Manic Street Preachers: Album by Album (Hardback)

In a career that’s spanned thirty-five years and generated fourteen albums, fifty-three singles (two of them UK number ones), four Brit Awards, two Ivor Novellas and inspired literally hundreds of university dissertations, quite a few PhD’s and the odd specialist subject on Mastermind, Manic Street Preachers have become, in the words of their 2011 singles collection, national treasures. The Welsh trio (who, to many, will always be a quartet) have a uniquely intense impact on their fans; educating them as much as they entertain and inspire. This book collects fourteen brand new essays, one for each Manics album, from fourteen different writers from diverse backgrounds, tracing the band’s impact on fans and culture and setting each of their works, from 1992’s Generation Terrorists to 2018’s Resistance Is Futile and beyond, into context. The essays are linked by a detailed month-by-month biography by music critic and Manics fan Marc Burrows (The Guardian, The Quietus, Drowned In Sound), who compiled and edited the book, tracing the band’s development from glamourpuss upstart intellectuals to the elder statesmen of British indie rock, via an era-defining run of hits, an historic trip to Cuba and one vanished genius. Manic Street Preachers: Album by Album includes a complete discography and is sourced from in-depth archival research, making it one of the most comprehensive and detailed works devoted to the band yet compiled.

R.E.M. Album by Album (Hardback)

From cowering, introverted founders of the alternative rock movement to one of the twenty best-selling American bands of all time, the story of R.E.M. covers three decades, two generations and the passions of millions. First, they lifted a humble, Southern college town into myth, re-calibrating rock music at the moment that it threatened to reach the point of terminal excess, and then, unsatisfied, they carried their progressive ideology right into the heart of mainstream popular culture, selling over 85 million records and winning universal acclaim along the way, totally without compromise.

R.E.M. Album by Album tells that story, tracing the band from its formation in 1980 when four young men sought respite from the difficulties of real life by starting a covers band, right up until their eventual split in 2011, shedding new light on the lyrical and musical development of the band as artists, from their esoteric early masterpieces to the moment that they signed the world’s largest ever recording contract. For the very first time, too, we examine the first decade after the band’s demise, scrutinising the shifting sands of their legacy as the dust settles on one of pop music’s most extraordinary careers.

The Birth and Impact of Britpop (Hardback)

Mis-Shapes, Scenesters and Insatiable Ones

"The Byron of Britpop does not disappoint! A sparklingly delicious, spiky tribute to outsiderdom. Made me want to don the war paint and start a band again." – Gary Cosby, signer with Lick.

"An impressive take on the musical and cultural phenomenon tagged "Britpop". Paul goes deep into the causes and roots of the scene, often with surprising revelations." – Stephen Street, producer of Blur, Sleeper and many others.

"Laird's voice sings from the page, bursting with energy and attitude. His stated aim was to write "something honest, something passionate, something that captured what it meant to be young, to be an outsider and to be part of something." He's succeeded, in style. A triumph." – James Cook, member of The Flamingoes and author of Memory Songs and In Her Room.

"A both-barrels blazing account of the last great musical movement. Full of insight, energy and love - this is the definitive book on Britpop." – Jude Cook, member of The Flamingoes and author of Jacob's Advice and Byron Easy.

"Brilliantly written, this really is the Britpop book that is missing. I am in awe." – Nick Amies, author of Where Did It All Go Wrong - Oasis and the Millenium Meltdown, 1995-2000 and She's Electric.

Remember the ninteties? Of course you do. Cool Britannia, New Labour, Blur vs Oasis, Geri Halliwell’s Union Flag dress, TFI Friday, “wasssssuuuuuuppppppp”, Opal Fruits turning into Starburst without anyone asking your permission…crazy times. This book doesn’t have anything to say about Geri’s dress or Opal Fruits but it has lots to say about Britpop. But this isn’t a book about the Britpop you think you know about, this is the story of a truly remarkable period of creativity in British guitar music told through the experiences of someone who was there from the first note of “Popscene” through to the run out groove of “This is Hardcore”. This is the story of the Britpop that didn’t make it onto the evening news or the cover of The Face. This is the story of the bands nobody remembers but that everybody should. This is the story of what it was like to be an outsider in 1991 and be too cool for school by 1994. This is the story of a magnesium flash in British popular music that has, for good or ill, defined British guitar music ever since. Here are Flamingoes and Pimlico, Strangelove and David Devant and His Spirit Wife, The Weekenders and Thurman…and Blur, Pulp, Oasis, Sleeper and Elastica too. These are Britpop memories from someone who was actually there. The definitive story of Britpop…

The London Boys (Hardback)

David Bowie, Marc Bolan and the 60s Teenage Dream

Rock n roll fanatics, mods, beat group wannabes, underground hippies, glam rock icons: David Bowie and Marc Bolan spent the first part of their careers following remarkably similar paths. From the day they met in 1965 as Davie Jones and Mark Feld, rock n roll wannabes painting their manager's office in London’s Denmark Street, they would remain friends and rivals, each watching closely and learning from the other. In the years before they launched an unbeatable run of era-defining glam rock masterpieces at the charts, they were both just another face on the scene, meeting for coffee in Soho, hanging out at happenings and jamming in parks. Here, they are our guides through the decade that changed everything, as the gloom of post-war London exploded into the technicolour dream of the swinging sixties, a revolution in music, fashion, art and sexuality. Part duel-biography, part social history, part musical celebration of an era, The London Boys follows the British youth culture explosion through they eyes of two remarkable young men on the front lines of history.