This is almost certainly set to be the definitive history of the UK
popular music industry, from the 1950s to the beginning of the 21st
century. Napier-Bell has impressive credentials for this task:
co-writer of the Dusty Springfield hit 'You Dont Have To Say You
Love Me', manager of the Yarbirds in the '60s, then Marc Bolan and,
in the '80s, Wham! and George Michael. This tome is part
autobiography, part social history, and clearly written with a
combination of detailed inside knowledge and research. It provides
not only an extensive bibliography but also an index of quotations
and a 'cast of characters'. Napier-Bells quasi-sociological
explanations ('since the Stone Age, drugs and music have gone hand
in hand') sometimes make one wonder if he is aware of the gulf
between the music industry and the world outside can it really be
true that in the '50s Benzedrine was taken by truck drivers
throughout the American South? But inevitably it is the inside
gossip which is most intriguing: Gerry Marsden subtly altering the
words of his songs when playing in Germany, such that German
musicians could later be heard singing the amended versions, word
for word, in other venues ('All my life Ive been waiting tonight
therell be no masturbating'). John Lennon in Greece having left his
drugs behind in London: 'What goods the bloody Parthenon without
LSD!' The often brilliantly funny, though at times alarming,
anecdotes of drugs, violence, money and, inevitably, sex in
multifarious permutations often eclipse the music itself. (Kirkus
UK)
'The most authoritative, intelligent, diligently researched and unpretentious analysis of the British pop scene yet written' Sunday TelegraphBlack Vinyl White Powder charts the amazing fifty year history of the British music business in unparalleled scale and detail. As a key player across the decades, Napier-Bell - who discovered Marc Bolan and managed amongst others The Yardbirds and Wham! - uses his wealth of contacts and extraordinary personal experiences to tell the story of an industry that is like no other. Where bad behaviour is not only tolerated but encouraged, where drugs are sometimes as important as talent, where artists are pushed to their physical and mental limits in the name of profit and ego. The Greatest Ever Book Written about English Pop-Breathtakingly Brilliant' Julie Burchill'The cold print equivalent of a sparkling evening with a world-class raconteur.' Charles Shaar Murray, Independent'Bitchy, glib, fun and shrewd' Daily Telegraph
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