The astonishing run of albums unleashed upon an unsuspecting public within the span of five years created the legend of Alice Cooper that lives on to this day. But we're talking about the original Alice Cooper group here, a band called that with a lead singer also going by that name. In other words, the legend was built by Vincent "Alice Cooper" Furnier, Michael Bruce, Glen Buxton, Dennis Dunaway and "platinum god" Neal Smith. It is all of them working together - along with producer Bob Ezrin - that created the mystique of songs like "I'm Eighteen," "Is It My Body," "Desperado," "Under My Wheels," "Be My Lover," "Elected" and "No More Mr. Nice Guy." And it is all of them working together - along with crack management in Shep Gordon and Joe Greenberg-that created the shock rock buzz that kept the newspapers full of indignation about this band set out to destroy human civilization. Easy Action: The Original Alice Cooper Group tells the story in meticulous chronological detail, from the band's early days in Phoenix as The Spiders, through being broke on the Sunset Strip, followed by a career-reviving relocation to a notorious party house on the outskirts of Pontiac, Michigan. Corroborating the improbable sequence of events is a plethora of stories from the band themselves, who explain how the original Alice Cooper group went from politely ignored pariahs in Los Angeles to international Public Enemies No. 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. Listen to the guys and their good-natured explanations behind the mayhem, and it soon becomes apparent that the ghoulish makeup around the singer's eyes and the boa constrictor around his neck - not to mention the head-choppings, the hangings and the hard rock - were all served up in good fun. Now it's time for you, dear reader, to join in the fun and see why Alice Cooper was, for a golden moment in time fully 50 years ago now, the most feared and revered act in all of rock 'n' roll.

Dublin's Thin Lizzy have become one of the most revered cult acts of all time, studious and discerning fans of hard rock the world over revelling in the storytelling acumen of the legendary Phil Lynott and the craft and class of his band. Through numerous interviews with most of the principals involved and a mountain of painstaking research Emerald; Thin Lizzy's Golden Era examines the band's career up to 1976 culminating in the superlative and sparkling Jailbreak, home of such hits as 'Cowboy Song', 'Emerald', 'Jailbreak' and 'The Boys Are Back In Town' and followed by Johnny The Fox that included the hit single 'Don't Believe A Word'. Along the way, alcohol and drugs wreaked havoc between band members, producers and managers, but despite line-up changes and a mostly grinding, rock scrabble existence, Ireland's favourite sons persevered, finally achieving the smash hit record they'd deserved for so long. Immerse yourself in Popoff's celebrated record-by-record methodology and emerge a rejuvenated Lizzy fan, newly appreciative of the deep album tracks hiding within this singular band's often forgotten early years. A revised and expanded version of Popoff's previous Dublin To Jailbreak Emerald; Thin Lizzy's Golden Era is based on interviews the author conducted specifically for the book with band members Eric Bell, Scott Gorham, Brian Downey, Gary Moore and Brian Robertson; managers Terry O'Neill and Ted Carroll; producers Nick Tauber and Ron Nevison; Nigel Grange from Vertigo; road manager Frank Murray and cover artist Jim Fitzpatrick. Revealing Phil Lynott in all his dastardly guises Emerald; Thin Lizzy's Golden Era, is an essential read for the devoted Lizzy fans.

(FAQ). Unlike any Sabbath book thus far, Black Sabbath FAQ digs deep into quirks, obscure anecdotes, and burning questions surrounding the Sabs. In a fast-moving, topical format, this book covers a tremendous amount of information, delectable to any Sabbath fan, but hard to find in a traditional biography. This rich history lives and breathes and shouts right here. And the voice behind it could not be stronger: Martin Popoff is a heavy metal expert who has authored over 30 books on the subject, including Doom Let Loose, which is widely considered the definitive biography of the band. In Black Sabbath FAQ, Popoff is like a rabid detective unearthing (and sometimes debunking) ancient lore, valiantly covering new ground, applying academic rigor, but then wildly sounding off with lurid opinion. The pendulum swings, and, though disoriented, the serious Sabbath studier is better for it come the book's doomy conclusion. Dozens of images of rare memorabilia make this book a must-have for fans.

Megadeth's run of thrash classics from the mid eighties through to the nineties continue to be celebrated in the metal community long after leader Dave Mustaine's band mates have been discarded to the sands of time-save one, Dave "Jr" Ellefson. Along the way there's Mustaine's pathology with his ex-friends in Metallica but also a hell of a lot of killer metal as the band works its way up through Peace Sells and So Far, So Good... So What! through to the superlative metal classics, namely Rust In Peace and Countdown To Extinction. Later came Cryptic Writings and Risk that threatened to kill the band but the reconstitution of Megadeth after its demoralising decline and then deflating dispersal at the destructive hand of Mustaine is a story untold... until now. But it's a tale worth telling for its instructiveness on how to rebuild and maintain a career. Quite simply the recent Megadeth story spanning the albums The World Needs A Hero through to Super Collider includes some of the beast and heaviest Megadeth ever committed to record. Celebrate Mustaine's vision track-by-track with top author Martin Popoff. With over sixty books to his name, Popoff applies his tried and tested methodology to a head-crunching canon of work that is truly as strong at the recent end of the spectrum as it is with the classics you all know and love.

Through a confluence of grinding hard rock grooves, pioneering electronics and liquid lighting, Dave Brock and his assembled astronauts of mind and space have been defining for more than fifty years now what it means to be the ultimate cult band. Ripping into the public consciousness with the Space Ritual live album of 1973, Hawkwind have never looked back, discovering new ways to equate the subatomic with the infinite, the endless void of space with totality, using the exotic language of their ever-evolving yet complex musical language, one that defies genre classification, but perhaps creates a genre all its own, namely space rock. Accompanying their more than thirty studio albums and myriad companion pieces along the way are the graphics thereof, visuals that further attempt to explain themes that are hard to articulate. Hawkwind: A Visual Biography concentrates the third eye on this part of the package, presenting pretty pictures of record covers, promo items, advertisements, ticket stubs, paper goods pertaining to side-projects and numerous photos, most previously unpublished, of Brock and crew resplendent in their live space, in hopes that the Hawk manifesto just might become a little more knowable. Aiding in that cause, Martin Popoff has provided a detailed timeline of the band’s complicated and dramatic career goings-on, helping to guide one’s way through each year and era, each hiring and firing and misfiring, each cluster of notions, audio magic potions, each sailing upon inter-stellar topographic oceans. The ultimate aim is to send older fans as well as the next generation of blaster-offer back to the original scriptures, the studio albums serving as space-flung signposts, in search of the charming and astounding sounds that gave rise to Hawkwind: A Visual Biography.

Let's face it, without the larger-than-life character and imagination of the art that complements it, metal just wouldn't have had the same impact. From the colourful, outlandish, yet sophisticated use of visuals for album artwork and posters, to the immediately recognisable logos of such bands as Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Motörhead, Metallica, Slayer, and a host of others across many subgenres, there's a close-knit relationship between the riffs that thunder from the guitar and the images that have come to represent the songs, anthems, and sheer nature of the beast. Does any other form of music immediately conjure up such evocative and distinctive images as the mere mention of the term "heavy metal" does? The answer is simple: no! From its inception in the 1960s through to today's giants, the art has been closely connected to the music. Every classic album brings to mind a readily identifiable album cover. Each great band has an immediately identifiable logo. All of the landmark gigs have a poster that quintessentially depicts the time, place, and passion of the event. It's all developed so far along the road that, today, the art that has been used to illustrate the music now stands on its own. There are exhibitions of the finest examples created by the truly outstanding artists. These works are collectible in their own right. What might have begun as a way of packaging metal has taken on a life of its own -- moreover, it's even possible to trace the way the genre itself has evolved, and changed, by looking at its art. This book explores the ways in which the art has helped define each of the crucial subgenres that make up the multifaceted and colourful centipede that is metal.

The first book ever on the classic British rock band UFO. Based around the author's many interviews with all the key players such as Phil Mogg, Pete Way & Michael Schenker. Noted author Martin Popoff takes you through the Schenker era in great detail; album-by-album, song by song along with touring anecdotes and of course, tales revolving around the wild and excessive behaviour that was very much a part of the band. Rounding if off is a full discography.

A grinding celebration of the metal gods Judas Priest in all their sumptuous glory. A photo-stuffed coffee table book with the entire fifty plus year history in meticulous timeline order - a rock-hard reference book, with the facts presented mostly soberly and efficiently. This book contains all manner of facts that also takes a detailed look at offshoot bands and side-projects throughout the visually stunning pages.

In this scintillating sequel to Sabotage! Black Sabbath in the Seventies, Martin Popoff blows up the kaleidoscopic narrative of the Sabs over the ensuing twenty years, dissecting each and every of the band's ten studio albums and two (and-a-half) live albums produced over that time period. So this is the book where we hear the gripes, snipes, swipes and thumbs-up likes from Ronnie James Dio, Ian Gillan, Glenn Hughes, Tony Martin and finally once more Ozzy Osbourne, as they remark upon this institution coddled by the anchor of the band Tony Iommi, who valiantly held Black Sabbath together through many years of blood, sweat and Tyrs. Heaven and Hell, Mob Rules, Live Evil, Born Again, Seventh Star, The Eternal Idol, Headless Cross, Tyr, Dehumanizer, Cross Purposes, Forbidden and finally, extensively broken down, Reunion... they're all here, song by song, the hirings and the firings highlighted and explained. Incorporating talk from over 60 interviews conductive with band members and other relevant parties over 25 years, make no mistake-this is the most in-depth examination of the band during this timeframe ever executed. So come one and all, re-love modern-era Black Sabbath all over again-you'll be pleasantly surprised at how much dastardly doom there is from Tony Iommi that you need to know and embrace once again.

In Dominance and Submission: The Blue Oyster Cult Canon, three-time BOC book author Martin Popoff turns the microphone away from himself to moderate a gathered and esteemed panel of Cult experts for deep-dive discussions on every Blue Oyster Cult studio album. No stone is left unturned, as we look at the personalities in the band, every song, every album cover, the band’s highly regarded lyrics as poetry, their music as ground-breaking and genre-defying. Dominance and Submission is set-up in Q&A format, allowing for pure and piercing prose that is also conversational and easy-access. In the end, the author is confident that the wise words from this cabal of music authorities—with Popoff not pulling any punches either, joining in the fun when the door is opened—will have you playing the band’s “canon” with a renewed appreciation as to the complexity laced throughout such albums as Tyranny and Mutation, Agents of Fortune—with its career defining hit “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper”—Spectres, Fire of Unknown Origin and the daunting Imaginos. But have no fear, Martin and his team have taken us right up to the band’s effusively received comeback album, The Symbol Remains, bringing band and fan full circle—umlauts included, of course. Finally, augmenting the learning (and listening) experience, Dominance and Submission provides a plethora of images that make these essays on the band’s fifteen albums that much more visceral. Bottom line: if you thought Martin had covered everything you need to know in his definitive Agents of Fortune: The Blue Oyster Cult Story, think again—the analysis proffered by his panel even sent Popoff back to the sacred texts for a rock ‘n’ roll re-imagining. If he’s been made smarter by what these guys have to say, you will be too.

Quite simply, Martin Popoff’s Sabotage! Black Sabbath in the Seventies marks the most intensive analysis of Black Sabbath’s first eight albums ever attempted. This is a big book—129,000 words long, every song analysed in detail, loads of first-hand interview footage from close to 50 interrogations. In the baking, Popoff interviewed all of the principles—Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward—repeatedly, along with myriad other folks who are part of this remarkable tale. Black Sabbath, Paranoid, Master of Reality, Vol 4, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, Sabotage, Never Say Die and Technical Ecstasy… these are the building blocks of heavy metal, and within these awesome audio chapters, Popoff breaks down each and every song on each of these reverberating and cannonating records, while Geezer offers explanation of the lyrics, Bill poetically explains why these songs resonate and Tony and Oz look on with their characteristic sense of bemusement. Also touched upon are the band’s torrid troubles with money and management and drugs and booze, as well as tour tales, album cover stories and production tips ‘n’ tricks. Also included are two four-page sections of colour plates. All told, it’s everything needed to send the reader back to the catalogue, headphones on, for a second listen of this landmark run of records spanning 1970’s self-titled debut to 1978’s Never Say Die, the shambling, controversial last gasp before Ozzy’s shocking ouster from the ranks.

In 1974, Alice Cooper shocked the rock world, scooped up his makeup kit and went solo. Consummated by a legal name change from Vincent Furnier to Alice Cooper, "the man behind the mask" never looked back, writing and recording fully 21 studio albums across a roller-coaster career that is now nearly 60 years on in the business, with almost 50 of that on his own, calling the shots as a man and brand with a plan, often guided by manager Shep Gordon, one of the best in the biz. Feed My Frankenstein: Alice Cooper, the Solo Years charts this action-packed era for Alice, beginning with the smash success of the Welcome to My Nightmare album and tour and hitting a nadir with the blackout years of the early '80s, where Alice nearly died from booze and hard drugs before being brought back by his faith in God and by the good graces of his wife Sheryl. Next came Alice's third wave of major success with Trash and Hey Stoopid, followed by a settling into regular record-making and touring duties, culminating in some of his best work quite recently, with Dirty Diamonds, Along Came a Spider and 2021's Detroit Stories. All of this is celebrated in Feed My Frankenstein, meticulously charted with timeline entries that are extensively explained and corroborated by a gallery of Alice's band members throughout the decades. Helping bring the story to life is a smorgasbord of imagery, from live photography through to all manner of memorabilia, underscoring how visceral the visual has always been for this legendary showman. Get on board and get a sense of how each and every one of Alice's 21 solo albums work, along with an understanding of how absolutely and insanely jam-packed life has been for Alice since 1974 when he and Shep rolled the dice, pooled all their resources and took us on an all-guns-blazing tour of Alice's sleeping brain. Indeed, once rolling, it just never stopped. Next station was Hell, followed by a visit to the asylum and then, down the road apiece, Brutal Planet, Dragontown and finally Michigan for some Detroit Stories. It's all here in red, black and blue - bring your camera.

Having written the first book ever on UFO, 2005's long out-of-print Shoot Out the Lights, Martin Popoff, author of over seventy rock books, has now greatly expanded and rewritten the later years material from that title, bringing us now Lettin' Go: UFO in the `80s & `90s. Popoff brings to the project new interviews with the key members throughout the decades, along with a substantial amount of new research to offer what is now the only book to focus on the eighties and nineties era of the band that saw huge turbulence amongst the ranks. Utilising his celebrated one album per chapter method, Popoff analyses the complete catalogue from the period of the band where initially Paul Chapman takes over from the departed Michael Schenker for the albums. No Place To Run, The Wild, the Willing and the Innocent, Mechanix and Making Contact. The journey takes us through the albums following the departure of Chapman and bassist Pete Way and concludes with 1995's Walk On Water that sees the classic line-up reunited with Schenker back on guitar before he sensationally walked out on the band after just four shows of the supporting tour. In and around Popoff's famed meticulous analysis of the catalogue, look for lots of tour talk, revealing nightmares surrounding the band's business, and warnings about how the twin demons of drugs and alcohol can slow a band's progress on the way to the top.

Denim and Leather is 260 pages of biker metal hail after hail, with two four-page photo sections, loads of fresh interview content, all the facts and dates and even some of the hot disputes. As the back cover crows... Stand Up and Be Counted! Now that there's no more Motorhead, it's up to Iron Maiden and Saxon to uphold the fine tradition of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, something both bands have been doing for over 40 years now. Indeed, 2020 marked the 40th anniversary of Saxon's landmark Wheels of Steel album, a record we celebrate in this book with much reverence and many pints of ale clinked between headbangers clad in both denim and leather. Of course there's more than that but not everything! Indeed, Denim and Leather: Saxon's First Ten Years focuses on the band's golden era, Saxon's prodigious first decade of output. Saxon, Wheels of Steel, Strong Arm of the Law, Denim and Leather, Power & the Glory, Crusader, Innocence Is No Excuse, Rock the Nations and Destiny each are dedicated stand-alone chapters, inside of which Popoff deconstructs every song across both sides of the original vinyl, while not forgetting bonus tracks and B-sides, as well as the live material along the way, including the beloved The Eagle Has Landed album. It's a glory-bound Saxon-fest that is long overdue, and it is the hope of the author that at the end of this sometimes critical examination that the reader returns to these records with new reflections on the NWOBHM and some of the detrimental things that came after for many bands, the heroes of our story included.

No question Scorpions, Germany's loudest and proudest rock band ever, have been one of that country's most successful musical exports. Wind of Change documents the band's career with analysis of every song on every album the Teutonic tone-masters ever crafted.Beginning with Lonesome Crow back in '72 through to the triumphant "retirement" album Sting In The Tail, and beyond into Comeblack - the stories of their making are all here. Wind of Change draws on the authors interviews with all of the principals and beyond, including Klaus Meine, Uli Jon Roth, Herman Rarebell, Rudolf Schenker and Matthias Jabs, along with the likes of legendary manager David Krebs, Ralph Rieckermann and Francis Buchholz.

Yes: A Visual Biography I: 1968 - 1981 documents the progressive rock pioneer's first twelve years from the release of their eponymous debut album through to 1980's Drama: A suitable name for a band whose career has been full of drama as documented in Popoff's narrative that charts Yes's ups and downs as the band glided out of the sixties with a full-on assault on the seventies music scene that saw them become one of the biggest global acts-selling out venues around the world from New York's Madison Square Garden to London's Wembley Arena. Popoff takes you on a journey from the early days of the band with original members Chris Squire, Jon Anderson, Bill Bruford, Peter Banks and Tony Kaye; to the hugely successful seventies when the likes of Steve Howe, Patrick Moraz, Rick Wakeman and Alan White all added their individual stamps on the band's identity. Then the surprise union with The Buggles that saw Yes enter the eighties a world apart from the way they had entered the seventies but continuing to delight their legion of fans.