As a first-generation British-born black, Don Letts quickly learned to assimilate aspects of Jamaican culture into inner-city urban London life. Leaving school, he gravitated to Chelsea’s King’s Road, inhabiting the fashion world alongside Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren. As resident DJ at the fledgling punk club The Roxy, Letts pumped a roots-reggae soundtrack to a predominantly white audience that included members of The Clash and the Sex Pistols, forging a link between the two clashing cultures.

A chance meeting provided him with a Super-8 movie camera, the result of which was released as The Punk Rock Movie and set Letts on a career resulting in over 300 influential promo videos featuring Sex Pistols, Pil, the Slits, The Clash, Bob Marley, and even the platinum-selling Musical Youth, and most recently Franz Ferdinand. His feature films include Dancehall Queen, the Grammy Award-winning Westway to the World—his documentary on the Clash—and Clash on Broadway. He recently directed feature documentaries for the BBC on Sun Ra, Gil Scott-Heron and George Clinton as well as a major BBC documentary for 2007, Soul Britannia, charting the impact of black music on British culture.

Alongside The Clash’s Mick Jones in Big Audio Dynamite, Letts pioneered dance culture and sampling techniques, hanging out with Africa Bambaataa, Grandmaster Flash, and the cream of the New York City hip-hop scene.

Admired by Fellini, a friend of Bob Marley and John Lydon, and a documentarian of The Clash, Don Letts has never pigeonholed himself. This book is a first hand account, told in Letts’ own words—it’s highly visual, revelatory, irreverent, entertaining, and staunchly individual.

Don Letts was born in London, where he now lives. The authors will be participating in a national broadcast and press campaign to coincide with the publication of the book.

Autobiography/memoir
Publication date: 22nd March 2007
A Hardback Original
156mm x 234mm, 256 pp
Over 100 colour photographs and illustrations
UK £16.99 US $30
Report code: NP
ISBN: 0 946719 89 6
EAN: 978-0-946719-89-1
BIC Code: CV
Availability: Worldwide

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Daevid Allen

Part one of Daevid Allen’s amazing autobiography:
From Soft Machine to the Birth of Gong

For forty years Gong, and their enigmatic leader Daevid Allen, have been at the forefront of psychedelic music, with seminal albums such as Camembert Electrique, Angel’s Egg and Radio Gnome Invisible, Pt1: Flying Teapot.

Originally published as a very limited subscription edition in 1994, Gong Dreaming 1 depicts the early years of Daevid Allen’s path to England in the Sixties, through the formation of the legendary Soft Machine and on to the conception of what was to become his life’s work: Gong. Covering his years in playing at the legendary UFO club, the first US tour with the then almost unknown Jimi Hendrix, the Paris student riots and much more, the book offers a rare insight into the hippie dream.

The original edition sold out before it was published, and copies are now highly sought after collector’s items.

Publication date: November 2006

A Deluxe Hardback original
248 x 174mm, 144 pp
UK £16.99 US $24.95
100 B&W photographs & illustrations
ISBN: 0-946719-82-9
Previous edition: 1 899475 00 1
 

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Former Whitesnake guitarist’s hilarious rock’n’roll tales from the British blues boom of the sixties.

By the age of nineteen, Micky Moody had left home twice, recorded two LPs for the famous Island label, fathered a child, and formed bands with Paul Rodgers (Free) and Bruce Thomas (Elvis Costello).

Raised in Northern England in the Fifties, music represented a way for a working class lad to escape further education or the steelworks. With gritty wit and self-deprecating humour, Moody takes us to grotty hotels, the move to London, the legendary Marquee, brushes with John Mayall, the competition with other aspiring hopefuls to follow in the footsteps of Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck, whilst endless changes of line-up and the battle for recognition take its toll on all concerned. 

In 1981, whilst onstage with hard rockers Whitesnake at the Monsters of Rock Festival at Donnington Park, in a rare moment of self-analysis as he raised a clenched fist in salute to 65,000 faithful fans, Micky Moody pondered the question, “How the hell did I get here?” This is that story…….

Anyone with aspirations of playing in a band for a living will empathise with this romp through the days when rock was young and innocent.

· Playing with Trumpets will be supported by a full media campaign with TV and radio interviews, features in national broadsheets, culture magazines and the music press.

Autobiography/memoir 
Publication date: 22 June 2006 
A Hardback Original
156mm x 234mm, 256 pp
UK £14.99 US $26.95
Report code: NP
ISBN: 0 946719 86 1
EAN: 978 0 946719 86 0
BIC Code: CV
Availability: Worldwide

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“Until now the only true record we had of this amazing time was the music, the photos and our memories. Jeremy Reed's Orange Sunshine has succeeded in imaginatively recreating the times, and as such is an educative marvel. He's very brave and honest, deeply talented and he takes you there... a true keeper of the flame.” Andrew Loog Oldham

A recreation of the shape–shifting extravaganza of the 1960s in the form of an epic verse-documentary.

Orange Sunshine is a dynamic series of mini-biographies of the period’s major stars, cult icons and leaders of fashion.

“Reed's poetry is full of rich and careful writing, dense with pleasure.”
 Seamus Heaney

“The most beautiful gorgeous outrageously brilliant poetry in the universe.” Bjork 

“Orange Sunshine is a worthy successor to Vikram Seth’s The Golden Gate - only it rocks!”

About the author
· "the most imaginatively gifted poet since Dylan Thomas." 
· Between 1984 and 1990 he published six books with Jonathan Cape, Random House. Penguin published his Selected Poems in 1987, and Creation his Patron Saint of Eyeliner in 2001
· Recipient of an Eric Gregory Award, the Somerset Maugham Award, and the Poetry Society European Translation prize.
· His recent novel The Pleasure Chateau - described by JG Ballard as "a cross between Rimbaud with a PC, Max Ernst and Helmut Newton... the most imaginative writer today." 

Jeremy Reed will be undertaking a major publicity tour to coincide with the publication of Orange Sunshine, including national TV, press and radio. He will also be performing at a series of readings, events and literary festivals throughout 2006.

Literature
Publication date: 25 May 2006 
A Paperback Original
128mm x 198mm, 320 pp
UK £8.99 US $22.95
Report code: NP 
ISBN: 0 946719 88 8
EAN: 9780946719884
BIC Code: CT
Availability: Worldwide

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Bertie Marshall

This revealing memoir by Bertie Marshall, formerly known as “Berlin” in the notorious Bromley Contingent, cuts to the core of the punk sensibility of 1976/77. Combining the outrageous zeitgeist with the lifestyle of scenester and rent boy, Marshall’s account bristles with a searing honesty. 

The Bromley Contingent included Siouxsie Sioux, Steve Severin, Billy Idol and Jordan. Marshall is the ideal narrator, taking in Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood’s SEX shop, the formation of the Sex Pistols and the gay netherworld of late 70s London. 

Now, thirty years since his infamous BERLIN BABY’S BONDAGE PARTY, Bertie Marshall has written the post-glam, pre-punk version of THE NAKED CIVIL SERVANT.

''Berlin Bromley is an utterly compelling memoir – had Candy Darling lived in Croydon his experience would have been identical.” 
Michael Bracewell, The Guardian

• 2006 marks the 30th anniversary of the birth of punk: the Sex Pistols, surrounded by the Bromley Contingent, appear on TV with Bill Grundy and scandalise the nation.
• Berlin Bromley will be supported by a full media campaign with TV and radio interviews, features in national broadsheets, culture magazines and the music press.

Praise for Bertie Marshall’s debut novel, PSYCHOBOYS:
“you're the nastiest of the punk boys, those who know who dead pirates are” 
Kathy Acker “Intense” Dennis Cooper.

Autobiography/memoir 
Publication date: 27 April 2006 
A Hardback Original
150mm x 215mm, 224 pp
UK £12.99 US $22.95
Report code: NP
ISBN: 0 946719 93 4
EAN: 9780946719938
BIC Code: CV
Availability: Worldwide

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Graham Bennett

The definitive story of Soft Machine
with forewords by Daevid Allen, Hugh Hopper and John Etheridge

Soft Machine were one of the great British pioneering bands, they played a pivotal role in shaping psychedelic rock, progressive rock and jazz-rock fusion.

Out-Bloody-Rageous is the definitive biography of this ground-breaking band. Based on extensive interviews with members and associates of Soft Machine, it is illustrated with over eighty photographs, posters and clippings and includes a full Soft Machine family tree, concert file, discography and sessionography. Out-Bloody-Rageous is essential reading for any serious fan of rock or jazz.

Out-Bloody-Rageous traces the lives of Soft Machine’s members, pieces together the band’s serendipitous formation and colourful career, and unravels the truth, the mystique and the legend behind this most elusive of bands. It recounts the incidents and internal tensions that led to an astonishing twenty-four different line-ups and places Soft Machine’s development in the musical and social context of the time.

Publication date: October 2005
A Hardback original
156 x 234mm, 448 pp
80 B&W & Colour photographs & illustrations
ISBN: 0-946719-84-5
UK £20 US $30.00

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A fascinating, highly illustrated exploration into famous rock and rollers as superhero comic book characters.

Respected rock journalist and comic fan Ian Shirley examines the unexplored links between comics and music, from Frank Sinatra to the White Stripes and all in between.

Encompassing pop bands’ own comics—from The Beatles, Kiss, The Monkees and Johnny Cash—along with punk in comics, unauthorized comic biographies, 1960s psychedelic poster artists and fictional bands from The Maniacs to the Gorillaz, this book will look at rock and roll and comics from a totally different perspective.

Written in a clear, informative style with extensive interviews (including Alan Moore, Robert Crumb, Gilbert Sheldon and right up to Damon Albarn) and a multitude of illustrations from the original comics. With cover artwork by comic legend Mike Allred specially commissioned for the book, this will be essential reading for music and comic fans alike.

• The author will participate in an extensive TV, Radio and press campaign, including features in Sunday Times magazine and rock and comic press. 
• The UK launch of this title will be in conjunction with a major comic art exhibition, cartoon-related gigs and series of events at the ICA in London, based around the book.
• The US launch of the book will be at the Comicon convention in San Diego, CA, also in June.
  

ISBN: 0-946719-80-2
Publication date: June 2005
A Paperback Original
100 Colour and B&W illustrations and photographs
248 x 174mm, 256 pp
UK £17.99 US $24.99

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The God of Hellfire

THE CRAZY LIFE AND TIMES OF ARTHUR BROWN

Polly Marshall


“I don't remember the Floyd as vividly as I remember Arthur Brown, 'cos I mean Arthur Brown, at that time, used to just stand there and insult the members of the audience in much the same way as people like Johnny Rotten.” John Peel

“We saw Arthur Brown and his Crazy World and the whole thing was just an eye-opener to me. He used to sing ‘I am the God of hellfire’ and then he’d set fire to his fuckin’ head. That told me a lot. I knew where I was heading from then on.” George Clinton

In 1968, wearing a flaming helmet and sacrilegious robes, Arthur Brown hit the number-one slot worldwide with his hit single “Fire.” The English singer has rained a volcano of influence on pop culture ever since. The original shocker has influenced everyone from Jimi Hendrix to Marilyn Manson, stopping off at Prodigy, Peter Gabriel and Alice Cooper en route.

Polly Marshall has produced an in-depth biography that probes every facet of Arthur Brown’s complex personality. What emerges is not only a portrait of a counter culture icon and sixties pop star, but also spiritualist, free thinker, painter and decorator, as well as notorious outlaw arrested for firearms offences and public nakedness.

Arthur Brown is one of England’s true eccentrics.

· Arthur will be performing a 2-hour spectacular in his many guises at London’s Astoria on March 12th in a show compered by Howard Marks.

· Polly Marshall and Arthur Brown will be undertaking a major publicity tour to coincide with the book’s publication including national TV, press and radio. 

ISBN: 0-946719-77-2
Publication date: June 2005
A Hardback original
50 B&W illustrations and photographs
156 x 234mm, 256 pp
UK £18.99 US $30.00

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Paul Stump

Paul Stump's long-awaited biography of the most enigmatic prog-rockers of the 70s is finally close to publication

Acquiring the Taste is the story of one of the most enduring bands of the British progressive rock movement. Based around the Shulman brothers, the band quickly acquired a large cult following the world over. Concert tours in Europe and America became ever more grandiose and elaborate - and then along came punk. As with many of the bands that were seemingly killed off by the new wave revolution of 1976/77, Gentle Giant's music has endured over time and new generations are as entranced by their intricate sound as were audiences of 30 years ago.

Paul Stump is often an outspoken commentator on popular music, he has written articles for many magazines and newspapers and is an authority who has written extensively on the English progressive rock scene. He is the author of Go Ahead John: The Music of John McLaughlin and Digital Gothic a Critical Discography of Tangerine Dream both for SAF Publishing, as well as books on Roxy Music and The Music's All That Matters, the definitive analysis of Progressive Rock in Britain.

ISBN: 0 946719 35 7  Hardback
Publication: May 2005
224 pages (illustrated)
Price UK £16.99 US $24.95

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Fourteen and forlorn, Nina Antonia escaped the torment of her teens with dreams of Marc Bolan and the New York Dolls. They ruled supreme in her glam rock universe - until the night she saw Brett Smiley on the Russell Harty TV Show.

Appearing to reside in very different worlds, Nina and Brett shared the same wish - some kind of transformation through music. The youngest child ever to play 'Oliver' on Broadway, Brett seemed poised for stardom, and as the Seventies went into orbit, he found himself the protégée of Rolling Stones' svengali Andrew Loog Oldham.

Coming to terms with her damaged childhood, Nina began writing about the lives of her teen idols, resulting in a friendship with former New York Doll, Johnny Thunders. Eventually she learned of Brett's fall from the high life and his crash landing on the boulevard of broken dreams.

The Prettiest Star details two people's search for redemption, and is a tender and sad love letter to the heady days of glitter, champagne, cocaine and platform boots.

ISBN: 0 946719 83 7 A Hardback Original
B and W photographs
Publication date: May 19 2005
150 x 215mm, 192 pp
UK £14.99

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Shirley Collins

A fascinating journey into the cultural roots of traditional American Music accompanying legendary music archivist Alan Lomax

At the age of nineteen Shirley Collins was making a name for herself as a folk singer. Whilst attending a party hosted by Ewan MaColl she met the famous American musical historian and folklorist, Alan Lomax. They became romantically involved, and before long, Collins found herself alone, boarding the S.S. America, to begin an adventure almost unheard of for a young English girl at the time.

In this highly personal and heart-rending account, she describes her affair with Lomax and their year-long trip to uncover the traditional music of America's heartland. Travelling through Virginia, Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas and Georgia they recorded Mississippi Fred McDowell, met Muddy Waters and many others.

The story that emerges is of two lost worlds. With awestruck wonder Collins recounts her and Lomax's adventure into the cultural roots of the deep American South, interspersing this with memories of being brought up as a working class girl in War time Hastings. The result is a finely woven tapestry of one woman's journey, both emotional and musical, and her discovery of a world of beauty and dignity, as well as deprivation and prejudice, amongst the folk musicians over the water in America.

ISBN: 0 946719 66 7 Hardback
Publication: May 2004. Signed copies available
192 pages (illustrated)
Price UK £20

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GENESIS - A LIVE GUIDE 1969-1974

Play Me My Song

Paul Russell

The complete guide to the Gabriel years Genesis live shows

Genesis were at the forefront of the British progressive rock scene for many years prior to their rise to international superstars of Adult Oriented Rock.

From humble beginnings at Charterhouse public school, singer Peter Gabriel introduced a theatric presentation to the Genesis repertoire, with complex stage costumes, enigmatic storytelling between songs and inventive and distinctive lyrics.

The musicans in the band, Phil Collins, Mike Rutherford, Tony Banks, Anthony Phillips and Steve Hackett added an amazing array of highly original soundtracks for Gabriel to act out his fantasy characters, night after night on tour to adulatory fans.

Paul Russell has interviewed past and present band members, and collected together the existing live tapes of as many of these early gigs as he could locate, to document the fascinating evolution of one of Britain's most successful bands. He has also contacted fans, collectors, collaborators, and most importantly, the archives of the Genesis-owned Farm Studios where the tapes from the mixing desks from the majority of the early shows are archived.

With the full co-operation of the Genesis management team, and their extensive collection of photographs and memorabilia, Paul Russell has put together the definitive guide to Genesis from Charterhouse schooldays to The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway.

ISBN: 0 946719 58 6  Paperback
Publication: July 2004
224 pages (illustrated). 156 x 234mm.
Price UK £15.00 US $20.00

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David Nobakht

A confrontational oral history of New York punk through the dark, sinister world of Suicide.

An explosive docu-biography of New York's most subversive punk band Suicide, who along with the New York Dolls, the Ramones, Blondie, Television and Talking Heads defined the US punk scene centered around Max's Kansas City and CBGB's.

Suicide came to prominence in the UK as special guests of The Clash on their first British tour. Their synthesizer-based, energy-laden performance was not well received: they were bottled off every night, Vega often sustaining serious injury.

The book features new interview material with many of the leading lights of the NY punk scene, including Alan Vega and Martin Rev from the band, as well as Debbie Harry and Chris Stein from Blondie, Moby, Henry Rollins, Marc Almond, Bobby Gillespie (Primal Scream), Jim Reid (Jesus & Mary Chain), Lydia Lunch, Jane County amongst others. A high quality, illustrated hardback with over 100 photos and memorabilia from Vega and Rev's own archives, Nobakht's penetrating biography graphically recreates the world of '70s New York City.

ISBN: 0 946719 71 3 Hardback 
Publication: November 2004
224 pages (illustrated)
Price UK £20.00

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Ian Abrahams

Hawkwind's fusion of agit-prop and improvised space rock made them an intriguing family of musical outsiders. Coming to prominence at the Isle of Wight festival they started by playing from the back of a lorry, and since then have successfully existed outside the traditional music business.

Early line-ups of the band featured Lemmy who sang their top-ten Space Rock hit "Silver Machine". Notorious sci-fi author Michael Moorcock supplied many of the band's lyrics, and the band were instrumental in the establishment of the "Ladbroke Grove" scene.

This authoritative, high quality biography is loaded with new interviews with band members past and present and over 100 rare illustrations, many published for the first time and cover artwork by Hawkwind's sleeve designer, Peter Pracownik.

ISBN: 0 946719 69 1 Hardback
Publication date: July 2004
256 pages (illustrated)
Price UK £25.00

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The Ultimate Encyclopedia

Mark Chatterton

Completely revised and expanded new edition of the lavishly illustrated, bestselling U2 reference compendium.

The ultimate reference guide to the biggest band in the world goes from strength to strength. Compiler Mark Chatterton has continued to assemble the most exhaustive U2 database, as the band cemented their worldwide success into 2003, completing the massive Elevation tour and their unprecedented triumph at the Grammy awards.

The first edition was highly regarded by fans and collectors alike - the initial print run sold out within three weeks - and the expanded 2004 edition promises to be even more desirable.

"A comprehensive A-Z of all things U2. ... It's horrendously wide-ranging. Easy to read, easy to recommend. Excellent." Record Collector

ISBN: 0 946719 63 2 Paperback
Publication: Out now
320 pages (illustrated)
Price UK £16.99

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Mark Simpson

There is no other contemporary artist who is so famously difficult, so apparently enigmatic, and so passionately, religiously loved by his fans as Morrissey.

From the moment he assaulted the public with a bunch of battered Gladioli in the early Eighties as the instantly iconic frontman of The Smiths, and through a long-distance solo career that has regularly and miraculously stolen defeat from the jaws of victory, England's patron saint of despair has fascinated and baffled in equal measure.

However, as Mark Simpson argues in his wickedly funny and deeply sacrilegious portrait, Morrissey isn't quite so enigmatic as he might at first appear. To understand this most private and sexually ambivalent of stars and his seemingly erratic behaviour, one needs only to do one thing. Listen to him.

ISBN: 0 946719 65 9 Hardback
Publication date: October 2003
240 pages
Price UK £16.99 US $24.95

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Leslie West & Corky Laing

"Tales from a time when Rock'n'Roll was Rock'n'Roll."

Mountain was America's answer to Cream - an awesome powerhouse trio who produced such rock'n'roll classics as "Nantucket Sleighride" and "Mississipi Queen".

Now drummer Cork Laing and guitarist Leslie West have not only reformed Mountain, but put together this volume of humorous road tales. This heavily illustrated book spans their years as Mountain and also the time they teamed up with Jack Bruce to form West, Bruce and Laing.

ISBN 0946719 62 4 Hardback
Publication date: September 2003
160 pages - illustrated
Price UK £12.99 US $18.95

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David Keenan

The first book about Coil, Current 93, Nurse with Wound

All three bands have a fanatical hardcore following thus guaranteeing the book strong sales. Between them they have consistently sold records successfully worldwide, yet all three have chosen to remain in the shadows. Each book is a limited edition with photographs and original artwork, complete with free previously unreleased CD.

ISBN: 0 946719 40 3 HARDBACK including CD
Publication date: June 2003
320 pages - illustrated

Price UK £35 US $45

Jade Dellinger

With flowerpots on their heads, a line in distinctive post-Kraftwerk imagery, and some staggeringly catchy electro-pop riffs, Devo carved a niche in the eighties that set them apart from the mish-mash of punk, new wave and rock that surrounded them.

Jade Dellinger has interviewed band members and their associates, ransacked their archives to provide more than 100 illustrations, memorabilia and rare photographs documenting Devo's entire career, and re-evaluated their complete works to provide the most exhaustive survey of the Devo phenomenon.

The thirst for knowledge about these defunct pop masters of the eighties is huge, there are dozens of websites devoted to the band, their music and their imagery, but until now, the printed word has eluded Devo.

ISBN: 0 946719 49 7 Hardback
Publication date: July 2003
224 pages - illustrated

Price UK £20 US $30

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Thin Lizzy was a band that lived life to the full. In their hey-day, they mixed lilting celtic melodies with a rock 'n' roll edge and had a reputation as one of the seventies best live acts - as exemplified on the multi-platinum Live and Dangerous LP. A hard drinking, drug-taking, lady-killing gang, they went on the rampage across the world's stages, often blowing away the opposition in the process.

This  portrait documents the rise and fall of the wild men of rock, whilst never losing sight of the lyricism inherent in Lynott's Irish roots.

ISBN: 0 946719 57 8 Hardback
Publication date: May 2004
224 pages - illustrated

Price UK £20 US $30

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Simon Leng

With a cover illustration by Beatle collaborator Klaus Voorman, Simon Leng reassesses "the quiet one"'s contribution to Beatle repertoire and music in general

Through a track-by track analysis of Harrison's solo career, Simon Leng re-assesses Harrison's contribution to music beyond the shackles of his 60s heritage. The Music of George Harrison delves into his complex and highly personal relationship with two other avatars of 60s culture - Bob Dylan and Eric Clapton - and a friendship with Ravi Shankar that spanned four decades.

Drawing on new interviews with many of George's musical collaborators, including Klaus Voorman, Doris Troy and Delaney Bramlett, this book was originally planned as a celebration of Harrison's music. Sadly it is a commemoration too, as Beatles fans the world-over mourned the passing of the "quiet Beatle". Ultimately what emerges is a portrait of George Harrison as a songwriter and musician who retained both dignity and vision.

ISBN: 0 946719 50 0 Hardback
Publication date: January 2003
256 pages - illustrated
Price UK £20 US $30

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David Randall

A new biography about Jan Akkerman and his band Focus

Jan Akkerman and Focus have carved a niche in the annals of rock music history as one of the few Dutch artistes able to command an international audience and capture the imagination with a durable blend of classical/jazz/fusion rock.

In an explosive period of three years Focus collectively scooped many music awards, had best-selling chart albums, and in 1973 Jan Akkerman was voted 'best international guitarist' by the readers of UK music paper Melody Maker.

'In And Out Of Focus - the music of Jan Akkerman and Focus' is based on interviews with Akkerman and his musical partner Thijs Van Leer, amongst others, and uses Dutch and English publications as sources.

'In And Out Of Focus - the music of Jan Akkerman and Focus' will appeal to anyone who has owned or coveted a copy of 'Moving Waves' but will also appeal to those who want to find out more about the "Flying Dutchmen' and their enigmatic guitar player.

ISBN: 0 946719 44 6 Hardback
Publication: January 2003
224 pages (illustrated)
Price UK £20.00 US$30.00

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Paul Stump

Paul Stump's long-awaited biography of the most enigmatic prog-rockers of the 70s is finally close to publication

Acquiring the Taste is the story of one of the most enduring bands of the British progressive rock movement. Based around the Shulman brothers, the band quickly acquired a large cult following the world over. Concert tours in Europe and America became ever more grandiose and elaborate - and then along came punk. As with many of the bands that were seemingly killed off by the new wave revolution of 1976/77, Gentle Giant's music has endured over time and new generations are as entranced by their intricate sound as were audiences of 30 years ago.

Paul Stump is often an outspoken commentator on popular music, he has written articles for many magazines and newspapers and is an authority who has written extensively on the English progressive rock scene. He is the author of Go Ahead John: The Music of John McLaughlin and Digital Gothic a Critical Discography of Tangerine Dream both for SAF Publishing, as well as books on Roxy Music and The Music's All That Matters, the definitive analysis of Progressive Rock in Britain.

ISBN: 0 946719 35 7  Hardback
Publication: May 2005
224 pages (illustrated)
Price UK £16.99 US $24.95

Reserve a copy now of this limited edition hardback for £2 off the published price £16.99. For just £14.99 plus postage, it will be winging its way to you as soon as they are off the presses.

Memoirs of a Beat Survivor by Hammond Guthrie

"You have in Hammond's book - what may be one of the quintessential freak histories." Michael Simmons, LA Weekly/ Rolling Stone

"It brought back memories I've never had!" Gary Faulkerson

From the vortex of 60s counter-culture and into the void

During the mid-60s heyday of free love, acid tests and draft dodging, Hammond Guthrie hangs out in LA and San Francisco brushing shoulders with the myriad of West Coast freaks and beatsters who were present at the birth of the hippie movement.

After marrying, he uproots to England and immerses himself in the world of International Times, London's UFO club and the nascent Time Out. A sojourn in Amsterdam leads Guthrie towards a promising career in the art world, but by the early 70s the hippie dream goes wrong when his wife starts taking free love a little too literally and they both become entangled in a web of drug smugglers imprisoned in Tangier.

Along the way Guthrie encounters the Buffalo Springfield, Del Close, Max Crosley, Richie Havens, Hube the Cube, Carmen McRae, Allen Ginsberg, Hoppy Hopkins, William S Burroughs, Kenneth Allsop, the Amsterdam art scene, The Parade Bar and the twilight zone of Tangier.

Hammond Guthrie is a writer and artist (his work is represented by the Vorpal Gallery in San Francisco). He has contributed many articles to magazines and journals including Exquisite Corpse Magazine, Jack Magazine and Soma Literary Review.

"The first page is so marvellous it should be published as is." 
Richard Kostelanetz

ISBN 0946719 54 3 FIRST EDITION - HARDBACK
Publication date: October 2002
224 pages - illustrated. 
Price UK £25 US $25

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Mick Fish

Through the Eighties with Cabaret Voltaire and local government

In Industrial Evolution Mick Fish takes us on a journey through the eighties courtesy of the Sheffield music scene of Cabaret Voltaire, the Human League, ABC, Clock DVA, Hula and The Box, offsetting it against a background of rampant Conservatism and local authority politics.

This new book also includes as appendices all the interviews that made up Mick Fish's previous book Cabaret Voltaire: The Art of the Sixth Sense.

ISBN: 0 946719 Paperback
Publication: March 2002
256 pages
Price UK £9.99 

Days in the Life of Sgt Pepper's Only Dartboard Band

Martin Dimery

Martin Dimery is John Lennon in the infamous Sgt Pepper's Only Dartboard Band. Being John Lennon is a year in the life of a tribute band and a hilarious diary of one man's attempt to juggle a day job, a family and a Beatle-obsession.

This is a romp through the ups and downs of playing John Lennon. Whether it be finding out tips on how to play Beatle tunes, an encounter with Stones tribute band Stoned Alone or describing the Glastonbury experience, Dimery's take on being a Beatle is never short of completely absorbing.

ISBN: 0 946719 Paperback
Publication: April 2002
224 pages

SPECIAL PRICE: £7.99 plus postage

Alan Lakey

With longer hair than The Stones, a wilder drummer than Keith Moon and some searing R&B, The Pretty Things were the bad boys of the British Blues Boom. Their landmark SF Sorrow album was the first rock opera, predating and influencing Pete Townshend's Tommy, and their 1970 album, Parachute, was Rolling Stone's Album of the Year.

Alan Lakey documents trashed hotel rooms, sexual ambiguity, infighting - and a host of remarkable albums filled with some of the greatest music of the era. Growing Old Disgracefully explains why The Pretty Things were a hugely underrated and confirms their rightful place in rock's history.

Fully illustrated and heavily researched, this is the first biography of a band that was as notorious as the Stones in the development of British rock music.

ISBN: 0 946719 45 4 Hardback
Publication: July 2002
224 pages (illustrated)
Price UK £20 US $25

SPECIAL PRICE: £18 plus postage

John Neil Munro

IMAGINE the lead singer of a band who, on arriving in the deep south of the USA, announced to black state-troopers that he was planning to perform blacked-up as Al Jolson "in the interests of racial harmony".

ALEX HARVEY'S life was full of contradictions. Offstage, a scrawny wee Glaswegian family man, in front of an audience he became a supreme entertainer, coaxing an often hostile crowd into a reaction. The Sensational Alex Harvey Band could be both rock band and vaudeville troupe, interpreting Jacques Brel or making Tom Jones "Delilah" ooze intrigue and sexuality, eventually becoming one of the best live acts of the seventies.

But behind the showman was a life increasingly beset by tragedy and alcoholism. His younger brother, Les, was electrocuted on stage. His manager and longtime friend Billy Fehilly was killed in a plane crash. Eventually with his band in tatters, Alex sank into a sea of alcohol, finally succumbing to a fatal heart attack whilst waiting for a ferry home from a gig in Belgium.

IMAGINE a rockstar - naked apart from a plastic bag to cover his head - swimming through a lake, walking from the back of the crowd before clambering up on stage just in time to start the first song for thousands of fans. Or a performer who arrived on stage in Germany dressed as Adolf Hitler, before lecturing the huge crowd of German fans on the dangers of fascism.

Alex Harvey did all these things - and more…

About the Author

Freelance journalist John Neil Munro has interviewed ex-band members, Harvey's widow and close associates to produce a sympathetic yet harrowing portrait of one of Scotland's finest singers.

ISBN: 0 946719 47 0  Hardback
Publication: July 2002
224 pages (illustrated)

Price UK £20.00 US$30.00

SPECIAL PRICE: £18 plus postage