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Cleopatra has its place as one of the most fabled films of all
time. While others have won more Oscars, attracted better reviews
and taken more money at the box office, the 1963 film starring
Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton stands alone in cinema legend.
What began in 1958 as a $2 million vehicle for Joan Collins
eventually opened five years later, having cost more than twenty
times that amount. The making of the film soon became a cautionary
tale, for the lavish extravagance of Cleopatra all but bankrupted
20th Century Fox and almost singlehandedly set in motion the
decline of the major studios. Actors and filmmakers were hired and
fired at a breathtaking rate, and by the time the film was finally
released, Hollywood could only watch in horror as it died at the
box office. This is an epic tale of love and lust; of gossip,
money, sex, movie-star madness, studio politics and the birth of
paparazzi journalism. Within the saga of Cleopatra lies the end of
the era of Hollywood's studio system, the seeds of the Swinging
Sixties, and the stuff of timeless movie legend.
A biography of Nick Drake, the British singer-songwriter who died in 1974 at the age of 26.
In what was a momentous year of social change, the Rolling Stones
experienced the most significant twelve months of their career. At
the start of 1969, they were a successful blues band returning to
their rock’n’roll roots after a recent experiment with
psychedelia. By December, they had released the classic album Let
It Bleed, lost one of their founding members, played an
era-defining concert at Hyde Park to half a million people and
witnessed a fan stabbed to death at Altamont Speedway. With a
notorious 1967 drug bust on their CV and a career finally coming
out from under the shadow of their rivals The Beatles, everything
– the good, the bad and the ugly – suddenly crystallised for
the Stones as the Swinging Sixties stumbled to a close. Rolling
Stones 69 is the definitive account of the transformative year that
saw the Stones truly earn their reputation as “the greatest
rock’n’roll band in the world”.
'It's Number One - it's Top of the Pops'. It's not just the story
of a long-running television programme. The story of Top of the
Pops is the story of British popular music. It is a shadow history
of British rock & roll, and beyond. It is the story of 'Auntie'
BBC getting down with the kids. It is the story of how a 6-week
show turned into a pan-global phenomenon and how for 40 years, Top
of the Pops was a British institution. 'It's Number One - it's Top
Of The Pops' for every generation from 1964, until the show ended
in 2006, that was the sentence every young television viewer sat
down to hear. At its peak, a quarter of the UK's entire population
was watching. Top Of The Pops was the pivotal pop television
programme over its 2,000 weekly episodes, the programme gave peak
airtime to every act, from The Beatles to Beyonce - from Cream to
Coldplay - from Pink Floyd to Pink! From its humble beginnings in
1964 from a disused church through to the programme's pan-global
appeal in the 1990s, Top Of The Pops has become synonymous with the
best in pop television. With a span of nearly half a century, there
are so many highlights: The Beatles only live appearance, in 1966,
promoting 'Paperback Writer' - the Who getting banned - the first
colour edition in 1969 - David Bowie's breakthrough performance of
'Starman' in 1972 - Nirvana's chaotic 1991 appearance promoting
'Smells Like Teen Spirit' - the Blur versus Oasis battle - Justin
Timberlake playing bass with the Flaming Lips in 2003 - Top Of The
Pops II was launched in 1994, bringing the programme to a whole new
audience. Around the same time, the BBC licensed the "Top Of The
Pops" brand to over 90 countries, with estimated audience of 100
million. Though it ceased broadcasting in 2006, thanks to the
internet, compilation CDs; repeated viewing on BBC4 - Top Of The
Pops lives on. This is the first book to tell that incredible
story.
It's an album-by-album, track-by-track run down of every Beatles
song on record and includes "The Beatles Live At the BBC" album,
various compilations and the three best-selling Anthology sets
released in 1995 and the 1 compilation, the Love medley CD and the
re-mastered back catalogue albums.
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