David Bowie needs no introduction. An immense star whose music and writing transcended generations he was one of the most articulate influencers of modern music. Over fifty years his singles and albums slid up and down the bestseller charts, adapting to the changing times, exploring new musical themes, always pushing at boundaries in a desperate desire to seek out the new and the different. This fantastic new, unofficial biography covers his life, music, art and movies.

Pink Floyd are one of the world's most successful rock bands of all time. After their breakthrough record, "The Dark Side Of The Moon", brought prog rock to the masses, they have never looked back, and their influence continues today in rock, ambient and techno music. "Pink Floyd: Glorious Torment" is an unofficial, intriguing review of their path to mega success, tracking too the dismay of Syd Barrett's decline and the battles and the glory of their music. Covering all the major events in their long career this great new book is accompanied by revealing and evocative images of the band.

This is an informative and thorough account of Tommy Docherty's spell at Manchester United. It also looks at the post-United careers of those who played in his sides and who came to love and loathe him.

Their songs have been covered by acts as diverse as Ride, Boney M, and the Sex Pistols; they impressed Pete Townsend so much that he asked their guitarist to join the already successful Who; said guitarist pioneered the use of a bow on guitar strings--a trick later plagiarized by Jimmy Page; and they have been cited as an influence by the likes of Paul Weller and John Lydon. Yet The Creation never had a hit single or even made an album in their two-year recording career, from 1966-68. But nevertheless, they are cherished by generations of fans. This is their untold story.

Are you enamored with instant messaging? Would you like to learn how to create your own messaging application? This book shows you how, by dissecting Gaimthe world's most popular open source instant messaging application. Authored by the Gaim maintainer, -->Sean Egan-->, you are presented with a thorough overview of Gaim architecture and application programming interface.

You'll learn how to make the most of the popular GTK+ graphical user interface toolkit. Egan guides you through the creation and installation of plug-ins, and discusses strategies involved in supporting messaging protocols like MSN Messenger, AIM and IRC. He also covers topics such as multi-platform support and internationalization.

Bob Dylan's impact on popular music has been incalculable. Having transformed staid folk music into a vehicle for coruscating social commentary, he then swept away the romantic platitudes of rock 'n' roll with his searing intellect. From the zeitgeist-encapsulating protest of 'Blowin' in the Wind' to the streetwise venom of 'Like a Rolling Stone', and from the stunning mid-sixties trilogy of albums - Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde - to Time Out of Mind, his stunning if world-weary comeback at the age of 56, Dylan's genius has endured, underpinned by the dazzling turn of phrase that has made him the pre-eminent poet of popular music. Because Dylan's achievements have no equal, his career is the most chronicled in rock history. Here, Sean Egan presents a selection of the best writing on Dylan, both praise and criticism. Interviews, essays, features and reviews from Dylan intimates and scholars such as John Bauldie, Michael Gray, Nat Hentoff and Jules Siegel are interspersed with new narrative and reviews of every single album to create a comprehensive picture of the artist whose chimes of freedom still resound.

Over 30 landmark interviews, accounts, and memoirs of The Beatles and their entourage, recording how they inadvertently became counter-culture's figureheads and changed society. The pieces include Paul Johnson's 'The Menace of Beatlism', Maureen Cleave's 'Beatles Bigger than Christ' feature, the News of the World feature suggesting The Beatles were spent forces - just before they unleashed Sergeant Pepper on the world - interviews with their entourage and main loves; plus latter-day contributions from the likes of Paul Gambacinni, Dave Marsh, Greil Marcus. Also included is a chronological tracing of each Beatles album and single, and analysis of all Beatles movie releases and television appearances.

The iconic life and career of the famed guitarist of the Rolling Stones is detailed in this compilation of interviews that spans the last 50 years. Featuring articles from GQ, Melody Maker, and Rolling Stone, as well as interviews that have never previously appeared in print, it charts Keith Richards's journey from gauche, young pretender and swaggering epitome of the zeitgeist to beloved elder statesman of rock. Initially overshadowed by band mates Mick Jagger and Brian Jones, Richards gained popularity as half of the second-most important songwriting team of the 1960s, and in 1967 the drug bust at his house and his subsequent trial and imprisonment made him a household name. His interviews match his outlaw image: free of banality and euphemism, they revel in frank stories of drugs and debauchery. Yet they also reveal an unexpectedly warm, unpretentious, articulate, and honest man. This collection amply illustrates the magic and charm of Keith Richards.

James Kirkwood is the forgotten man of American lettersIn 1975, he had two shows playing on Broadway, while his latest novel Some Kind of Hero saw reviewers comparing him to Saul Bellow and Joseph Heller. One of those shows - A Chorus Line - won him a Pulitzer Prize for his co-writing contribution and went on to become the biggest stage phenomenon in history. Yet today his work is largely out of print and his name rarely mentioned.Kirkwood led a life that was as gripping as any of his novels or plays. The son of silent screen stars, he grew up in Hollywood surrounded by celebrities and opulence before his parents went broke. His childhood was littered with trauma, including finding the dead body of his mother's fianc when he was twelve. Before writing, his professional life encompassed the coast guard, stand-up comedy and soap opera acting. His private life was equally varied, involving loving sexual relationships with both men and women.Sean Egan - author of seventeen books - took over seven years to write this definitive biography, interviewing more than sixty of Kirkwood's family, lovers, colleagues, friends and adversaries in the process. In a sweeping narrative that takes in Hollywood in the Twenties, the boom era of New York nightclubs in the Forties and the Eighties AIDS holocaust, Ponies & Rainbows both details a remarkable life and seeks to re-establish an even more remarkable talent.

The year 1979 was a seminal watershed moment in rock music. The year saw the release of Pink Floyd's The Wall, David Bowie's Lodger, Led Zeppelin's In Through the Out Door, Bob Dylan's Slow Train Coming, Fleetwood Mac's Tusk, Elvis Costello and the Attractions' Armed Forces, Joe Jackson's Look Sharp! and I'm the Man, Stiff Little Fingers' Inflammable Material, Gary Numan/Tubeway Army's Replicas and the Pleasure Principle, Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures, the Jam's Setting Sons, the Clash's London Calling, and the UK 2-Tone phenomenon. It also saw a slump in album sales, a resurgence in single sales, and the peak and bloody death of disco. Now, with the help of new and exclusive interviews with artists and producers, New Waves, Old Hands, and Unknown Pleasures tells the varied, vibrant, and often unexamined story of popular music in 1979. It reveals the stories behind key recordings, traces the trajectories of commercial and artistic successes, and explains the musical and socio-political context behind the sounds of the day.

When considered in a broader social context, The Clash stand as one of the most important musical acts in rock history. Original punks who transcended the music's minimalist origins, The Clash lived and breathed the idea that they could change the world with their art. In The Clash: The Only Band That Mattered, respected music critic Sean Egan examines The Clash's career and art through the prism of the uniquely interesting and fractious UK politics of the 1970s and '80s, without which they simply would not have existed. Tackling such subjects as The Clash's self-conscious tussles with their record label, the accusations of selling out that dogged their footsteps, their rivalry with the similarly leaning but less purist Jam, the paradoxical quality of their achieving multiplatinum success, and even whether their denunciations of Thatcherism were proven wrong, Egan has come up with new insights into a much discussed group. Clash fans, Clash haters, social historians, and political students will all find themselves entertained by his thought-provoking conclusions.

Some albums are so extraordinary that they influence generations of aspiring artists and even redefine entire genres. Such a description applies to Are You Experienced. In this revelatory book, now UPDATED AND EXPANDED, Sean Egan tells the story of the making of the Jimi Hendrix Experience's classic 1967 debut. His interviews with key figures and access to diary entries help create the definitive study of one of the most important, groundbreaking and exciting albums ever made. ..".proffers a wealth of dedicated detail. Utilising scores of new interviews, he offers a keen sense of Hendrix's impact on the London scene..." - Q ..".with copious facts for the boffin seeking tape reduction info or the beginner pondering how these imperishable sounds were fashioned, this] is an accessible, informative read"- Record Collector ..".his judgements on this album are sound and lovingly eloquent..." - Uncut "An original contribution to the enormous body of Hendrix literature" - Library Journal

THE DEFINITIVE HISTORY OF CORONATION STREET NOW IN PAPERBACK. Coronation Street was reluctantly commissioned in 1960 as a twice-weekly stop-gap until a new programme could be found to fill its airtime. Half a century later, the gritty working class serial broadcasts five times per week and remains one of the television schedules' biggest ratings-pullers. Sean Egan has been granted access to the show's creators, producers, directors, writers and actors. With their aid, he has constructed a fascinating account of how Coronation Street became the most successful drama in the history of UK television. Acclaim for 50 Years of Coronation Street: The (Very) Unofficial Story. "An invaluable guide to the making of a television classic" - Michael Cox, former Coronation Street director and producer. "It rings very true, and there are some fascinating quotes from many old colleagues. A remarkable piece of work" - John Finch, former Coronation Street scriptwriter and producer. "Diligent and astonishingly detailed research has led to an absorbing narrative" - Stan Barstow, author of A Kind of Loving, former Coronation Street consultant. "Extremely accurate in its detail" - coronationstreet.wikia.com. "Lively unofficial history" - Financial Times. Londoner Sean Egan has contributed to, among others, Billboard, Book Collector, Classic Rock, Record Collector, Tennis World, Total Film, Uncut and RollingStone.com. He has written or edited 22 books, including works on The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, The Rolling Stones, Manchester United and Tarzan. His critically acclaimed novel Sick of Being Me was published in 2003, while his 2008 collection of short stories Don't Mess with the Best carried cover endorsements from Booker Prize winners Stanley Middleton and David Storey.

The story of Eric Burdon and The Animals is the story of the Sixties. The original Animals were part of the British rhythm 'n' blues movement in the early years of that momentous decade - a movement whose love of a musical genre almost forgotten in its native America succeeded in "Bringing It All Back Home." Blessed in Eric Burdon with the most authentic white blues vocalist of their generation and a collective and astonishing capacity to reinvigorate old forms - most notably in transatlantic chart topper 'The House of the Rising Sun' - The Animals overcame bitter internecine rivalry to produce a string of truly classic singles that put them briefly on a par with The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. They also gained a reputation for remarkable live shows that showcased Burdon's almost frightening commitment to their material. By 1967, though, both music and society were changing. A trip to love-infused, LSD-drenched San Francisco convinced Burdon that R&B was redundant. His new line-up of The Animals espoused the philosophy of Flower Power and made the shift to writing their own material. Their hits 'San Franciscan Nights' and 'Sky Pilot', as well as being brilliant records, fascinatingly freeze for posterity the concerns and issues of a particular time and place. However, the 'new' Animals' affi nity for peace-and-love was not reflected by relations within the band. After personnel upheavals and a terrifying tour of Japan in 1968, the group collapsed. Animal Tracks tells the story of both versions of The Animals. Additionally, it reveals the astonishing behind-the-scenes rancour that marked the ill-fated reunions of the original band. In this UPDATED AND EXPANDED version of his definitive Animals biography, Sean Egan draws on hours of interviews with surviving Animals, both original (Eric Burdon, John Steel, Hilton Valentine, Dave Rowberry, Barry Jenkins) and 'new' (Vic Briggs, John Weider, Zoot Money, Andy Summers) to produce a compelling portrait of a truly remarkable band. Egan has also been granted unprecedented access to band member journals and archives, enabling him to reveal the story behind the recording of each and every Animal Track.

Leiber & Stoller. Mann & Weil. Greenwich & Barry. Bobby Hart. Chip Taylor. Holland-Dozier-Holland. Tony Macaulay. Stock, Aitken & Waterman. Few would recognise them in the street but they are responsible for some of the best-selling and most famous songs of all time. From Jailhouse Rock to You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' to Leader Of The Pack to (Theme From) The Monkees to Reach Out I'll Be There to Wild Thing to Build Me Up Buttercup to I Should Be So Lucky, their melodies and lyrics are embedded in the minds of music lovers worldwide. With the aid of lengthy and exclusive interviews with some of the biggest names in the history of rock and pop songwriting, Sean Egan's The Guys Who Wrote 'Em seeks to put right the lack of recognition for compositional geniuses who for most of their careers have chosen to use their musical skills to help not themselves but others achieve stardom. The result is a recounting of the story of post-Elvis popular music from an intriguing and delightful lateral angle. Amongst those to whom respected music journalist Egan has been granted access are Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller, Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil, Ellie Greenwich, Jeff Barry, Eddie and Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier, Bobby Hart, Joey Levine, Graham Gouldman, Chip Taylor, Tony Macaulay, Nicky Chinn, Mike Stock and Matt Aitken. Their anecdotes feature Elvis Presley, Phil Spector, Eric Clapton, The Shangri-Las, Diana Ross, Jimi Hendrix and a host of other iconic figures. The Guys Who Wrote 'Em is both the most comprehensive book ever written about the 'bespoke songwriter' and the fascinating, untold story of popular music. Extract to run in 'Record Collector' magazine and reviews to appear in several musicmonthlies.

The brilliant debut novel by respected music journalist Sean Egan, SICK OF BEING ME is the alternately exhilarating and harrowing story of guitarist Paul Hazelwood, from his childhood on a London council estate where he nurtures his dreams of stardom to his agonising realisation on the cusp of his thirties that talent doesn't necessarily bring success. Egan - author of four previous non-fiction titles - portrays the reality of being a struggling musician and of achieving low-level success in that profession with an authenticity that spurns the sensationalism and cartoon nature of previous literary depictions of this milieu. Similar compelling verisimilitude informs the drug scenes, which reveal the touching pain that can be hidden beneath an unpleasant junkie exterior. Vulnerable, truthful, moving and beautiful, SICK OF BEING ME is one of the great coming-of-age tales of our times. The manuscript of this remarkable literary entree has led an array of musicians and writers to garland the book with some stunning endorsements (reproduced on the cover and interior). The endorsers include Charles R. Cross, author of 'Heavier Than Heaven: A Biography Of Kurt Cobain', well known rock critic Richie Unterberger, Gary Valentine (formerly of Blondie) and Frank Allen (The Searchers). The book will attract considerable publicity in the music press, much of which Egan has written for. Coverage is also planned in the half-dozen or so UK guitarist's magazines.