Author:Matthew Taylor, Scott Meze, Geoffrey Feakes

Following the recent passing of leading light Tony Clarkin, Magnum are sadly no more although they did manage one final album. However, for me their best work came early in their career with the excellent On A Storyteller’s Night album, which is the set most people immediately bring to mind, An ill advised and unsuccessful attempt to break through into the lucrative US market with the poor Goodnight LA record failed miserably though, and the switch of focus also meant they lost ground in Europe which they never quite recovered – they were one of those bands who weren’t able to graduate from the city hall circuit to bigger venues. I always found their output a bit inconsistent but there were usually some good songs out there – Just Like An Arrow, Vigilante, How Far Jerusalem and Don’t Wake The Lion come to mind. The author does a good job of going through the 17 studio albums song by song in this well researched book and offers some interesting insights into their composition and recording, as well as discussing the band’s ups and downs career wise. Well worth a look if you’re a fan » Continue Reading.

Author:Russ Thomas

This is now the fourth novel in this ongoing police procedural series set in and around Sheffield and featuring DS Adam Tyler. As such, it does help if you’ve read the previous books so you’re aware of the characters’ back stories, although it’s not absolutely essential. The disappearance of a young mother 24 years ago was a case that remained unsolved, but when a new lead suddenly appears, Tyler’s investigation as head of the Cold Case Review Team suddenly leaves him fighting for his life. It falls on his number two to take over the case, but retracing her boss’s steps leaves her with some hard choices to make as the evidence she uncovers begins to unexpectedly point frighteningly close to home. I felt the previous novel, Cold Reckoning, wasn’t quite up to the high standard of the first two books in the series, but this one, which takes a slightly different focus, certainly redresses the balance and then some. It’s a taut, fast moving and intelligent thriller, which I really enjoyed – next instalment as soon as possible please!

Length of Read:Medium

Might appeal to people who enjoyed…

The earlier novels in the series, police procedurals, thrillers.

» Continue Reading.

Author:Anthony Horowitz

This is now the fifth novel featuring enigmatic private investigator Daniel Hawthorne, who is assisted by the author himself who appears as a character in his own story. On this occasion, the plot revolves around a case from Hawthorne’s somewhat mysterious past, a dispute among neighbours that gets out of control. A neighbour from hell disrupts life in a quiet gated community, where all the residents seemingly hold a grudge against him. One of them – or perhaps more – eventually takes matters into their own hands with a tragic outcome. There’s an interconnected series of issues and relationships going on beneath the surface, which gradually emerge as the investigation progresses, with all the residents apparently having both motives and alibis. As Horowitz reexamines Hawthorne’s original investigation, it places unexpected strains on their own friendship as hidden secrets are revealed, leading to a dramatic and unexpected climax. Along the way, there’s plenty of deception and red herrings before the seemingly impossible puzzle is finally solved. An excellent entertaining thriller that certainly lives up to the high standards of the previous novels in this series.

Length of Read:Medium

Might appeal to people who enjoyed…

Whodunnit thrillers in the old » Continue Reading.

Author:Opher Goodwin, Chris Sutton, Peter Braidis, Manny Grillo

There’s no shortage of books on Bob Dylan and his music, but this short volume, the second title in the Rock Classics series, takes an in depth look at the seminal 1965 album Bringing It All Back Home. I’m certainly no expert on Dylan’s sixties output, so I found this book useful background to this album, which contains enduring songs such as Mr Tambourine Man, Maggie’s Farm, It’s Alright Ma, It’s All Over Now Baby Blue and of course Subterranean Homesick Blues. Even relatively lesser-known pieces like Gates of Eden still stand up today. The book provides a look at the background to the album’s making, the recording process and of course delves into the songs themselves. Short as the book is, it does provide some interesting insights for the casual reader like myself, although I would assume the more hardcore follower will already be up to speed on all this. All in all, a well put together potted history on this true classic of an album that is rapidly approaching its sixtieth anniversary.

I’m certainly not averse to a bit of AC/DC, great rock music, but I’m not sure their songs » Continue Reading.

Author:Richard Lawrence Jordan

This lengthy book takes a very detailed look at the music that emanated from Northern Ireland during the mid to late seventies, against a background of political and cultural upheaval and suburban violence. The punk movement seemed to provide the seeds of hope and perhaps an alternative revolution for those in their youth that largely eschewed politics. The book devotes a good deal of space to the work and influence of Terri Hooley and the Good Vibrations label, and bands such as The Undertones and particularly Stiff Little Fingers feature heavily and really form the epicentre of the book. That’s not to say that lesser bands are ignored – there are many others, such as The Defects, whose star shone briefly but brightly before being extinguished completely who now get their long overdue moment in the spotlight. The author also delves into the social history and political background of Northern Ireland, which personally I found less interesting, although I suppose this background is essential to even begin to understand the context of what was going on during these turbulent times. The author provides a very in depth look at the social, political and cultural climate which formed » Continue Reading.

Author:John van der Kiste, G Mick Smith, Opher Goodwin, Alan Draper

The first in a new series taking an in depth look at selected classic albums. First up is The Stones 1969 effort Let It Bleed, the second of a run of four consecutive releases between 1968 – 1972 which arguably mark the band’s creative peak. It certainly does befit the ‘classic’ tag with songs such as Gimme Shelter, Midnight Rambler and You Can’t Always Get What You Want. This is a slim volume of 75 pages, but it does cram in a lot of detail on the album – the background to the recording, the inspiration for the songs and of course their recording, including a track by track look at the whole shooting match. A promising start to what looks like a very interesting series. I don’t feel I know as much of Ian Hunter’s back catalogue as I should. I’m pretty strong on the early efforts and the latter ones, but with quite a big void in the middle years where I lost touch with his work. Following the tried and trusted song by song analysis of each album, the book does a good job of giving » Continue Reading.

Author:Derek Taylor, Ben L Connor

In his forty-page introduction and overview of this genre, the author sums up easy listening as a combination of big band and orchestral music that came to the fore in the post war world of the forties onwards. He focuses on instrumental music, so there’s nothing on the renowned easy listening vocalists. There are chapters on the likes of Henry Mancini, James Last, Mantovani and Herb Albert, his method being to select a single key recording of each artist and look at that in some detail, and then to recommend some further listening. This area of music isn’t something I know much about and isn’t really my cup of tea, and so I’m not really qualified to be assess how good this overview is, but if this type of music floats your boat then take a look at this book which attempts to give a comprehensive overview of the genre, and place in a historical context its big names and innovators.

I suppose everyone knows at least one White Stripes song, the now ubiquitous Seven Nation Army. However, there’s a lot more to them than that as a listen to the White Blood Cells and » Continue Reading.

Author:Andrew Rooney, Paul Tornbohm, Emma Stott

I’m not the world’s biggest Oasis fan – in fact I haven’t heard any of the music they’ve released this century give or take the odd single. However, you can’t deny the quality of their output in the mid nineties – the first two albums still stand up today, not to mention the numerous top quality songs they put out as non-album tracks. This book takes a comprehensive look at all their music, including the singles, and isn’t afraid to cast a critical eye over the below par efforts when called for, In hindsight, perhaps they carried on for too long, managing another full decade, with seemingly ever diminishing returns, after the Knebworth show in 1996 which was arguably their zenith. I was surprised how much I enjoyed this book _ it’s well written and in a very readable format, and if you’re after a potted history of the band’s music you could do a lot worse than start here.

I think everyone knows at least some of The Carpenters songs. Between 1969 and 1981 the brother and sister duo were seemingly a daily presence on the radio, and sold over 100 million albums. » Continue Reading.

Author:Gerald Seymour

This is the fourth novel in the ongoing series featuring the elderly, rather eccentric and taciturn spymaster Jonas Merrick. This time the Chinese state apparatus is in his sights in a complex storyline featuring a number of interlinked characters and storylines as he attempts to gain the upper hand in a treacherous game of geopolitical chess. Seymour uses the novel to reintroduce a few familiar names from the previous three books, nicely tying up some ongoing loose ends along the way. As always, the plot is a slow burner, which gradually ratchets up the tension as the story progresses until he expertly brings all the elements together in a very exciting and satisfying conclusion. If you’ve read and enjoyed Seymour’s work previously then you won’t be disappointed, although if this is the first time you’ve encountered Jonas Merrick then I’d recommend you read this after you’ve devoured the earlier tales.

Length of Read:Long

Might appeal to people who enjoyed…

Thrillers, espionage based novels.

One thing you’ve learned

Seymour is in his eighties now, and it’s approaching fifty years since the appearance of his debut novel, Harry’s Game, but the quality of his novels rarely falters. I fact, I » Continue Reading.

Author:Louise Welsh

Scottish author Louise Welsh returns with her tenth novel. I haven’t read them all by any means but I very much enjoyed her debut The Cutting Room and its belated sequel The Second Cut. This one is however a completely new venture, although it follows the same path of a gritty but darkly comic plot. A successful highflying university professor’s life is suddenly derailed when his son is arrested on drugs charges. Men he thought had been left behind in his working class past as his past as a the son of an underworld hard man suddenly reappear. Has he truly escaped his family’s reputation and cut ties with his old life, or is he more like his father than he cares to admit? As he tries to outrun his family history, organised crime and institutional corruption dog his heels at every step and he must decide how far he’s prepared to compromise his morals to preserve the life, reputation and career he’s so painstakingly built. This is a really interesting read that paints an intriguing portrait of contemporary Glasgow and the politics of campus life, and is well worth checking out if you want to sample the » Continue Reading.

Author:Aaron Badgley

Subtitled The Story of George Harrison’s Post Beatles Record Label, this is a book that over its 200 or so pages does exactly what it says on the tin. With Apple Records in a state of flux, Harrison opted to set up a new label on a smaller scale with the aim of promoting new artists as well as eventually releasing his own music. Things got off to a decent start with the band Splinter (remember Costafine Town?), but they soon faded without achieving the success that was predicted, and signings such as Ravi Shankar, Jiva, Attitudes and Henry McCullough failed to take off. When the label moved from the auspices of A&M to Warners many of the artists were quietly dropped, and the label became mainly a vehicle for releasing Harrison’s own music – in fact it was announced that his whole back catalogue would be reissued on the label earlier this year. After his death, the label was eventually reactivated by his son, Dhani, and has been given a new lease of life, signing artists such as Cat Stevens and Billy Idol. This very well researched and written book chronicles the rise and fall and rebirth » Continue Reading.

Author:Daryl Richard Lawrence, Stan Jeffries. Duncan Harris

I’m not a big fan of the West Coast country sounds of Linda Ronstadt, but given that she’s sold over 100 million albums I’m obviously in a minority! This book covers the first twenty years of her career, which saw the release of 17 albums – a pretty impressive work rate. The only two records I really know are Living in the USA and Heart Like a Wheel, but dipping into her back catalogue in the course of reading this book confirmed my thoughts that pleasant as her music is, it all rather washes over me. Nevertheless, she successfully crossed over into both the rock and country markets and attained huge commercial success over a sustained period. Fans will enjoy the in depth track by track breakdown of the albums and might even rediscover some long forgotten gems, while it also provides a good introduction for newcomers to her music.

The Jam was a band I was quite a fan of back in the day. From 1977’s In The City single through to their last hurrah with 1982’s Beat Surrender they produced some fantastic music that still sounds as good today as it » Continue Reading.

Author:Sophie Hannah

A fifth instalment in the author’s loving recreation of Hercule Poirot and his famous little grey cells. A Christmas based mystery presents itself to the Belgian detective and his colleague Inspector Catchpool, who is a sort of amalgam of Captain Hastings and Inspector Japp. Set in the early 1930s in a crumbing mansion by the coast, the home of Catchpool’s overbearing mother, the pair investigate a murder in the supposed safety of a ward in a nearby hospital. When a friend is admitted to the same place his wife is convinced he will meet the same fate, but refuses to elaborate. Poirot must work fast to solve the case before the killer strikes again, or face the horrific consequences – having to spend the whole festive period with the Catchpools! There’s a large cast of quite eccentric characters with complex interrelationships, which are gradually revealed as the plot progresses, and of course there’s the usual quota of red herrings. Hannah nicely evokes the atmosphere of England and its inhabitants in that pre-war era, and expertly recreates Poirot’s familiar character with all its foibles. As with the earlier novels, my one grumble is I would have liked more Poirot » Continue Reading.