'The greatest book ever written on British independent music' Guardian'One of the best British music books of the last ten years' MojoFounded by Alan McGee in 1983, Creation Records achieved notoriety as the home of Primal Scream, the Jesus and Mary Chain and other anti-Establishment acts. During the Britpop boom of the mid-90s, the astonishing success of Oasis brought Creation fame on the world stage. In 1999, however, McGee announced his s...

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...

How we relate, how we know what we think we know, how past mingles with present, how a bike stays upright, how the butt can bear that puny perch — a lot more than pedals and wheels goes around in Cycling in Plato's Cave. Just like a bike, the poems are simple but have deftly moving parts that roll us along, offer fresh perspectives, and let us feel the air. And just like on a sunny Sunday in June, or is it September, or maybe it's cloudy and broody outside, it's all about the ride.

WINNER OF THE RALPH J. GLEASON AWARDINCLUDES FOREWORD BY JOHNNY MARRAward-winning, Sunday Times bestselling author Jon Savage's definitive history of punk, its progenitors, the Sex Pistols, and their time: the late 1970s.A pop-culture classic full of anecdote, insight and exclusive interviews, England's Dreaming tells the sensational story of the meteoric rise and rapid decline of the last great rock 'n' roll band and the cultural moment the...

SUNDAY TIMES MUSIC BOOK OF THE YEARROUGH TRADE BOOK OF THE YEARMOJO BOOK OF THE YEARIn 1975, Viv Albertine was obsessed with music but it never occurred to her she could be in a band as she couldn't play an instrument and she'd never seen a girl play electric guitar.A year later, she was the guitarist in the hugely influential all-girl band the Slits, who fearlessly took on the male-dominated music scene and ...

**#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A powerful, blazingly honest memoir: the story of an eleven-hundred-mile solo hike that broke down a young woman reeling from catastrophe—and built her back up again.A Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of the Century**At twenty-two, Cheryl Strayed thought she had lost everything. In the wake of her mother’s death, her family scattered and her own marriage was soon destroyed. Four years later, with nothing more to lose, sh...

The long-awaited autobiography of one of rock's true megastars.Rod Stewart was born the working-class son of a Scottish plumber in North London. Despite some early close shaves with a number of diverse career paths, ranging from gravedigging to professional football, it was music that trulycaptured his heart - and he never looked back.Rod started out in the early 1960s, playing the clubs on London's R&B scene, before his distinctively raspy voice ca...

The #1 National BestsellerShortlisted for the 2019 Speaker’s Book AwardNominated for the 2019 Heritage Toronto Book Award“Barclay combines his admiration of the band with his knowledge of the music industry to make a clever, touching, and very informative book that may well be the definitive work on an important piece of Canadian pop culture.” — Publishersweekly.com, starred reviewTh...

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...

**A SUNDAY TIMES, GUARDIAN & TELEGRAPH MUSIC BOOK OF THE YEAR 2022****INDEPENDENT BOOK OF THE MONTH****GUARDIAN BOOK OF THE DAY****FINANCIAL TIMES 'BEST SUMMER BOOKS 2022' PICK**'Incredibly moving.' - Guardian'Entertaining.' - Telegraph'Most books about pop stars focus on the way we turn average human beings into dem...

Defenders Of The Faith is what heavy metal fans have been waiting for. This epic biography of Judas Priest includes over 50 interviews with prominent musicians, producers, record company personnel, journalists, childhood friends and ex-band members.From their deprived beginnings in late-sixties West Bromwich, through the numerous line-up changes of the 1970s to the controversial sell-out US tours in the 1980s, here is the complete history of the band up to and beyo...

Tenement Kid is Bobby Gillespie's story up to the recording and release of the album that has been credited with 'starting the 90's', Screamadelica.Born into a working class Glaswegian family in the summer of 1961, Bobby's memoirs begin in the district of Springburn, soon to be evacuated in Edward Heath's brutal slum clearances. Leaving school at 16 and going to work as a printers' apprentice, Bobby's rock n roll epiphany arrives like a bolt of lig...