Author:Richard James

When I think of UFO, songs that immediately spring to mind are the likes of Doctor Doctor, Lights Out and Rock Bottom to pick out just a few high points. From personal experience over the years I can vouch for them being a super live band, especially in the glory days of the Michael Schenker era, but although they enjoyed decent success here and in the US, for some reason they never quite seemed to be able to take that final step up into the big league. I’m not so sure their music warrants the type of song by song dissection offered here, but having said that these books are produced by fans for fans, and if UFO are your thing then this offers a rare opportunity to read about their career in this kind of detail. It certainly gives in depth coverage of the numerous ups and downs of their career, the break ups and reformations, the classic Schenker era albums, the subsequent Paul Raymond years and their long decline in later years, ultimately petering out with a series of pretty forgettable albums. For me, this is a band best appreciated by digging out albums like Obsession » Continue Reading.

Author:Campbell Devine

Subtitled ‘Hunter by Proxy’, this is the second and concluding part of this authorised biography by Mott/Hunter authority Campbell Devine. It picks up where events ended in the first book, with the break up of Mott the Hoople, and Hunter setting out on what was to become a lengthy and varied solo career, and runs right up to the present day. Along the way, it charts his working relationship and enduring friendship with Mick Ronson, who was to become a vital cog in the Hunter machine, a collaboration that would continue on and off until Ronson’s untimely passing in 1993. This is an impressively researched book with extensive quotes from Hunter himself plus numerous friends, band members and contemporaries, and covers in great depth, down to a song by song level, his many solo albums – indeed his was a solo career that went off with a bang then faded almost into obscurity before an Indian Summer type resurgence in more recent years. Indeed, his latest run of albums from the turn of the millennium onwards has undoubtedly seen his best work since his first solo record all those years ago. The two Mott reunions of the classic » Continue Reading.

Author:Syd Barrett

There have been a number of books written about Syd Barrett over the years, but perhaps surprisingly his collected lyrics were never published in authorised form during his lifetime. This book seeks to provide a definitive catalogue of his full body of work, with David Gilmour being closely involved in checking the content of each song. Produced in conjunction with the Barrett estate, this is a necessarily short volume, but is produced on top quality paper with some nice rare photographs, and includes a brief preface by former Floyd manager Peter Jenner and a lengthy introduction by the author of the ‘A Very Irregular Head’ biography, Rob Chapman, who has put the book together. All fifty two of Syd’s lyrics, for Pink Floyd and his solo albums, are simply presented in alphabetical order, although a few details on their date and the album they were from would have been a useful addition I feel. (Having said that, anyone buying this book will probably have that information stored away already.) As with all books of this type, some lyrics read well as stand alone pieces while others really miss the musical accompaniment we’ve become used to. Barrett’s lyrics are » Continue Reading.

Author:Peter Kearns/Bill Thomas/Andrew Wild/David Detmer

Another four titles in this unwaveringly excellent series, firstly looking at the albums of certainly one of the most iconic figures in seventies music and maybe even beyond that, Joni Mitchell. My Joni period is really the run of albums from 1971’s Blue through to her undoubted masterpiece, 1976’s Hejira, but with honourable mentions for the next two records, the complex Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter and the jazz flavoured Mingus. I’ve never been that keen on her eighties and nineties work to be honest, but listening again in the course of reading this book, I may have been hasty in my assessment of that era as there are certainly some fine songs scattered among those albums, albeit inconsistently. Nevertheless, for me there’s nothing to match her peerless golden era of the early to mid seventies, which contains some of the most beautiful lyrics and music you could hope to hear. If you’re not familiar with her music you really need to put that right without delay – for fans, read this, relisten to the albums and luxuriate in her timeless music.

Another equally enigmatic female artist is next. Again, what a back catalogue she has, » Continue Reading.

Author:Nick Kent

I remember as a teenager eagerly buying the NME each week, my only connection to the world of rock music, desperately hoping it would contain an article by either of my favourite writers, Charles Shaar Murray and Nick Kent. I wonder if those names mean anything at all to people under the age of fifty (or maybe even sixty)! Be that as it may, Nick Kent resurfaces into the public gaze with his debut novel, a tale of a cult sixties rock band who achieve fleeting fame and notoriety before their flame quickly fizzles out, seemingly for good. Fast forward fifty years, and interest in the band is suddenly rekindled when their music is used in a series of adverts for a mobile phone. Trouble is, the guitarist and musical brain of the band is living off the grid in Amsterdam, while the feral front man, a ruthless deluded figure, equal parts opportunistic and narcissistic, leads an itinerant life, drifting from country to country, sponging off friends and fans until he outstays his welcome. Pound signs appear in his eyes when he learns of this sudden change in fortune, and he turns up at the home of the » Continue Reading.

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.