This book takes the reader through The Beatles career step by step as it happened. The objective is to comprehensively guide you through the recordings with detailed information about them, and to help those who are not fully au fait with all of The Beatles work to have a better understanding of what happened and when. Laid out in an easy to read format, it's a perfect starter for someone who has dipped in to the catalogue but wants to learn more. Listed chronologically are all the UK and US releases that make up the full body of official recordings. And although it is not an "anorak's paradise" The Beatles... The Easy Way includes sufficient information to also satisfy the more devoted fans.

Following the inception of his band The Mothers Of Invention in 1965, Frank Zappa toured incessantly. While he undertook fewer tours throughout the eighties - and even threatened to quit performing altogether - time and again he was drawn back out onto the road and only finally stopped when his health dictated it. This book attempts to explain this allure by providing the most comprehensive listing ever of every concert date and venue - from Osaka to the Albert Hall - revealing the thousands of miles travelled by Zappa and his myriad cohorts to a total of twenty countries during more than twenty five years of live performance. This unique multilateral collaboration - by FZ historian Zeuner, crack cartographer Kuhner and renowned Zappa author Greenaway - guides the reader through a period that saw a great number of changes around the planet (sexual liberation, the ending of the Vietnam War, and the fall of the Berlin Wall), and is proof positive that touring can make you crazy! Also included are maps that trace the locations of all of the places Zappa ever called home. With a foreword by Robert Martin (band member from 1981 until Zappa ceased touring), this book will not only delight fans of Frank and his music, but will appeal to anyone with a passing interest in topography or the travels and travails of bands during the golden age of rock music. Combining contemporaneous maps, detailed tour statistics and reviews of each of Zappa's 111 official albums, it is an original and informative overview of an extraordinary artist.

FZ88 follows in the wake of our hugely successful Zappa The Hard Way, written by Zappa aficionado Andrew Greenaway. That title published in 2010 documented Zappa's last tour in great detail. The only thing it really lacked was a swathe of great photos to accompany the insightful and in-depth story. This new title now completes the picture in more ways than one, built around the photos of Sergio `Milo' Albonico. The name will be familiar to Zappa buffs as Albonico was Zappa's official photographer and his photos were used on the 1988 tour programme as well as the album release Guitar. An extensive selection of Albonico's photos adorn the pages of this book. With additional text from Greenaway that puts the photos in context, along with words from Albonico, this publication is further enhanced by other previously unpublished photos as well as memorabilia from the time. This collection is a visual documentary of Zappa's last tour and a perfect companion to Zappa The Hard Way. But it also stands alone as a great collection of never-before-seen photos of Zappa from the rehearsals and concerts of his last tour.

Following his highly successful previous book, Zappa The Hard Way, Frank Zappa specialist Andrew Greenaway's second tome on the influential cult artist is something completely different! Frank Talk: The Inside Stories of Zappa's Other People is compiled from over 40 interviews Greenaway has conducted during the past three decades, with the people who knew and worked with the legendary composer and musician. From Zappa's own family (including his brother and sister and eldest son, Dweezil), through to members of the Mothers of Invention such as Jimmy Carl Black, Roy Estrada & Don Preston - major discoveries like guitarists Warren Cuccurullo (who went on to much success with Duran Duran) & Steve Vai (Alcatrazz / Dave Lee Roth / Whitesnake) plus drummer extraordiniare Terry Bozzio who later formed Missing Persons as well as working with luminaries such as Jeff Beck and Mick Jagger, through to the likes of Ike Willis, Scott Thunes and Mike Keneally who played in Zappa's last touring band. Augmented with artwork and caricatures created by noted designer Antero Valerio, Frank Talk gives an extraordinary insight into this musical genius that is piled on in layers. With Greenaway's recognised knowledge of Zappa this book will undoubtedly compliment his previous title and be every bit as revered.

'Zappa The Hard Way' is the story of Frank Zappa's last ever world tour that ended in mutiny. In 1988 Frank Zappa toured with a twelve-piece band that had rehearsed for months, learned a repertoire of over 100 songs and played an entirely different set each night. It is why, in Zappa's own words, it was "the best band you never heard in your life" - a reference to East Coast American audiences who never got the chance to see this particular touring ensemble. Zappa appointed bass player Scott Thunes to rehearse the group in his absence. In carrying out this role, Thunes was apparently abrasive, blunt and rude to the other members and two factions quickly developed: Thunes and stunt guitarist Mike Keneally on the one side; the remaining nine band members on the other. The atmosphere deteriorated as the tour progressed through America and on to Europe. Before leaving Europe, Zappa told the band that there were ten more weeks of concerts booked in the USA and asked them: "If Scott's in the band, will you do the tour?" With the exception of Keneally, they all said "no". Rather than replace Thunes, Zappa cancelled almost three months of concerts and never toured again - claiming to have lost $400,000 in the process. 'Zappa The Hard Way' documents that tour. If you think touring can be fun, think again! Yes there were groupies and the usual paraphernalia associated with rock 'n' roll, but there was also bitterness and skulduggery on a scale that no one could imagine. Author Andrew Greenaway has interviewed the surviving band members and others associated with the tour to unravel the goings on behind the scenes that drove Zappa to call a halt to proceedings, despite the huge personal financial losses. This paperback edition includes a foreword by Zappa's sister Candy, and an afterword by Pauline Butcher, Zappa's former secretary and author of 'Freak Out! My Life With Frank Zappa', 'Zappa The Hard Way' might just be the best book you've never read in your life!