Bill Bruford, once called the godfather of progressive-rock drumming, has been at the top of his profession for four decades. This is his memoir of life at the heart of prog rock, art rock, and modern jazz, playing with Yes, King Crimson, Genesis, Earthworks and many more. It is an honest and entertaining account of life on the road and in the studio, rubbing shoulders with the famous, the less famous, and the infamous, and creating an impressive tally of great music. A rock musician with the temperament of a classical musician who became a jazz musician, Bruford defies all the cliches about drummers. He says: "You write what you have to write, you play what you have to play, because you cannot sleep at night. If you can sleep at night, you shouldn't be doing this anyway." From time to time, at polite dinner parties, someone will ask Bill what he does. He replies that he is a musician. "Yes, but what do you really do?" retorts the enquirer. This unusual, funny and insightful music memoir answers that question.

This book is a description of how one drummer, Bill Bruford of Yes, King Crimson, Genesis and U.K. fame, survived the lunacy that accompanies a professional musician's existence and still retained the desire to sit at the drumset and play. It is a compendium of 18 of Bruford's recorded works in notated form, together with scene-setting and some explanation of how and why he arrived at the end product. For the compulsive practisers amongst his readership he has included a few exercises that may or may not be related to the music which precedes them in the chapter. If the narrative casts a somewhat jaundiced eye on the reasons drummers play the things they play the author makes no apologies for that. Published by Foruli Classics - dedicated to bringing the best out-of-print music and popular culture books back into print.

It all started in London. More than fifty years ago, a generation of teens created something that would change the face of music forever. London, Reign Over Me immerses us in the backroom clubs, basement record shops, and late-night faint radio signals of 1960s Britain, where young hopefuls like Peter Frampton, Dave Davies, and Mick Jagger built off American blues and jazz to form a whole new sound. Author Stephen Tow weaves together original interviews with over ninety musicians and movers-and-shakers of the time to uncover the uniquely British story of classic rock's birth. Capturing the stark contrast of bursting artistic energy with the blitzkrieg landscape leftover from World War II, London, Reign Over Me reveals why classic rock 'n' roll could only have been born in London. A new sound from a new generation, this music helped spark the most important cultural transformation of the twentieth century. Key interviews include: * Jon Anderson (Yes) * Ian Anderson (Jethro Tull) * Rod Argent (The Zombies) * Chris Barber (Chris Barber Jazz Band) * Joe Boyd (Producer/manager) * Arthur Brown (Crazy World of Arthur Brown) * David Cousins (The Strawbs) * Dave Davies (The Kinks) * Spencer Davis (Spencer Davis Group) * Judy Dyble (Fairport Convention) * Ramblin' Jack Elliott (Solo folk/blues artist) * Peter Frampton (Humble Pie, solo artist) * Roger Glover (Deep Purple) * Steve Howe (Yes) * Neil Innes (Bonzo Dog Band; Monty Python) * Kenney Jones (The Small Faces; The Who) * Greg Lake (King Crimson; Emerson, Lake & Palmer) * Manfred Mann (Manfred Mann) * Terry Marshall (Marshall Amplification) * Dave Mason (Traffic) * Phil May (The Pretty Things) * John Mayall (The Bluesbreakers) * Jim McCarty (The Yardbirds) * Ian McLagan (The Small Faces) * Jacqui McShee (The Pentangle) * Peter Noone (Herman's Hermits) * Carl Palmer (Atomic Rooster; Emerson, Lake & Palmer) * Jan Roberts (Eel Pie Island Documentary Project) * Paul Rodgers (Free) * Peggy Seeger (Solo folk artist) * Hylda Sims (Club owner) * Keith Skues (DJ: Radio Caroline, Radio London, Radio One) * Jeremy Spencer (Fleetwood Mac) * John Steel (The Animals) * Al Stewart (Solo folk artist) * Dick Taylor (The Pretty Things) * Ray Thomas (The Moody Blues) * Richard Thompson (Fairport Convention) * Rick Wakeman (The Strawbs, Yes) * Barrie Wentzell (Photographer: Melody Maker)

Uncharted: Creativity and the Expert Drummer is a study of creativity in the context of expert popular music instrumental performance. What do expert drummers do? Why do they do it? Is there anything creative about it? If so, how might that creativity inform their practice and that of others in related artistic spheres? Applying ideas from cultural psychology to findings from research into the creative behaviors of a specific subset of popular music instrumentalists, Bill Bruford demonstrates the ways in which expert drummers experience creativity in music performance and offers fresh insights into in- the- moment interactional processes in music. An expert practitioner himself, Dr. Bruford draws on the perceptions of a cohort of internationally renowned, peak- career professionals and his own experience to introduce and guide the reader through the many dimensions of creativity in drummer performance.