Showing results for "alan clayson"

Often appearing as a mere onlooker who didn't really want to be there, Charlie Watts - 'the silent Stone' - embraced fame reluctantly. Yet, ironically, if any one of the Stones could have made it big without the rest, it surely would have been Watts, who showed as much early promise as an artist as he did a jazz drummer.Understated and seemingly underwhelmed, Watts provided a stark contrast to the brash Keith Richards and the bohemian Brian Jones, and was, in some ways, an unlikely...

My hair is a statement and always will be, even when I no longer have any.The social revolution of the Swinging Sixties led to a renaissance of unchecked hair growth, and long hair, especially on men, was worn as a political or countercultural symbol of protest and as an expression of masculinity.No-one who was affected by one of a turbulent decade's loudest controversies - or anyone who ever wondered what all the fuss was about - will fail to be i...

For many years, John Lennon has been seen as the crazed and eccentric Beatle who provided some of the most memorable melodies the music world has ever known. After remaking pop in his own image with The Beatles, the erstwhile would-be artist and Liverpudlian reprobate went on to carve out a significant solo career, with the enigmatic Yoko Ono at his side. Following his murder in 1980, his work and life took on mythic status, his role as mentor to a musical generation assured.Alan C...

Brian Jones, the legend and icon, is familiar to generations of rock fans, but the reality of his life has always remaned mysterious. Granted godlike status alongside giants like Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, and Janis Joplin, Jones was more than the Stones' ill-fated pretty boy.Set against the dramatic backdrop of the swingin' sixties, Alan Clayson's biography reveals an extremely talented musician and a surprisingly driven man whose creative energies propelled him to fame even as t...

A decade of ground breaking cultural and social change, the 60s is famously recalled with the oft quoted statement "If You Remember the '60s, You Really Weren't There" First published in 2006 and edited by Michael Heatley, this nostalgic look at the best music, movies, TV programmes and events of the swinging 60s is now available as an ebook. Illustrated with fantastic colour and black & white photos, including posters and other archive material, this is a great purchase for both collector...

The social revolution of the Swinging Sixties led to a renaissance of unchecked hair growth, and long hair, especially on men, was worn as a political or countercultural symbol of protest and as an expression of masculinity. No-one who was affected by one of a turbulent decade's loudest controversies - or anyone who ever wondered what all the fuss was about - will fail to be interested in this personal account of when the 'us and them' divide between youth and elders was most profound.

Robert Plant is one of the few genuine living rock legends.Frontman of Led Zeppelin, musical innovator and seller of millions of records, Plant has had a profound influence on music for over four decades. But the full account of his life has barely been told … until now.Robert Plant: A Life is the first complete and comprehensive telling of Plant’s story. From his earliest performances in folk clubs in the early 1960s, to the world’s biggest stages as Led Zeppelin’s self-st...

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERAs seen on Apple TV - 1971: The Year That Music Changed EverythingThe Sixties ended a year late - on New Year's Eve 1970, when Paul McCartney initiated proceedings to wind up The Beatles. Music would never be the same again.The next day would see the dawning of a new era. 1971 saw the release of more monumental albums than any year before or since and the establishment of a pantheon of stars to dom...

'People say I made the Stones. I didn't. They were there already. They only wanted exploiting. They were all bad boys when I found them. I just brought out the worst in them.'Andrew Loog Oldham was nineteen years old when he discovered and became the manager and producer of an unknown band called The Rolling Stones. His radical vision transformed them from a starving south London blues combo to the Greatest Rock 'n' Roll Band That Ever Drew Breath, while the revolutionary strategie...

These are the songs that we have listened to, laughed to, loved to and laboured to, as well as downed tools and danced to.Covering the last seven decades, Stuart Maconie looks at the songs that have sound tracked our changing times, and – just sometimes – changed the way we feel. Beginning with Vera Lynn’s ‘We’ll Meet Again’, a song that reassured a nation parted from their loved ones by the turmoil of war, and culminating with the manic energy of ‘Bonkers’, Dizzee...

The Beatles landing in New York in February 1964 was the opening shot in a cultural revolution nobody predicted. Suddenly the youth of the richest, most powerful nation on earth was trying to emulate the music, manners and the modes of a rainy island that had recently fallen on hard times.The resulting fusion of American can-do and British fuck-you didn’t just lead to rock and roll’s most resonant music. It ushered in a golden era when a generation of kids born in ration card Brita...

Goodnight and Good Riddance: How Thirty-Five Years of John Peel Helped to Shape Modern Britain is a social history, a diary of a nation's changing culture, and an in-depth appraisal of one of our greatest broadcasters, a man who can legitimately be called the most influential figure in post-war British popular music.Without the support of John Peel, it's unlikely that innumerable artists - from David Bowie to Dizzee Rascal, Jethro Tull to Joy Division - would have received...