a lyrical and stylish read, delighting hardcore fans with its details while engaging casual pop readers who simply want to know more about this important and enigmatic group.

In 1986, the NME released a cassette that would shape music for years to come. A collection of twenty-two independently signed guitar-based bands, C86 was the sound and ethos that defined a generation. It was also arguably the point at which 'indie' was born.

But what happened next to all those musical dreamers? Some of the bands, like Primal Scream, went on to achieve global stardom; others, such as Half Man Half Biscuit and the Wedding Present, cultivated lifelong fanbases that still sustain their careers thirty-five years later. Then there were the rest, who ultimately imploded in a riot of paisley shirts, bad drugs and general indifference from the record-buying public. Now, for the first time, music journalist Nige Tassell tracks down the class of C86 and recounts their stories, both tragic and uplifting.

Yet, while the pursuit of long-lost musicians can often manifest as earnest hagiography, Tassell's unique, light-hearted approach makes this a very human story of ambition, hope, varying degrees of talent and what happens after you give up on pop - or, more precisely, after pop gives up on you. It's a world populated by bike-shop owners, architecture professors, dance-music producers, record-store proprietors, birdwatchers, solicitors, caricaturists and even a possible Olympic sailor - and let's not forget the musician-turned-actor gainfully employed as Jeremy Irons' body double... More than simply the tale of the tape, Whatever Happened to the C86 Kids? is an exploration of C86's wide-reaching and often surprising legacy.

Since his first recordings in 1955, Johnny Cash has been an icon in the music world. In his newly discovered poems and song lyrics, we see the world through his eyes. The poetry reveals his depth of understanding, both of the world around him and within - his frailties and his strengths alike.

He pens verses in his hallmark voice, reflecting upon love, pain, freedom, fame and mortality. Illustrated with facsimile reproductions of Cash's own handwritten pages, Forever Words is a remarkable addition to the canon of one of America's heroes. His music is a part of our collective history, and here he demonstrates the depth of his talent as a writer.

Edited and introduced by Paul Muldoon, with a foreword by John Carter Cash, this is a book sure to delight and surprise fans the world over.

The complete lyrics from cultural icon and bestselling author Nick Cave, spanning his entire career to date, with a new foreword by Andrew O'HaganFrom Nick Cave's writing for The Birthday Party, through highly acclaimed albums like Murder Ballads, Henry's Dream, DIG, LAZARUS, DIG!!! and Ghosteen, this is a must-have book for all fans of the dark, the beautiful and the defiant - for all fans of the songs of Nick Cave. 'The greatest living songwriter' NME'A glowing wire, a mainline to meaning ad feeling and art' New Yorker'Nick Cave is a true lyrical master. He can conjure empathy and hope out of thin air, light out of darkness' Cillian Murphy'His lyrics - so rich in the toils of love, so committed to memory and everlasting presence - are the best-made of his generation' Andrew O'Hagan'A poetic craftsman' Will Self'Alternative rock legend' Billboard'Cave's genius rings loud and clear' Evening StandardCover art by Aleksandra Waliszewska

'Most underrated group? World of Twist.' - Liam Gallagher'
They're a top band. No one could do what World of Twist do, except World of Twist.' - Noel Gallagher'
A band ripe for rediscovery.' - The Guardian

Welcome to World of Twist: the greatest lost band of all time. While fame, glory and untold riches seemed like an inevitability for this group at the turn of the '90s, the world was simply not ready for a band of retro futurists, psychedelic adventurers and cosmic tunesmiths.

Too late for Madchester, too early for Britpop and too much fun to pigeonhole, World of Twist went on to face a demoralising string of 'what could have been's. First, their debut single, 'The Storm', peaked two places outside of the UK top forty, meaning they missed out on a guaranteed Top of the Pops spot; then, when they were close to signing with Alan McGee's Creation Records, the label decided to go with an unknown band called Oasis instead. Finally, World of Twist fell apart in a torrent of drugs, mental illness, musical differences, sartorial contretemps and all-round shoulder-shrugging apathy.

But they burned bright and left an indelible mark on everyone who looked deep into their light, including fellow Mancunians and Oasis superstars Noel and Liam Gallagher. Now, for the first time, co-founder, guitarist and principal songwriter Gordon King tells the incredible inside story of his time with the band. Revealing the jealousy, anguish and personal demons experienced by the clashing personalities of King and late singer Tony Ogden, this compelling memoir is the story of triumph, tragedy, comedy, drama, demise and recovery.

And so it began. When multi-instrumentalists and sound enthusiasts Paul de Jong and Nick Zammuto first came together, they surely could not have foreseen their debut album, Thought For Food, becoming such a beloved genre-defying masterpiece, an album that rests firmly in countless Top 100 Albums of the Decade lists. Filled with endearing and enduring songs, the Books revisit their wide-eyed beginnings with this remastered Thought For Food, repackaged with all-new artwork and expanded to include lyrics for every song for the first time ever. Carefully and thoughtfully remastered from the original mixes by Zammuto at his new studio outside his home in Vermont, TFF now boasts a warmth and clarity that surprisingly reveals an increased harmonic depth. Having combined and refined their compositional and recording processes over the course of four albums, addressing the technical limitations of these earlier recordings offers the chance to marry the technical, musical and emotional aspects of these songs in a way like never before. To be sure, the differences are subtle, but for a band who have transformed minutiae into modern art, that subtlety is downright sublime. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Enjoy Your Worries, You May Never Have Them Again (4:06)
2. Read, Eat, Sleep (3:49)
3. All Bad Ends All (2:42)
4. Contempt (3:22)
5. All Our Base Are Belong To Them (4:18)
6. Thankyoubranch (5:05)
7. Motherless Bastard (4:11)
8. Mikey Bass (2:56)
9. Excess Straussess (2:08)
10. Getting The Done Job (3:49)
11. A Dead Fish Gains The Power Of Observation (1:08)
12. Deafkids (1:09)

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.

With the 2001 release of The Streets' debut single 'Has It Come To This?' the landscape of British popular music changed forever. No longer did homegrown rappers have to anxiously defer to transatlantic influences.

Mike Skinner's witty, self-deprecating sagas of late-night kebab shops and skunk-fuelled Playstation sessions showed how much you could achieve simply by speaking in your own voice. In this thoroughly modern memoir, the man the Guardian once dubbed 'half Dostoevsky half Samuel Pepys' tells a freewheeling, funny and fearlessly honest tale of Birmingham and London, ecstasy and epilepsy, Twitter-fear and Spectrum joysticks, spread-betting and growing up. He writes of his musical inspirations, role models and rivals, the craft of songwriting and reflects on the successes and failures of the decade-long journey of The Streets.