'A stand-out triumph' - The Sunday Times The Number One bestselling novel by the author of CLOUD ATLAS, 'one of the most brilliantly inventive writers of this, or any country' (Independent). Utopia Avenue might be the most curious British band you've never heard of. Emerging from London's psychedelic scene in 1967, folksinger Elf Holloway, blues bassist Dean Moss, guitar virtuoso Jasper de Zoet and jazz drummer Griff Griffin together created a unique sound, with lyrics that captured their turbulent times. The band produced only two albums in two years, yet their musical legacy lives on. This is the story of Utopia Avenue's brief, blazing journey from Soho clubs and draughty ballrooms to the promised land of America, just when the Summer of Love was receding into something much darker - a multi-faceted tale of dreams, drugs, love, sexuality, madness and grief; of stardom's wobbly ladder and fame's Faustian pact; and of the collision between youthful idealism and jaded reality as the Sixties drew to a close. Above all, this bewitching novel celebrates the power of music to connect across divides, define an era and thrill the soul. 'The great rock and roll novel - an epic love letter to the greatest music ever made and the book the music has always deserved' Tony Parsons

The definitive biography of Joe Strummer, released with a new epilogue to mark the 60th anniversary of his birth. Chris Salewicz was an intimate friend of Strummer's for over 25 years. Drawing on more than 300 interviews with family, friends and associates, this is a comprehensive, compelling insight into the man behind The Clash. The Clash was the most influential band of its generation, producing punk anthems including 'London Calling', 'White Riot' and 'Tommy Gun'. For countless fans across the world, they are the ultimate iconic mainstays of their generation. With his talent, extreme good looks and laid-back attitude Joe Strummer was the driving force behind the band: he was the archetypal punk frontman. His untimely death in December 2002 shook the world to its core. Written with full approval and co-operation of relatives, companions and fellow musicians, this is the ultimate account of one of British rock & roll's most fascinating idols: his life, his work and his immeasurable impact on the world. Redemption Song is the best and last word on the subject.

- A comprehensive guide to musicals that are based on musicians' existing back catalogues - how they work, why they work and why they are so successful. - Written for musical theatre students at all levels - primarily on the 150 BA degrees across the UK and North America. - The first book to address this relatively new genre of musical theatre, doing so with in-depth and wide ranging analysis.

The playback of recordings is the primary means of experiencing music in contemporary society, and in recent years 'classical' musicologists and popular music theorists have begun to examine the ways in which the production of recordings affects not just the sound of the final product but also musical aesthetics more generally. Record production can, indeed, be treated as part of the creative process of composition. At the same time, training in the use of these forms of technology has moved from an apprentice-based system into university education. Musical education and music research are thus intersecting to produce a new academic field: the history and analysis of the production of recorded music. This book is designed as a general introductory reader, a text book for undergraduate degree courses studying the creative processes involved in the production of recorded music. The aim is to introduce students to the variety of approaches and methodologies that are currently being employed by scholars in this field. The book is divided into three sections covering historical approaches, theoretical approaches and case studies and practice. There are also three interludes of commentary on the academic contributions from leading record producers and other industry professionals. This collection gives students and scholars a broad overview of the way in which academics from the analytical and practice-based areas of the university system can be brought together with industry professionals to explore the ways in which this new academic field should progress.

NEW UPDATED EDITION Bob Dylan is one of the most iconic figures in modern music, and for two decades, Howard Sounes' Down the Highway has been the definitive biography of an American icon. Based on years of research, documentary evidence, and interviews with 250 of Dylan's intimates--many exclusive--Down the Highway has gone beyond the scope of other accounts to become the most complete, authoritative biography of Bob Dylan now in print. It was praised by The Orlando Sentinel for the insights it offers to Dylan at work . . . from young upstart to grand old man of rock 'n' roll. . . . This book makes us realize now, while he's still with us, how valuable he has been to our culture these last forty years." Sounes's prodigious research has resulted in new insights on every aspect of Dylan's life. He has obtained exclusive information to provide the clearest picture yet of Dylan's 1966 motorcycle accident and subsequent "lost years" in Woodstock, New York, and he uncovered the star's unknown second marriage. He gives inside accounts of the tours, the creation of every album and the most celebrated songs, Dylan's labyrinthine love life, his life-threatening heart illness in 1997, and more--directly from interviews with girlfriends, family, friends, producers, concert promoters, and fellow musicians. As Dylan approaches his eightieth year, Howard Sounes once again brings Down the Highway up to date, following the last decade of Dylan's life and career. Candid, refreshing, and written with a sincere appreciation of Dylan's music and influence, Down the Highway is an essential book for the millions of people who have enjoyed Dylan's music over the years.

Dark Side of the Spoon: The Rock Cookbook features thirty recipes inspired by some of the most renowned rock acts of today and yesteryear. The dishes are accompanied by exclusive artworks from thirty top illustrators. Catering for cooks of all abilities and tastes, this book will help you master a wide range of starters, mains and desserts - including Smashing Pumpkin Pie, Fleetwood Mac and Cheese and Primal Bream. Dark Side of the Spoon celebrates the many humorous parallels between food and rock, and is a must-have for anyone with a love for cooking, music or illustration, or indeed all three.

In this original memoir following Billy Idol from his childhood in England to his fame at the height of the punk-pop revolution, the iconic superstar tells the real story behind the sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll that he is famous for. A member of the punk rock revolution whose music crossed over into the pop mainstream during the 1980s, Billy Idol is a rock 'n' roll legend. Dancing With Myselfwill cover the events and the people who shaped his life, his music, and his career, including accounts of his childhood in England and the U.S., his year at Sussex University, his membership in the Bromley Contingent, his period spent hanging out with the Sex Pistols, his time in Siouxsie and the Banshees, Chelsea, and Generation X. Idol also tackles his successful solo career, which involved collaboration with Steve Stevens and, ultimately, some of the most influential, ground-breaking music videos ever seen on MTV. In Dancing With Myself, Idol renders detailed accounts of his life's highs and lows with the unapologetically in-your-face attitude and exuberance that made him famous. In part a survivor's story, but equally a very funny and always riveting account of one man's creative drive.

Teaching commercial and popular music continues to be a hot topic This book connects both the practical and the theoretical aspects of pedagogy in these areas

Drawing on interviews with stars and musicians, producers and photographers, stylists, writers and celebrity fans, this book chronicles the glam era from its origins in 1970, through its 1972/73 heyday to its mid-seventies collapse and the death of Marc Bolan in September 1977. Fully illustrated throughout, the book includes a wealth of visual material, be it band shots, record sleeves and pin-up posters, or the era's best clobber, magazines and assorted memorabilia.

As one of the people who defined punk's protest art in the 1970s and 1980s, Gee Vaucher (b. 1945) deserves to be much better-known. She produced confrontational album covers for the legendary anarchist band Crass and later went on to do the same for Northern indie legends the Charlatans, among others. More recently, her work was recognised the day after Donald Trump's 2016 election victory, when the front page of the Daily Mirror ran her 1989 painting Oh America, which shows the Statue of Liberty, head in hands. This is the first book to critically assess an extensive range of Vaucher's work. It examines her unique position connecting avant-garde art movements, counterculture, punk and even contemporary street art. While Vaucher rejects all 'isms', her work offers a unique take on the history of feminist art. -- .

Women, Music, Culture: An Introduction, Third Edition is the first undergraduate textbook on the history and contributions of women in a variety of musical genres and professions, ideal for students in Music and Gender Studies courses. A compelling narrative, accompanied by 112 guided listening experiences, brings the world of women in music to life. The author employs a wide array of pedagogical aides, including a running glossary and a comprehensive companion website with links to Spotify playlists and supplementary videos for each chapter. The musical work of women throughout history-including that of composers, performers, conductors, technicians, and music industry personnel-is presented using both art music and popular music examples. New to this edition: An expansion from 57 to 112 listening examples conveniently available on Spotify. Additional focus on intersectionality in art and popular music. A new segment on Music and #MeToo and increased coverage of protest music. Additional coverage of global music. Substantial updates in popular music. Updated companion website materials designed to engage all learners. Visit the author's website at www.womenmusicculture.com

In his first and only official autobiography, music icon Elton John reveals the truth about his extraordinary life, which is also the subject of the film Rocketman. The result is Me - the joyously funny, honest and moving story of the most enduringly successful singer/songwriter of all time.

Christened Reginald Dwight, he was a shy boy with Buddy Holly glasses who grew up in the London suburb of Pinner and dreamed of becoming a pop star. By the age of twenty-three, he was on his first tour of America, facing an astonished audience in his tight silver hotpants, bare legs and a T-shirt with ROCK AND ROLL emblazoned across it in sequins. Elton John had arrived and the music world would never be the same again.

His life has been full of drama, from the early rejection of his work with song-writing partner Bernie Taupin to spinning out of control as a chart-topping superstar; from half-heartedly trying to drown himself in his LA swimming pool to disco-dancing with the Queen; from friendships with John Lennon, Freddie Mercury and George Michael to setting up his AIDS Foundation. All the while, Elton was hiding a drug addiction that would grip him for over a decade.

In Me, Elton also writes powerfully about getting clean and changing his life, about finding love with David Furnish and becoming a father. In a voice that is warm, humble and open, this is Elton on his music and his relationships, his passions and his mistakes. This is a story that will stay with you, by a living legend.

The political has always been part of popular music, but how does that play out in today's musical and political landscape? Mixing Pop and Politics: Political Dimensions of Popular Music in the 21st Century provides an innovative exploration of the complex politics of popular music in its contemporary formations. Amid the shifting paradigms of power in the 2020s, the chapters in this book go beyond the idea of popular music as protest to explore how resistance, subversion, containment, and reconciliation all interact in the popular music realm. Covering a wide range of international artists and genres, from South African hip-hop to Polish punk, and addressing topics such as climate change and environmentalism, feminism, diasporic identity, political parties, music-making as labour, the far right, conservatism and nostalgia, and civic engagement, the contributors expand our understanding of how popular music is political. For students and scholars of music, popular culture, and politics, the volume offers a broad, exciting snapshot of the latest scholarship on contemporary popular music and politics.

This first book-length exploration of geographical engagement with puppets examines constructions of puppets in contemporary popular British culture and considers the various ways in which puppets and humans (not just puppeteers) are unified in diverse cultural media. Organised around themes of metaphorical, performative and transformational puppets, the work draws out how puppets are used in diverse cultural media (fiction, music, television, film and theatre), how they are constructed through those uses, and to what effect. Both puppets as generalised forms (bodily, relational or ideational) and specific puppet characters (Mr Punch, Pinocchio) are explored. Building upon existing associations between puppets and the grotesque, the volume extends understandings of the puppet by elaborating borderscaping strategies through which puppets are constructed and an alternative perspective on the uncanniness of puppets. Geographically, it unearths distinct puppet spatialities, identifies the socially critical potential of puppets, rescales geo/bio-politics at the interpersonal level, and highlights the potential of puppets within posthuman debates about the status of the human. This work will be of interest to anyone fascinated by puppets, as well as those in fields such as geography, anthropology, cultural and media studies, and those interested in the grotesque, posthumanism and/or non-representational scholarship.

Alice Cooper: Golf Monster is the full account of how Cooper became one of the biggest rock stars on the planet with hits like "School's Out" and "Elected", nearly lost it all to alcoholism, and then turned things around by finding a healthy obsession (golf) to replace his unhealthy addiction to alcohol. While most will be familiar with his wild, mascaraed visage and vaudevillian on-stage theatrics, perhaps few will have been aware of the double life Alice Cooper leads. He still tours the world with his band, playing a hundred gigs a year; snake coiled round his neck, beheaded by guillotine at the end of every show...but three hundred days out of that year, Cooper is on the course. Alice Cooper: Golf Monster is an unlikely and captivating tale of wretched excess, life-saving redemption, ghoulish make-up, power chords, and five-irons to the centre of the green. Both humorous and candid, this book reveals another dimension to a man who has epitomised rock 'n' roll for the last forty years.

A unique tribute from David Bowie's official photographer and creative partner, Mick Rock, compiled in 2015, with Bowie's blessing. In 1972, David Bowie released his groundbreaking album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. With it landed Bowie's Stardust alter ego: a glitter-clad, mascara-eyed, sexually ambiguous persona who kicked down the boundaries between male and female, straight and gay, fact and fiction into one shifting and sparkling phenomenon of '70s self-expression. Together, Ziggy the album and Ziggy the stage spectacular propelled the softly spoken Londoner into one of the world's biggest stars. A key passenger on this glam trip into the stratosphere was fellow Londoner and photographer Mick Rock. Rock bonded with Bowie artistically and personally, immersed himself in the singer's inner circle, and, between 1972 and 1973, worked as the singer's photographer and videographer. This collection brings together spectacular stage shots, iconic photo shoots, as well as intimate backstage portraits. It celebrates Bowie's fearless experimentation and reinvention, while offering privileged access to the many facets of his personality and fame. Through the aloof and approachable, the playful and serious, the candid and the contrived, the result is a passionate tribute to a brilliant and inspirational artist whose creative vision will never be forgotten.

Pick and roll your way through bluegrass banjo basics The banjo nearly defines the bluegrass sound, and you'll be playing your own favorite tunes--or maybe writing some new ones--with the help of this book. Bluegrass Banjo For Dummies is the place to start if you're ready to start learning banjo or upgrade your skills to play in the bluegrass style. Written by an expert musician and educator, this book makes it easy to start plucking your 5-string banjo using common bluegrass techniques. You'll also have access to over 100 online audio files, and 35 video lessons, so you can see and hear the techniques in practice. This book serves as your first step to becoming a bluegrass banjo player, even if you're completely new to playing musical instruments. Choose the right banjo, pick up the basics, learn classic banjo licks, and more--the easy way. Learn how to read banjo tablature and perform on a five-string banjo Get insight on playing as part of a bluegrass combo band Practice with classic bluegrass tunes and banjo licks Create banjo solos that will wow your audiences This friendly For Dummies guide is great for fledgling banjo players interested in the bluegrass style. Whether or not you already play another instrument, you'll pick up the banjo basics you can show off at your next local bluegrass festival.

Winner of an ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award

Funky music hasn't received the critical attention that rock, jazz, and the blues have—until now. This intelligent, accessible, and engrossing study takes an unprecedented look at the songs, the musicians, the philosophy, and the meaning of funk. Vincent, a noted critic, scholar, and DJ, takes readers from the earliest efforts of James Brown (the Godfather of Funk) up to the masters of today, investigating such crucial phenomena along the way as funky soul (Stevie Wonder, the Temptations), jazz-funk (Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock), monster funk (Parliament, Funkadelic), disco-funk (Chic, K.C. & the Sunshine Band), funky pop (Kool & the Gang, Chaka Khan), P-Funk Hip Hop (Digital Underground, De La Soul), funk rock (Red Hot Chili Peppers, Primus), and more.

With sixteen pages of photos, thorough annotations throughout, and a complete discography, Funk gives us the history of a uniquely American music born out of tradition and community—a music of energy, attitude, anger, hope, romance, mystery, and irrespressible spirit that now stands as a cornerstone of African American popular culture.

In Hungary, jazz was at the forefront of heated debates sparked by the racialised tensions between national music traditions and newly emerging forms of popular culture that challenged the prevailing status quo within the cultural hierarchies of different historical eras. Drawing on an extensive, four-year field research project, including ethnographic observations and 29 in-depth interviews, this book is the first to explore the hidden diasporic narrative(s) of Hungarian jazz through the system of historically formed distinctions linked to the social practices of assimilated Jews and Romani musicians. The chapters illustrate how different concepts of authenticity and conflicting definitions of jazz as the "sound of Western modernity" have resulted in a unique hierarchical setting. The book's account of the fundamental opposition between US-centric mainstream jazz (bebop) and Bartok-inspired free jazz camps not only reveals the extent to which traditionalism and modernism were linked to class- and race-based cultural distinctions, but offers critical insights about the social logic of Hungary's geocultural positioning in the 'twilight zone' between East and West to use the words of Maria Todorova. Following a historical overview that incorporates comparisons with other Central European jazz cultures, the book offers a rigorous analysis of how the transition from playing 'cafehouse music' to bebop became a significant element in the status claims of Hungary's 'significant others', i.e. Romani musicians. By combining the innovative application of Pierre Bourdieu's cultural sociology with popular music studies and postcolonial scholarship, this work offers a forceful demonstration of the manifold connections of this particular jazz scene to global networks of cultural production, which also continue to shape it.

Endorsed by Jamey Aebersold, James Moody, Dave Liebman, and others, The Jazz Theory Book presents all the information any student of jazz needs in an easy-to-understand, yet thorough, manner. For intermediate to advanced players, and written by one of the acknowledged masters of jazz, it is used by universities around the world.

The last major interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono, conducted by New York Times bestselling author David Sheff, featuring a new introduction that reflects on the fortieth anniversary of Lennon's death.

Originally published in Playboy in 1981 just after John Lennon's assassination, All We Are Saying is a rich, vivid, complete interview with Lennon and Yoko Ono, covering art, creativity, the music business, childhood beginnings, privacy, how the Beatles broke up, how Lennon and McCartney collaborated (or didn't) on songs, parenthood, money, feminism, religion, and insecurity. Of course, at the heart of the conversation is the deep romantic and spiritual bond between Lennon and Ono.

Sheff's insightful questions set the tone for Lennon's responses and his presence sets the scene, as he goes through the kitchen door of Lennon and Yoko's apartment in the Dakota and observes moments at Lennon's famous white piano and the rock star's work at the stove, making them grilled cheese sandwiches. Sheff's new introduction looks at his forty-year-old interview afresh, and examines how what he learned from Lennon has resonated with him as a man and a parent. This is a knockout interview: unguarded, wide-ranging, alternately frisky and intense.

A new edition as part of the Faber Greatest Hits - books that have taken writing about music in new and exciting directions for the twenty-first century. Re-make/Re-model tells the little known and fascinating story of the individuals and circumstances which combined to form the groundbreaking band Roxy Music -- how the art school avant-garde of the 1960s met the sweat, luck and attitude of chart-topping pop. Written with the co-operation of all of those involved, including Bryan Ferry, Brian Eno, Andy Mackay and Phil Manzanera, this is also the definitive account of a new pop vision that would dominate the 1970s. From student digs and provincial nightclubs to emerald-green eyeshadow and fake leopard skin, Re-make/Re-model is about a band which invented an era.

During their 1985 tour, two events of hatred and stupidity forever change the lives of a band’s four members. Neues Bauen, a post-hardcore Illinois group homing in on their own small fame, head on with frontman Conrad Wells sexually assaulted and guitarist Tone Seburg wounded by gunshot. The band staggers forth into the American landscape, traversing time and investigating each of their relationships with history, memory, authenticity, violence and revelling in transcendence through the act of art.

With decades passed and compelled by his wife’s failing health to track down Tone, Conrad flies to North Africa where her brother is rumoured to be hiding with a renowned artist from their past. There he instead meets various characters including his former drummer, Spence. Amongst the sprawl and shout of Morocco, the men attempt to recall what happened to them during their lost years of mental disintegration and emotional poverty.

Dance Prone is a novel of music, ritual and love. It is live, tense and corporeal. Full of closely observed details of indie-rock, of punk infused performance, the road and the players’ relationship to violence, hate and peace.

Set during both the post-punk period and the present day, Dance Prone was born out of a love of the underground and indie rock scenes of the 1980s, a fascination for their role in the cultural apparatus of memory, social decay and its reconstruction.