Author:Darryl W Bullock

Subtitled ‘The gay men who ran the swinging sixties’, this very detailed and comprehensively researched book examines the lives, and particularly the influence on the burgeoning sixties music scene, of five key figures – Larry Parnes, Brian Epstein, Joe Meek, Robert Stigwood and Lionel Bart, and, to a lesser extent, celebrity lawyer David Jacobs. In many ways, the ‘gay’ aspect is a bit of a red herring as it’s really the only thing these disparate characters had in common. The book takes a detailed look at the music scene in the UK from the early sixties to the end of that decade and the rise and fall of this influential coterie of managers, composers and promoters and their stable of acts ranging from Billy Fury to The Beatles, who dominated that era. It’s certainly interesting to discover how such a wide range of acts fell under the influence of these father figure type impresarios, who worked them incredibly hard, often for little in the way of financial reward, casually discarding them when their time was up. It’s only on reading this that the reader fully appreciates just how interconnected these figures and their acts were, and how » Continue Reading.

Author:Stephen Leather

Stephen Leather is a new author to me, but looking at the long list of novels he’s written, including a couple of long running series, he’s been around for a good while but has somehow managed to slip under my radar. This one is a stand-alone story, rather in the vein of the Hector Cross novels by Wilbur Smith. It’s a fast paced tale with plenty of action and no wasted pages, although the plot, involving a group of ISIS terrorists being kidnapped by a millionaire whose family they have murdered, requires the suspension of disbelief at times. There isn’t a single chapter where the tale treads water though, with a clever case of mistaken identity thrown in to spice things up, and a nice twist right at the end too. An entertaining and undemanding way to pass the hours during lockdown. You’ll find yourself getting through this in one sitting as the short punchy chapters usually ending on cliff-hangers keep on tempting you in to reading just one more!

Length of Read:Medium

Might appeal to people who enjoyed…

Action thrillers, Wilbur Smith, Lee Child etc.

One thing you’ve learned

I’ll be digging into the author’s extensive list » Continue Reading.

Author:Stuart MacBride

Scottish crime writer Stuart MacBride temporarily puts aside the long running and highly successful Logan McRae series and here returns to the relatively new Ash Henderson stories, set in the town of Oldcastle. This is now the fourth novel featuring the regular cast of characters, and I’m pleased to say it’s every bit as good as the previous three. These novels are rather more hard edged and gritty than the McCrae ones, with rather less of their trademark quirky black humour, but they are, in their own way, on a par with them in terms of tension and excitement. This latest effort features a dual storyline of a child murderer being hunted by the police and the search for a newly identified serial killer who is on the run. If you’ve read the earlier novels, you’ll be familiar with the colourful figures that populate these stories, many of whom make a very welcome reappearance here as the search for the perpetrators intensifies. As the race to stop both killers striking again reaches its climax, both plot lines are cleverly resolved in a very satisfying and exciting climax. This is an excellent thriller that is right up there with » Continue Reading.

Author:Andrew Darlington

Subtitled ‘Days In The Life of The Beatles Spin Doctor’, this is the first biography of arguably one of the most enigmatic and important figures working behind the scenes of the music business in the sixties and seventies. Despite the claim above, Taylor’s career was much more than simply ‘spin doctor’ (even though that term hadn’t yet come into being) for the band, as he remained a friend and confidante of the individual members right up to his premature death in 1997. His methods as a press officer, initially for the band as Brian Epstein’s PA and then ultimately for Apple Corps, were well ahead of their time, and he also took his skills over the Atlantic in the mid sixties working for the likes of The Byrds and The Beach Boys as well as co-creating the Monterey Pop Festival. A colourful character who was at the heart of what was going on in the music scene of that crucial era, this comprehensive detailed book provides an interesting and very readable look back at his life and times.

Length of Read:Medium

Might appeal to people who enjoyed…

The Beatles, the sixties music scene.

One thing you’ve learned

There’s » Continue Reading.

Author:James R Turner

Not perhaps the most obvious choice for one of these books, but Roy Wood’s career has had plenty of high points. I suppose he’s most often thought of now, particularly at this time of year, in the context of the ubiquitous Christmas hit I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day, which no doubt still provides a nice festive bonus each year. However, his most creative work was with The Move in the late sixties – I Can Hear The Grass Grow, Flowers In The Rain and Blackberry Way all being composed by him. A brief stint in the first incarnation of ELO was swiftly followed by chart success with Wizzard – hearing again See My Baby Jive and Angel Fingers still evokes memories of my earliest teenage years to this day! After that came a series of variable quality solo albums, each released to diminishing returns unfortunately as his star faded. Nothing new has appeared since 1987, but Wood still plays live performing the old hits that still resonate today.

Length of Read:Short

Might appeal to people who enjoyed…

Catchy, well crafted pop tunes!

One thing you’ve learned

Wood receives no royalties from Flowers In The » Continue Reading.

Author:Richard Houghton

This coffee table style book follows the same template as the recent volume on Free and Bad Company, printed on top quality paper with lots of photographs of rare memorabilia. It comprises mainly reminiscences from diehard loyal fans over the years, together with further contributions from former band members, their then manager and road crew. Simple Minds are a band that initially had quite an experimental sound on their first few albums before morphing into a more conventional U2 style stadium rock outfit at the height of their fame. For me, the early stuff still sounds great, songs like I Travel, The American and Love Song still holding their own today. The highpoint of my interest was the New Gold Dream album, a fantastic culmination of their work and influences to that date, and this was followed by the splendid Sparkle in the Rain, although this was also the album when they began to move away from electronica and towards the big arena filling sound they would perfect on the subsequent run of big selling albums. In doing that though, I feel they lost some of their best attributes, smothering the atmospheric intricacies and subtleties of their music » Continue Reading.

Author:Stephen Morris

Volume two of New Order percussionist Stephen Morris’s look back at his life picks up where 2018’s Record Play Pause left off, with Joy Division, rocked by the suicide of Ian Curtis, on the cusp of their transformation into New Order. Readers of the previous book will know Morris is a good storyteller, self-deprecating with a dry sense of humour, and this bodes well for a very interesting and enjoyable read. Of course, he covers the recording of their run of mega selling albums after the success of Blue Monday thrust them in front of a whole new audience, inevitably accompanied by money spinning world tours. There’s also plenty of detail on his obsession with computers, sequencers, synthesisers and drum machines as he relentlessly pursues the latest in electronic technology. A key figure in the narrative is his girlfriend, later band member and wife, Gillian Gilbert, perhaps on the surface a somewhat peripheral figure musically, but actually a vital cog in the band’s sound and of course in Morris’s personal life. All the topics you’d expect are covered – the chaos of Factory Records, the ill fated Hacienda Club, the unexpected death of long time friend and manager » Continue Reading.

Author:Dan Coffey/Kevin Cummings/Eoghan Lyng

Van Der Graaf Generator – one of the most cutting edge prog bands, as well as one of the most long standing, a band I’d rank alongside King Crimson for innovative music over the years. The Pawn Hearts album is right out there in the hinterlands of prog, and still sounds as groundbreaking now as it did back in the day. I was slightly surprised to see an American author for this as I was unaware their influence had stretched over the Atlantic, but he certainly knows his stuff as this is a very well written and comprehensive guide to the band’s music over the years. Pleasingly, he also covers Peter Hammill’s solo work, but it seems increasingly likely that 2016’s Do Not Disturb may be the band’s final word.

From the outer edges of prog to a much tamer US attempt at the genre. In fact, I’d classify most of Kansas’s music as AOR rather than prog, but perhaps they see things differently over there! Most will be familiar with Carry On Wayward Son, and perhaps Dust In The Wind, but for me they produced two decent albums in their heyday, Leftoverture and Point of » Continue Reading.

Author:Stephen Fry

This is the third and concluding volume in Stephen Fry’s retelling of the mythology of Ancient Greece in a modern and more easily digestible idiom. The story of Troy is undoubtedly one of the most well known in Western literature, featuring legendary figures such as Helen, Hector, Paris, Achilles and Odysseus, and not forgetting of course the infamous Trojan horse. It’s an epic tale of loyalty, betrayal and revenge, of sacrifice, sorrow and triumph, a true blend of myth, legend and history. I found the best way to enjoy this book, and indeed its predecessors, Mythos and Heroes, is to focus on the main narrative and not to get too bogged down in the detailed footnotes as to who was who and how they were inter-related with each other, otherwise it can all get very confusing for a layman such as myself. It’s certainly a gripping tale, even though the eventual ending will come as no surprise, but I would have liked a little more information at its conclusion as to what became of the main characters afterwards. There are a couple of very interesting appendices where the author examines the historical evidence for the story – the » Continue Reading.

Author:Keith & Monika Domone/Andrew Wild

Barclay James Harvest are one of those bands who enjoyed a reasonable level of success in the UK, but became absolutely huge in mainland Europe, particularly, in this case, in Germany, where their 1977 effort Gone To Earth managed over three years in the album charts. Their mix of gentle rock and pastoral prog maybe sounds somewhat of its time now, but their best seventies work, such as the aforementioned Gone To Earth and Octoberon still make good listening, musically interesting and easy on the ear. The last of their best work, 1978’s XII, coincided with the departure of vocalist/keyboardist Woolly Wolstenholme, and for me the band was never the same after the loss of one of its core founding members. Their eighties and nineties output became much more bland and one album pretty much became indistinguishable from another, the sound dominated by synths and the production techniques in vogue at the time, all of which sound a bit dated now. They ended up, rather like Wishbone Ash, by splitting into two separate versions of the band, neither of which were as good as the original line up in their pomp. The authors are a » Continue Reading.

Author:David Roberts

The post by our very own Niall B alerted me to this excellent book on the story of Free and Bad Company, covering also Paul Rodgers solo work and his short lived collaboration with Jimmy Page, The Firm. The story is recounted through the recollections of fans, friends, fellow musicians, journalists, producers and promoters with of course contributions from over the years by the band members. For me, the first part of the book, covering the formation and rise and fall of Free is the most compelling section, with lots of schoolday and adolescent memories from their contemporaries. Free must rank as one of the greatest British bands with their bluesy rock sound showcasing Rodgers untouchable vocals and Kossoff’s emotive guitar work. Bad Company picked up where Free left off, particularly on their first two albums, but they were always more of a straight ahead rock band powered by Mick Ralphs’ playing and song writing. Personally, I feel they began to lose their way with the Burnin’ Sky album, by which time they were focusing more and more on the lucrative US market, and it was downhill from there as subsequent releases became much more predictable and, dare » Continue Reading.

Author:Robert Galbraith

This is now the fifth novel in the Strike series by Robert Galbraith, aka JK Rowling, and it’s a real whopper, clocking in at just shy of one thousand pages. For the first time, Strike and his compadre Robin take on a cold case, investigating unsolved murders suspected to have been committed by a serial killer over forty years previously. It’s a long journey with a cast of seemingly thousands – witnesses, suspects and clues – which runs alongside the ‘will they, won’t they’ tension between Strike and the recently divorced Robin. At times, I felt a bit of judicious editing of some of the longer passages wouldn’t have gone amiss, but I suppose Rowling is in such a powerful position as an author these days that what she says perhaps goes! (see also Stephen King). The plot is as convoluted as you’d expect, but the climax, when it eventually arrives, certainly doesn’t disappoint. As someone who has read all the previous novels in this series, I really enjoyed this, but it’s probably not the best place to start if you’re a newcomer.

Length of Read:Epic

Might appeal to people who enjoyed…

Other books in this series, thrillers.

» Continue Reading.