Author:Hamish Kuzminski / Andy Boot / Laura Shenton

I spy with my little eye something beginning with C – well, three things actually, Camel, Caravan and Curved Air, all bands who had their heyday in the halcyon years of the early seventies.

I have a lot of time for Camel – albums like Mirage, The Snow Goose, Moonmadness and Nude still make for some good listening. This book, which boasts an introduction from Steve Rothery of Marillion, takes an in depth look at the band’s fifty years and counting career, covering all fourteen studio albums, as they persevered against extreme adversity in the form of the dearth of founder Peter Bardens and the serious illness of Andy Latimer, to carve an enduring niche in British rock music. I really enjoyed relistening to the cream of their albums while gaining some interesting insight into the composition and recording of the key pieces of music. A good one for fans of this perennial band, and as the author mentions, it would be interesting to hear Steven Wilson tackle some of their early albums.

Was there ever a more English sounding band than Caravan? Their rather whimsical vocals and music often put me » Continue Reading.

Author:Geoffrey Feakes /  Peter Gallagher

I’ve had a somewhat on/off relationship with Steve Hackett’s music over the years. I loved his early solo efforts particularly Voyage of the Acolyte (still his best work for me), Please Don’t Touch and Spectral Mornings, but I lost touch with his releases for the next twenty years or so after a series of somewhat patchy efforts rather dimmed my interest. Dipping into them again in the course of reading this book, I have to say I didn’t really miss anything of any great import. I only really reconnected in 1996 with the first of Genesis Revisted releases, but since then he’s put together a run of very good and consistent albums of new material while continuing to keep the Genesis flame burning. From reading last year’s autobiography he seems something of a marmite character, but this is a good, indeed exhaustive, song by song look at all his numerous albums and the stories behind their creation.

T Rex is one of those bands that still immediately invoke memories of my early teens even after all these years. I had Electric Warrior (one of my first album purchases), together with The Slider and Tanx which, » Continue Reading.

Author:Russ Thomas

I do love a police procedural, so it’s always good to find a new series to get into, albeit one still in its infancy. Even better, these two novels are set in my hometown of Sheffield and recognising locations used gives an extra element of interest for me. The first book, the debut novel for this author, begins with a body discovered bricked up in the walls of a house, turning a years old missing persons enquiry into a murder case for the Cold Case Review Unit, presenting an opportunity for the main character to resurrect his stagnating career. Early on, he realises he is hopelessly compromised in this case, but presses on regardless of the consequences. Meanwhile, a series of arson attacks plague the area and a cryptic blog taunts the police. Want more – a sinister series of notes are sent to an elderly lady about a secret she is keeping. Alas the dementia that ravages her mind means she’s unable to remember what the secret is! A strong cast of characters are introduced in this gripping tale, which also takes a look, with a cleverly light touch, at bigotry and institutionalised racism within the police » Continue Reading.

Author:GD Praetorius

Growing up in the New York area, a mere stones throw from the Nassau Coliseum, the author was lucky enough to turn his youthful infatuation with rock music into a fledgling career as a rock concert promoter in the late seventies to mid eighties. As such, he’s in the perfect position to provide some behind the scenes insights and anecdotes featuring some of the biggest names of that time. Tull, Floyd, Yes, AC/DC and Rainbow all appear, but the main focus of the book is on two of the biggest US bands on the circuit, Van Halen and Aerosmith, with Steven Tyler in particular captured at a time the band was in decline while his own personal problems were spiralling out of control. The author’s tales are conveyed with a wry sense of humour as he sighs and raises an eyebrow as he panders to yet another random whim of the various bands, who need to be pacified so the show can go on. A really interesting read that gives you backstage access to the world behind the scenes of the shows.

Length of Read:Medium

Might appeal to people who enjoyed…

Freddy Bannister’s Knebworth book ‘There Must Be » Continue Reading.

Author:Peter Braidis / Andrew Wild

If you were building a prog group from scratch, you may struggle to come up with a line up better than John Wetton, Carl Palmer, Steve Howe and Geoff Downes – indeed the originally proposed line up was perhaps even stronger with the latter two being replaced by Trevor Rabin and Rick Wakeman. This was very much 80s style prog though, the twenty minute epics of the previous decade being replaced by short, commercial, highly polished songs that would appeal to a mainstream rock audience. The first album delivered this agenda perfectly, but subsequent releases struggled to live up to its high standards, not helped by a revolving door of band members – Howe, Wetton and Palmer all leaving and rejoining at various times. Overall, their albums are a very mixed bag, and even when the original line up reunited in 2006 they never managed to reach the heights of their early work.(Incidentally, a box set of the albums from that era is imminent). This is a comprehensive look at the studio and live catalogue of a band that was defined by, and never bettered, their debut album (see also Boston), and the author gives » Continue Reading.

Author:Billy Billingham

Viewers of the reality television series Who Dares Wins will be familiar with ex SAS man and bodyguard to the stars Mark ‘Billy’ Billingham. Following on from his autobiography published last year, he has now tried his hand at fiction in this, his debut novel, which is the first in a planned series featuring the main character. The plot itself doesn’t really break too much new ground – hostage rescue in Yemen goes wrong, CIA involvement, tangled local politics, plenty of action, plot twists and double crosses along the way – but it’s the author’s first hand, been there done that experience that gives the book an authentic feel that brings the leading man to life and adds more plausibility to the plot than is evident in some novels of this genre. He keeps the story moving at a good pace, and it’s one of those novels that keeps you reading one more chapter just after you’d resolved to call it a night. Overall, a commendable debut effort.

Length of Read:Medium

Might appeal to people who enjoyed…

Action thrillers of the Andy McNab, Chris Ryan type.

One thing you’ve learned

Serving in the special forces these days seems » Continue Reading.

Author:Alastair Campbell

This excellent series of diaries is now in its eight volume. This period sees Campbell at something of a personal and professional crossroads, having departed in the main from day to day involvement in front line politics, although still acting as an ad hoc advisor to the Labour leadership. His main focus though has shifted to writing, public speaking and consultancy work, for which there seems to be no shortage of takers, as well as acting as ambassador to a number of mental health charities, an area which is very close to his heart. Inevitably perhaps, with the Cameron led coalition in power, he feels guilty at not doing more to help the Labour Party and Ed Milliband in particular, but is reluctant to be drawn back into the arena, and is also still embroiled in the Chilcot and Leveson Inquiries. The strongest and most poignant writing, however, comes when he writes of the upheavals in his personal life – the deaths of his mother and of his close friend and colleague Philip Gould, and the descent of his son into alcoholism, a problem faced by Campbell himself in earlier years. This first class (and lengthy) read, concludes » Continue Reading.

Author:Stephen Lambe / Per Nilsen

Both of these very different books are offshoots from the long running On Track series, hence the combined review.

The Focus title takes an in depth look at the decade in which the band produced its most influential work with a fine series of groundbreaking albums. My own Focus period runs from 1971’s Moving Waves set through Focus III, Hamburger Concerto and ends with 1975’s Mother Focus. Listening back to these in the course of reading this book, the band certainly produced some superb inventive music at their creative peak, with the epic Eruption rivalling Close To The Edge, Supper’s Ready et al as one of the defining side long pieces that were very much de rigeur in the prog world at the time. The author also takes a welcome look at the numerous solo efforts produced by Akkerman and Van Leer – I’m not particularly a fan of the latter’s almost light classical efforts, but some of Akkerman’s work is very good indeed and well worth investigating if you’re not familiar with it. A very well put together book, effectively a potted history of the band, which looks at each album on a song » Continue Reading.

Author:John ‘Drumbo’ French

This is the third edition of this mammoth tome, which actually has been out of print of late, and coincides with what would have been the good Captain’s eightieth year. It’s certainly comprehensive, running to over 800 pages of pretty small print and covering Drumbo’s career from joining the Magic Band at the tender age of seventeen in 1966 for the Safe As Milk album up to his eventual departure in 1980. As has been widely documented, Beefheart was a hard, bordering on abusive, taskmaster who appears to have ruled by fear at times. The book certainly pulls no punches in that respect, although of course Beefheart isn’t around to defend himself. There are extensive interesting interviews with most of the key players from the Magic Band and also from the Mothers of Invention – Frank Zappa, as you’d expect, turns up frequently throughout these pages, initially as friend and collaborator and later as musical nemesis. There’s certainly plenty of in depth detail on the records the author played on, and the book includes over ninety pages of detailed track notes on the individual songs, which leave no stone unturned in terms of composition and recording. The » Continue Reading.

Author:Richard Thompson

Subtitled ‘Fairport, Folk Rock and Finding My Voice 1967-75’, this is a book that really does what it says on the tin. By that, I mean it takes an in depth look at the author’s life over arguably his most fertile period creatively, namely the Fairport years and the records he made with his then wife Linda. The book begins with a brief look at his early years before moving on to meeting his future band mates and their adventures on the road and in the recording studio as they brought folk rock firmly into the public eye with their modernising of traditional songs and sounds. Thompson comes across as a pleasant, self-effacing sort of guy, who modestly underplays his own composing and playing talents, which were a huge part of the band’s sound. For someone who is such an accomplished wordsmith, he is sometimes a little reticent, but the best writing here is on those no longer with us, notably Sandy Denny and Dave Swarbrick, and of course drummer Martin Lamble and girlfriend Jeannie Franklyn, both tragically killed in a road accident in 1969, the occurrence and aftermath of which is movingly yet precisely described. The other » Continue Reading.

Author:Gerald Seymour

I’ve read every one of Gerald Seymour’s novels since his debut with Harry’s Game, unbelievably forty five years ago now, and I have to say he very rarely disappoints. His thrillers aren’t all action blockbusters, instead concentrating on constructing believable real world characters and plot lines, slow burners that inevitably and inexorably build to an exciting climax. This new one is no exception, introducing a George Smiley like MI5 man who has a reputation as a reliable but unspectacular desk jockey who never sees any front line action himself. He is tasked with tracking a British Jihadi returning from the conflict in Syria to commit a final headline-grabbing act of terrorism to avenge fallen comrades and pay back a society he feels has wronged him since childhood. The pursuit initially is more mental than physical as his potential movements are plotted and predicted, and it’s only really in the book’s final section that, as the tension mounts, the action springs to life after a long build up. You can probably hazard a good guess at the eventual outcome, although the ending has quite an ingenious turn of events that took me by surprise. A fine read if you » Continue Reading.

Author:Chris Sutton/Steve Pilkington

Two new additions to this series which runs alongside the On Track books, but which concentrates on an artist’s work in a specific decade, in this case the seventies. Listening to the big Alice Cooper albums of the first half of that decade takes me right back to my early teenage years – Killer, Schools Out, Billion Dollar Babies and Welcome To My Nightmare are all still great listening. The book takes a song by song look at each album, actually starting with Pretties For You (included even though it was released in 1969) and running through all the ‘band’ albums, followed by the solo efforts from later in the decade, ending with 1978’s From The Inside. Between each album, the author looks at what was happening within the band itself, featuring some new interesting insights by key figures from the time, including original band members Dennis Dunaway, Neal Smith and Michael Bruce. Sadly, but perhaps unsurprisingly, there’s no input from The Coop himself, but nevertheless this is a really informative and critical look at the band and their work over the frantic period from its formation to eventual disintegration after 1974’s Muscle of Love album and » Continue Reading.

Author:Kevan Furbank/Jez Rowden/Matt Phillips

Could there be three more different artists than the latest subjects of these books, two of which I am reasonably familiar with, the other barely at all. Gong first then….I recall buying Camembert Electrique from Virgin nearly fifty years ago, mainly because of its bargain price, around the fifty pence mark I believe. It was certainly an ear (and mind) opener, but it must have triggered something, as over the subsequent years I seem to have acquired Flying Teapot, Angels Egg and Shamal as well. Listening to them again after such a long time has been fun, and has certainly brought back some memories. I think my tastes must have moved on at that point though, as I lost track of the band for many years thereafter, only becoming reacquainted with them on 2019’s excellent The Universe Also Collapses, which I highly recommend if you’re not already familiar with it. Of course, the current line up bears no resemblance to that of the original band, only the brand name remains intact, and for me the Daevid Allen and Steve Hillage era will always be the definitive one. There’s certainly some good listening in their extensive back » Continue Reading.

Author:Alan Parks

Harry McCoy returns in the next volume in this now well established crime series, set in Scotland in the seventies. This is the fourth story, and the characters are now like familiar old friends, the hard boiled detective McCoy, his childhood friend and now nemesis, crime boss Stevie Cooper, he and McCoy are like opposite sides of the same coin, and not forgetting McCoy’s up and coming sidekick Wattie. The novel is set in the Glasgow of 1974, where a home made bomb explodes in a flat and turns out to be the precursor to a wider campaign across the city by an unknown group. Meanwhile an American sailor disappears from the US base at Holy Loch, and a friendly warning passed on to a fellow officer leads McCoy into the deep waters of the IRA. As with the previous novels, this is an excellent read for fans of fast paced, gritty crime novels, lots of drinking and violence, and with a cleverly constructed plot that really captures the urban, social and political landscape in the early seventies. Really enjoyed this, the only problem now is the twelve months wait for the next one, especially as the author » Continue Reading.

Author:Peter Robinson

This is, almost unbelievably, the twenty seventh Alan Banks book, featuring the music loving police officer and his usual team. It is a novel that can be read as a stand-alone work, but it works far better if you’ve read at least some of the previous stories so you know the characters and their back stories and relationships, not to mention the plot and how it’s reached the point from where this tale picks up. In summary, we have a gruesome double murder with apparent links to the Albanian mafia, the rape of a young woman and a kidnapping of one of Banks’ close friends. It soon becomes apparent that the three investigations are interlinked, with a couple of clever plot twists at the denouement. This is a cleverly put together crime novel, which fans of the genre and of course of this series will undoubtedly enjoy. It ends though on quite a downbeat note, which makes one wonder what plans the author has for the future of this long running series.

Length of Read:Medium

Might appeal to people who enjoyed…

Police procedurals, Peter James and the like.

One thing you’ve learned

I always thought the original novels » Continue Reading.

Author:Rose Simpson

This intriguing book is subtitled ‘A Girl’s Life in The Incredible String Band’, and is an account of the author’s time in the band from roughly 1967 to 1971. I suppose it’s easy to forget now how innovative and influential ISB were, and how successful they were both in terms of record sales and as a live draw. I’m sure many of us at the very least owned a copy of The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter, and remember hearing that extraordinary music for the first time. This isn’t a conventional autobiography as such, the chapters being arranged more around themes than in strict chronological order, giving an insight into how a no nonsense Yorkshire lass whose main interest was mountaineering transformed herself, along with band mate Licorice, into something of a hippy pin up for a new and alternative way of living. In fact, the book is as much about the hippy lifestyle of that period as it is about the band and its music. Rose makes no great claims to having been a talented musician, but perseverance and patience enabled her to move from initially being something of a fish out of water to become a fully-fledged member » Continue Reading.

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.