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Slade in the 1970s
Slade were one of the biggest British bands of the 1970s. One of the early pioneers of glam rock, they enjoyed an incredible run of six number-one singles, five top-ten albums and a succession of sell-out tours. However, after a failed attempt at an American breakthrough in the mid-1970s, Slade returned to Britain and faced dwindling record sales, smaller concert halls and a music press that had lost interest in them. By the end of the decade, they were playing residencies in cabaret clubs and recorded a cover of a children’s novelty song. But then came a last-minute invitation to play the 1980 Reading Festival, setting in motion one of the most remarkable comebacks in rock history. It’s...
Badfinger on Track
Generally regarded as one of the most tragic tales in the history of rock music, the story of Badfinger makes for an impressively sombre Hollywood-style film script. A Welsh and Liverpudlian hybrid, the band were signed to Apple Records, became protégés of The Beatles and produced four global hit singles. Two of its members also co-wrote the now perennial pop standard ‘Without You’, covered most notably by Harry Nilsson. Yet Badfinger found themselves plagued by ruinous misfortune and through a combination of unscrupulous business management, record label neglect and just plain bad luck, the dream soon lay in tatters with the band’s story ultimately culminating in the suicides of two...
That Was Me
Paul McCartney has lived an extraordinary life in popular music and popular culture. His careers as a Beatle, as a solo musician and band leader in Wings, and in areas outside music have varied tremendously and are well-documented. That Was Me explores the impact of Paul McCartney as a musician outside the Beatles, identifying the continued excitement in generations of fans and listeners, and his perennial efforts to perform and record music. Richard Driver argues that his solo career is multi-faceted and extremely diverse, ranging from breaking sharply with the style and output of the Beatles to experimenting in orchestral and operatic music and returning to music designed to emulate and reproduce the style, success, and popularity of the Beatles. Through McCartney we can literally and symbolically view and revisit the popular music phenomenon that was the Beatles, and popular music from the 1950s to today.
Tears for Fears on track
Even after 40 years, critics of Tears For Fears have tended to describe them as an 80s band. This is understandable when songs like ‘Mad World’ appear in films that typify that period and ‘Everybody Wants to Rule the World’ has had a prolonged life as one of the most played songs on streaming services. Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith quickly transformed from their first band, mod revivalists Graduate, to introspective studio obsessives with The Hurting, to global hitmakers on Songs from the Big Chair, before releasing The Seeds of Love - epic both in terms of vision and cost. Musical differences and strained relations led to the dissolution of the original partnership at the end of tha...
Motörhead on track
Motorhead were arguably the greatest rock and roll band in history, but it took many years to win that accolade. As a result, this is the story of the band that refused to die. The band had to deal with wayward producers, hostile record companies, a couple of false starts and even the ignominy of being proclaimed the Worst Band in the World by the NME! Famed for their loudness and their singular anthem, ‘Ace Of Spades’, Motorhead not only proved inspirational for a host of newer bands but also, accidentally, created two sub-genres of heavy music - speed and thrash metal. Not bad for a band who announced themselves with: ‘We are Motorhead, and we play rock and roll.’ at live gigs. Thi...
The Moody Blues
Formed in 1964 and still going strong in 2019, the Moody Blues are one of the most enduring bands in the history of rock. R&B, pop, psychedelic, symphonic, prog rock, folk rock, synth-pop, mainstream rock, they've experienced it all. 'Go Now', A number one single in 1965 was very nearly a postscript for the band had it not been for the pioneering 1967 album Days Of Future Passed. This set in motion a run of seven classic and hugely popular albums that put them at the forefront of symphonic rock in the early 1970s. A hiatus saw a flurry of solo projects before the band reconvened in 1977. Subsequent recordings were eagerly greeted by a loyal fan base and sell out concerts continue to this day. In 2018 they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame. This book examines each one of the band's studio albums and related recordings as well as tracing the band's long and diverse history. Solo projects and live recordings are also discussed making this the most comprehensive guide to the music of the Moody Blues yet published. Whether you are a loyal fan or someone who is curious to see what lies beyond `Nights in White Satin', this is essential reading.
Green Day
Green Day are one of rock history’s greatest and most successful bands. Singer/guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong, bassist Mike Dirnt, and drummer Tré Cool have been together creating rock music with a punk heart for over three decades. The trio has reigned supreme, shattering previously conceived notions of how commercially successful a punk rock band can be, by helping extend the boundaries of the genre by adding excellent pop/rock songwriting. Green Day harnessed alternative music’s creativity with a passion and fire that ignited two of rock’s best albums, the influential Dookie, which sold 20 million copies, and the culturally important rock opera American Idiot, which sold 16 million...
Off the Ground
A sympathetic but clear-eyed exploration of Paul McCartney’s work in the 1990s, arguably his most important since the rise of the Beatles. Paul McCartney’s 1990s was an era like no other, perhaps even the most significant decade of his entire career after the 1960s. Following a shakier 1980s, the decade would see McCartney reemerge with greater energy, momentum, and self-belief. JR Moores’s sympathetic but not uncritical new book explores McCartney’s ’90s, with its impressive studio and live albums, colossal tours, unexpected side-projects and imaginative collaborations, forays into classical composition, some new Beatles numbers, and a whole lot more besides. Moores reveals how McCartney’s reputation began to be perceived more generously by the public, and he argues that Macca’s output and activities in the ’90s would uncover more about the person behind them than in any other decade.
Led Zeppelin on track
Think about Led Zeppelin and the image coming to mind would be of the band straddling the world as the archetypal 'rock gods', defining the 1970s like no other artist did. Dig deeper though, and there's a lot more to Zeppelin than hard rock and bluster, with folk and blues strongly threading through their catalogue from the very beginning. This book digs into every Led Zeppelin track recorded during their decade-long existence before John Bonham's death brought down the curtain, by way of facts, anecdotes, analysis and a small dose of humour here and there. From the likes of ‘Kashmir’, ‘Stairway To Heaven’ and ‘Whole Lotta Love’ and their ilk, which have entered the public consci...
We Shook Up the World
George Harrison met Muhammad Ali in 1964, when both men were on the cusp of worldwide fame. Ten years later, the two men simultaneously staged comebacks, demonstrating just how much they embodied the promises and perils of their era. In doing so, Tracy Daugherty suggests, they revealed the scope and the limits of political courage and commitment to faith in the modern world. We Shook Up the World is the story of these two larger-than-life figures at a momentous time. A unique blend of biography and cultural history, this book goes to the very heart of the zeitgeist that each man inhabited and reinvented in profound and enduring ways. In 1974, deep in the Pennsylvania woods, thirty-two-year-o...
