Always steered by Alex Paterson, The Orb were the mischief-making pioneers of the late 80s acid house revolution. Inventing "ambient house", they took it to the top of the charts, before continuing its idiosyncratic flight path through subsequent decades, battling meteor storms en route. Babble On An' Ting, the first full account of Paterson's life, written by long-time friend Kris Needs in close collaboration with Alex, reveals a frequently astonishing journey from traumatic childhood through punk, Killing Joke and KLF to starting The Orb in 1988, then the five decade roller coaster that followed. Moving, shocking, hilarious and inspiring, at the heart of this story lies a true survivor doggedly following their musical passion. First-hand interviews include those with Youth, Andrew Weatherall, Primal Scream, Jah Wobble, Jimmy Cauty and a parade of friends, collaborators and starship mechanics.

The first in-depth biography of one of music's most fascinating, colourful and innovative characters. This book is the most comprehensive history yet of the life, music and cultural significance of the last of the great black music pioneers and the era which spawned him. Clinton stands alongside James Brown, Jimi Hendrix and Sly Stone as one of the most influential black artists of all time who, along with his vast P-Funk army took black funk into the US charts and sold out stadiums by the mid 1970s with his mind-blowing shows and legendary Mothership extravaganzas. The book contains first hand interview material with Clinton, Bootsy Collins, Jerome "Bigfoot" Brailey, Junie Morrison, Bobby Gillespie, Afrika Bambaataa, Jalal Nuriddin (Last Poets), Juan Atkins, John Sinclair, Rob Tyner (MC5), Ed Sanders (The Fugs), Chip Monck ("The Voice of Woodstock") plus other P-Funk associates and friends. The book presents an insiders' view of the rise of Parliament and Funkadelic from the doowop era and LSD-crazed early shows through to P-Funk's huge rise, the era of the Mothership and beyond.

The New York Dolls played an integral role in laying the foundations of punk rock. By taking the flamboyant sass of Jagger and Richards to outrageous extremes and combining it with down-and-dirty rock 'n' roll, the Dolls -- fronted by icons David Johansen and Sylvan Sylvain -- brought the punk scene to a fever pitch and inspired both fans and musicians like the Sex Pistols and Marilyn Manson. From their origins in the street gangs of New York's outer boroughs, through their recent rebirth and the untimely death of bassist Arthur Kane, "Trash! offers a comprehensive look at these gender-bending scenesters.
Featuring first-hand reminiscences, interviews with band members, revealing tour anecdotes, archival material, and 75 black-and-white photos, "Trash! covers every leopard-clad inch of these glamsters' heyday. Set mostly in the chaotic and creative maelstrom of the mid-'70s New York scene, the book also profiles the individual band members' post-Dolls careers.

If one band could be said to symbolize British punk in its heyday, that band is The Clash. As a young journalist on tour with all of punk's biggest names, Kris Needs forged lifelong friendships with The Clash while witnessing their wild exploits firsthand. One of the first journalists to see the band live, Needs championed them from the start, becoming close friends with Joe Strummer and the rest of the group, accompanying them on many major tours, and being present at pivotal moments in their career. Combining his own anecdotal and press material from the era with a wealth of biographical detail and photographs, Needs illuminates the legend with accounts of life-changing gigs, on-the-road antics, and the recording sessions that produced the critically revered and ever-popular albums. The book pays special attention to the late Joe Strummer - his motivations and passions and his place as a punk pioneer.

"The World's Blackest White Man." "The World's Most Elegantly Wasted Human Being." "The Human Riff." These descriptions are all part of the myth surrounding the legendary songwriter and rhythm guitarist of the Rolling Stones. A veteran observer of the rock scene on both sides of the Atlantic, Kris Needs has interviewed Keith Richards regularly for 25 years. Drawing on archives, interviews, and his encyclopedic knowledge of the Stones' discography, he reveals the complex man behind the myth, from blues-infatuated working class kid to world-renowned musician nearly ruined by heroin to present-day elder statesman of rock who continues to find personal redemption in music.

Just A Shot Away:69 Revisited is veteran author-journalist Kris Needs' highly-personal account of 1969 as he experienced it happening; from starting the year as a wide-eyed 14-year-old Rolling Stones/Hendrix nut and turning 15 the day Brian Jones died to becoming part of the UK's longest-running club and befriending its hottest new band. There have been endless books that take a well-researched look at that tumultuous year but few that actually live it in real time. Rather than recycle hoary cliches about Manson and Altamont snuffing the 60s after Woodstock's brief optimism, or any ludicrous rivalry between the Beatles and Stones, Kris remembers the gigs, bands and records that bombarded his own young radar and helped shape his future life as a music writer, DJ and, briefly fan club secretary. With John Peel a lifeline, 1969 was pivotal for Kris, including the births of the legendary Friars Aylesbury rock club, for which he designed the membership card and flyers, Pete Frame's Zigzag magazine, which he later wrote for before becoming editor, and Mott The Hoople, who he befriended after they played his school dance and ended up running their fan club. As a member of the Jimi Hendrix fan club, he witnessed the guitarist in concert, plunging himself in black music and becoming fascinated with the Black Power movement. As a lifelong Stones fan, he saw them early and ended up hanging out with Keith Richards in later years. There was never time to care about the death of a decade in which he was coming alive, let alone any loss of innocence when he couldn't lose his fast enough. With Foreword by his mentor Pete Frame, Kris's 45 year career as a music writer impacts on the narrative time machine fashion, including sessions with Keith Richards, Captain Beefheart, George Clinton and Marianne Faithfull, epic conversations with Ian Hunter, the Doors, the Magic Band, the Fugs, Traffic, Silver Apples, Last Poets, "voice of Woodstock" Chip Monck and many more. Obviously, the book gains perspectives and knowledge from 50 years reading, writing, listening, investigating and living a life the teenage Needs (or anyone else, for that matter!) could never have imagined, some of those leading characters becoming lifelong friends. The book also carries a sad back story as, while Kris was writing it, his beloved partner Helen, who he fell in love with at a Mott The Hoople reunion gig in 2013, succumbed to cancer, his grief inevitably tangible and casting a tragic shadow over the story. Helen's death instilled a greater appreciation of life when it was just getting under way, along with the romantic notion that none of his many experiences can ever compare to finding his true soul mate. Helen's death resulted in Kris moving back to the family home with his 93-year-old mum; now writing in the same bedroom where he experienced 1969 as it unfolded, and still getting told to turn down his Rolling Stones records! Once Kris finished writing the book, it was twice as long as the average music tome so will now come in two volumes, each covering half that year.