Author:Thom Yorke & Stanley Donwood

What a curious item this very short book is! Stanley Donwood is an old school friend of the Radiohead front man, and designed artwork for the band’s albums around the Kid A/Amnesiac era. The book compiles diary entries, sketches, drafts of lyrics, faxes, notes and general scribblings that the pair exchanged with each other between 1999 and 2000 during the creation of those albums. The two authors do seem to be kindred spirits on the same wavelength, although the text frustratingly doesn’t identify who wrote what, and there is no apparent order in the random way these pieces are sequenced. The most interesting discovery for me was that some lyrics are revealed to be fragments of much longer pieces of writing, which places them in a rather different context at times. Overall, the book veers from emotion to emotion, one piece being black humour, the next having a rather despairing tone at the state of the world, while others have dark and often violent undertones. I think this book, which attempts to give some insight into the creative process, will certainly divide opinions among fans – some will love it while others will perhaps merely » Continue Reading.

Author:Ron Geesin

Subtitled ‘The Making of Pink Floyd’s Atom Heart Mother’, this is the long awaited large format paperback edition of this book which originally appeared in hardback form way back in 2013. As the title suggests, it deals with the creation of the Floyd piece Atom Heart Mother, on which the author closely collaborated with the band. Sadly, there’s no input from the band members themselves other than a brief wry foreword by the ever obliging Nick Mason, but Geesin tells the story very well by himself, and this edition adds a post Covid closing chapter dealing with current and upcoming performances of the piece. Having worked with Roger Waters on The Body project, Geesin was a natural choice when the band wanted to add something different, namely orchestration and a choir, to the piece then known as The Amazing Pudding, which they’d already been honing for a few months in their live shows. There follows a very interesting and comprehensive technical and musical breakdown of the track and the recording process, accompanied by lots of well reproduced and rare photos of the sessions – indeed the whole book is printed on glossy high quality paper and is a » Continue Reading.

Author:Tommy Gunnarsson / Andrew Mon Hughes / Stephen Lambe 

I’d forgotten how much I used to like The Smiths back in my (much) younger days. This book gave me an opportunity to revisit the four studio albums that I’ve not listened to in years, and I have to say it was a real joy rediscovering some of this music. I’m not so keen on the solo work of Morrissey, particularly the later ones. However there’s good stuff to be found on albums such as Viva Hate, and the Mick Ronson produced Your Arsenal, although at times I always felt he had some great song titles that were not always backed up by the songs themselves. His career does seem rather to have fizzled out of late though with a new album apparently in the can but no record deal in place. The book itself is very well written and researched, and is an entertaining way to pass a couple of hours, while providing a decent introduction to the songs for the newcomer. If it inspires people to listen to the original Smiths records again though, then it’s done its job!

I can’t say I know too much about the Bee Gees in the » Continue Reading.

Author:Steve Pilkington / William Allen / Eric Benac

Three more titles in this ever increasing and very readable look at the subjects’ careers on an album by album, song by song basis.

I would think everything that could be written about Led Zep has already been written, probably several times over. Nonetheless, I really enjoyed this trawl through their career even though it didn’t tell me much I didn’t already know. The author has a dry, sardonic wit which makes the book an entertaining read, and it covers all the studio and live recordings – one of the things I like about these books is they encourage you to dig out the original albums and rediscover music you’d maybe forgotten about as the years have passed. He’s a bit brief on the two cd reissues of the catalogue a few years ago, although to be fair they were a bit of a let down, with little in the way of unreleased songs and most of the alternate versions being very similar to the final songs. A good read that doesn’t take too long to get through but keeps you interested throughout.

I’m no expert on Radiohead – I lost touch » Continue Reading.

Author:John Le Carre

Published in the week that would have marked the author’s ninetieth birthday, this novel, his twenty sixth, represents his final completed work. It’s not an epic like the doorstop Smiley novels he produced in his heyday, but it’s still very good indeed. The story centres on a man who has renounced his highflying City job to run a bookshop in a small seaside town. An unexpected visitor throws a spanner into the works of this quiet new life, drawing the unwanted attentions of the Secret Intelligence Service, who have been alerted to a dangerous leak. As always with Le Carre, the story is beautifully and ingeniously crafted and quite superbly written, intelligently plotted with subtly drawn characters – as the years went by, the quality of his writing never seemed to flag, and if anything he actually improved with age, which in his case certainly didn’t appear to mellow him. A fine farewell from the master, one of Britain’s very best authors – he’ll be sorely missed.

Length of Read:Short

Might appeal to people who enjoyed…

His previous novels, espionage thrillers.

One thing you’ve learned

At only just over two hundred pages, this is a rather slim » Continue Reading.

Author:Gyles Brandreth

Gyles Brandreth is pretty ubiquitous these days – Just A Minute, Gogglebox, Countdown, that canal series with Sheila Hancock to mention just a few things, and a jolly nice chap he seems too, always appearing amiable and jovial. Of course in his earlier days he was also an author and playwright, and even found time to serve a term as an MP, rising to be a government Whip. This kaleidoscopic look at his life certainly covers a lot of bases, touching on characters both political and theatrical – indeed he seems to have met pretty much any key cultural figure you care to mention in the Britain of the last seventy odd years. He certainly appears to have been a rather precocious child, brought up in a typical middle class family, seemingly well off but actually permanently strapped for cash to make ends meet. His adventures are many and far-flung, but his life is always centred around his family, and in particular his father, whose influence and shadow looms large over the author’s whole life even to this day it seems. A very enjoyable read that takes you through quite an extraordinary life in post war Britain and » Continue Reading.

Author:Martin Terefe

This sumptuous book is a history of Eastcote recording studios in London, from 1980 to 2020, lovingly put together by music producer Martin Terefe. The book is in ‘coffee table’ format, printed on thick art quality paper, with the text interspersed with numerous photographs, all reproduced in superb quality. Interviews abound with the studio’s founder Philip Bagenal, as well as the numerous artists, engineers and producers who have worked there over the last four decades, including the likes of Depeche Mode, Grace Jones, Arctic Monkeys and Massive Attack to pick out just a few names, although of course many lesser known acts also appear and finally get their share of the limelight. Founded in 1980 by Bagenal and Chaz Jankel, over the years the studio developed a reputation as something of a haven for the more independently minded artist and was used by the likes of Brian Eno, John McLaughlin and Soft Machine, all of whom have their own unique tales to tell and anecdotes to relate. The studio is still active today, and this very well presented, informative and entertaining book serves as a super tribute to it and to the enduring legacy of its inimitable founder.

» Continue Reading.

Author:Richard Osman

So here is the sequel to last year’s million selling The Thursday Murder Club, once again featuring the four familiar elderly protagonists. This novel picks up shortly after the conclusion of its predecessor, with one of the group receiving a letter from a man who died many years ago. There’s a cache of missing stolen diamonds, a violent crime lord looking for revenge, and a number of dead bodies along the way as the tale unfolds with many a twist and turn. The plot is fairly preposterous of course, but in a rather good and entertaining way, such that the reader suspends disbelief and simply goes along for what is a very enjoyable ride with plenty of red herrings along the way. Alongside the main plot, Osman deals with the serious issues of growing old and infirm, coping with the cruelty of dementia and the value of friendship, all done in a compassionate and quite poignant fashion. All in all, a compelling mystery with a clever plot, that also manages to be witty and charming in that uniquely British way. If you don’t like Richard Osman for whatever reason, give this funny, exciting and sometimes touching book a » Continue Reading.

Author:Bill Thomas / Richard Butterworth / Nick Holmes

I think we can all unanimously agree that the seventies is the ‘go to’ decade as far as Genesis is concerned. That period spans all their key albums, even if it did end slightly underwhelmingly with And Then There Were Three (although the much better Duke was just around the corner of course). Looking back fifty years later, it’s an astonishing body of work, encompassing groundbreaking albums such as Foxtrot, Selling England By the Pound, The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway and Trick Of The Tale to mention a few personal favourites – and they were so unbelievably prolific, with, for example, only ten months separating Trick from Wind and Wuthering. As if that wasn’t enough, there were also the first solo albums from Peter Gabriel and Steve Hackett, plus Phil Collins work with Brand X and Ant Phillips early records – those were heady days indeed, and yet quality control barely ever dipped! Obviously there are more comprehensive and longer books on the band already out there, but nonetheless I really enjoyed this potted history of those key years – it’s well written, looking at the albums and at what was » Continue Reading.

Author:Andrew Wild / Lisa Torem

It’s something of an understatement to say Eric Clapton’s solo back catalogue is very much a mixed bag, ranging from the sublime 461 Ocean Boulevard to the frankly poor recent(ish) efforts Old Sock and I Still Do. I actually quite like the eighties albums Behind The Sun, August and Journeyman even if the glossy production is very much of its time, typifying the Armani jacket with the sleeves rolled up era when Clapton, Collins, Knopfler and co became fixtures on the big name charity concert circuit. For me, the pick of his later albums are the three blues inspired records, From The Cradle, Me and Mr Johnson and Riding With The King, where he found some fire in his belly and his love of that genre shone through. Of the numerous live sets, I always had a soft spot for 1979’s Just One Night set, the 2009 Live at Madison Square Garden shows with Steve Winwood, as well as one that’s often overlooked, the Live in Japan album with George Harrison from the early nineties.

I know very little of Tori Amos and her music, other than her debut Little Earthquakes, which I recall causing » Continue Reading.

Author:William McIlvanney & Ian Rankin

When William McIvanney died in 2015, he left behind an unfinished manuscript, amounting to about half of a novel, of Jack Laidlaw’s first case – a prequel to the three existing novels in that series, and his first new work in almost twenty five years. Ian Rankin has now been drafted in to fill in the gaps and finish the incomplete story, and a very good fist he makes of it too. Set in the underworld of 1970’s Glasgow, the tale begins with the murder of a lawyer who is also the unofficial right hand man to one of the city’s gangland ‘Mr Big’s’. His slaying has the potential to be the touch paper for gang warfare in the streets, but is all as obvious as it first seems? A complex web of deceit, misguided loyalties and long held grudges unfolds as the story reaches its gripping, unexpected climax. An excellent gritty read written with a realism that authentically captures the spirit of the period it depicts, and if it brings a new audience to the originals, then frankly it’s a job well done.

Length of Read:Medium

Might appeal to people who enjoyed…

Rankin, Brookmyre,McDermid.

» Continue Reading.

Author:Tony Thompson / Matt Karpe

Has there been a more charismatic figure in rock culture than the Lizard King, Jim Morrison? The six albums The Doors released between 1967 and 1971 contain some of the most influential music of that era, songs that still stand up today. The man in the street may only think of Riders On The Storm and the iconic Light My Fire, but that doesn’t even scratch the surface of the band’s legacy. I won’t list all their seminal work as you’ll know them off by heart, but their music is, at its best, as relevant today as it was fifty years ago. There’s no shortage of books on The Doors of course, but this gives a good look at their songs, album by album, and is an ideal introduction for the newcomer wanting to learn more about the songs, ideally while listening along.

I’m not especially knowledgeable about the genre of nu metal I have to confess, although back in the day my kids were big fans. Thus I have, albeit involuntarily, acquired some familiarity with the rather questionable joys of bands such as Korn, Slipknot, System of a Down and Coal Chamber. This book » Continue Reading.