Author:Liz Pelly

The point at which art intersects with business has always been fraught, and Liz Pelly is unequivocal in that she observes “commercialism infecting creativity”. Described in the Washington Post as “the most lucid and rigorous critic of the rot at the heart of an apparently magical service” Pelly’s book is a 288 page diatribe that sees no redeeming features in the worlds biggest streaming service.

Across 30 chapters Pelly comes out swinging, and there are several times when she connects with deserving targets. She rightly lampoons founder Daniel Ek’s claims that he was a frustrated musician on a mission to save music. Ek wanted to find an online service that would build user engagement and become a vehicle to sell advertising. Music became the focus mostly because the file sizes were manageable. That he was able to is largely because record companies, slow, complacent and luddite, failed to figure any of this out for themselves. That’s enough for Pelly to go on to dismiss any redeeming narrative about how streaming has otherwise enabled music to survive and indeed prosper given the almost fatal impact illegal downloading had.

Another deserved target is Spotify’s Discovery Mode which offers algorithmic promotion » Continue Reading.

Author:Anthony Seldon

9 months after her role as Prime Minister came to abrupt end, Truss confronts Seldon at a Spectator summer party. “Why are you writing a book on me?” she askes forcefully. “I’m writing my own book, you know”. Truss promptly stomps off before a nonplussed Seldon could say anything beyond “I’m glad”.

Seldon has documented each PM’s reign in meticulous detail since Blair in 2004. Given that the average time PM’s have spent in office is 4 years 9 months the Truss premiership presented Seldon a challenge. Would there be a book? Maybe just a blog post or pamphlet? Undeterred by either Truss’s hostility or a tenure that failed to reach a half century of days he undertook 120 interviews, reviewed a variety of official documents, some which he admits were sourced “opaquely”. He claims 85% of the book came from in person interviews. Never one to be accused of brevity, the book is in fact it’s one of his most accessible works to date. Despite the recency of her time at No.10, there were a whole host of things I’d not read before, or forgotten.

Normally his books are chronological but with only a month and » Continue Reading.

Author:Robyn Hitchcock

“1967” is a memoir from the “surrealist rock ‘n’ roller, iconic troubadour, guitarist, poet, painter, and performer” Robyn Hitchcock (his description). As befits someone who has always had a rather sideways take on life, the memoir addresses just one year in his life, describing his arrival at Winchester College just before his 13th birthday, “high on dread”.

It’s a transitional time for any young chap, but all the more so given he has to learn to live in the Winchester ecosystem, and while Hitchcock’s memoir is anchored by (or to) the college, he intertwines this with his discovery of music, his relationship with his parents and more fleetingly his early metamorphosis into a musician.

Hitchcock is candid about the idiosyncrasies of college life. “Winchester College equips you for Winchester College” and he makes a number of references to people who found themselves unable to attain “escape velocity”, and remained forever entwined with the place. Hitchcock describes “Notions”, the college’s own language and muses that he got off lightly as he wasn’t “beaten, sodomised, stripped, mocked or had his head shoved down the toilet bowl” (called a wash and set at my school), pondering “maybe his parents weren’t getting » Continue Reading.

Author:Christopher McCittrick

Now in their 55th year, ZZ Top have managed a rare feat not just of such longevity but remaining widely recognizable despite a backstory has always been a touch vague. Christopher McKittrick (whose previous work includes books on Tom Petty and The Rolling Stones) takes on the task of trying untangle fact from fiction, in a book that has Billy Gibbons as it’s center piece, but is also de facto the story of ZZ Top.

No-one could accuse McKittrick of skimping on the research. It’s a book packed with details of tour dates, concert yields, videos shot and albums recorded. Unfortunately, without the active involvement of any of the band, family those directly connected to the band, the actual insight achieved is slight. Which is not to say it wasn’t an entertaining read, as McKittrick does his best to throw as much light as he can on Gibbons and Top, but by the end I wasn’t a great deal wiser about what Gibbons was really like, leaving the more unsavory aspects of the bands career to take center stage.

A great deal of Top and it’s history / mythology was shaped by Bill Ham, Top’s manager until » Continue Reading.

Author:Jessica Barker

Once upon a time there were emails from officials in far off places, telling us that all sorts of riches were ours for the taking, if we’d just email back. Boutros Boutros-Ghali contacted me several times, pleading for help moving a shipment of gold, with my name on it. These days, there are text messages for parcels I didn’t order, funds at risk in bank accounts I don’t have, and even Taylor Swift tickets in local Facebook groups that will go at face value. I get regularly phished at work, my IT buddies sending out spoof after spoof to keep me on my toes.

And I never fell for one of them, until I did. A mail from a name I recognised, that I’d talked to a day or so before, asking me to check a list. They got me. An endless merry-go-round of IT “refresher” courses followed. None as insightful as reading “Hacked”.

“Hacked” walks readers through a cornucopia of online evils, from phishing to malware, spyware to deepfakes. There’s plenty of statistics, some sobering stories and lots of sensible advice. Barker details how giants like Facebook and Google have been phished, and how even the » Continue Reading.

Author:Gary Stevenson

“I was a clever, poor, ambitious kid, who just didn’t want to be poor any more.” An unusually gifted mathematician, Stevenson beats the odds first by getting into the London School of Economics, and then wins a trading game to get internship at Citibank. He has no idea what kind of job it would lead to – just that it would give him the chance to make a lot of money. And it does. Not bad for an unsuccessful grime musician (MC Gaz) who was expelled from school for drug dealing.

Ironically, it’s not Stevenson’s numeric skills that enable him to advance. Initially perplexed that he can’t understand how trading works, he quickly realises that he’s far from alone, and that many longer serving traders are as clueless as he initially is. Knowing that many interns are never offered jobs, he makes himself useful in the best way he can think of – fetching lunches, coffees, at his desk by 6am, and always ready to take note as and when a dealer decides to share a few gems of wisdom. Gems like you won’t necessarily make money by being right, but you can really cash in by being » Continue Reading.

Author:Becky Holmes

It might seem surprising that that a former PR Manager living in Warwickshire would become a romantic interest for not just Keanu Reeves and Liam Neeson but also Princes Harry, Wills and even Andrew, but these were just some of the celebrity names that slid into Becky Holmes direct messages after she joined Twitter at the start of the pandemic.

Holmes found it surprising too. So much so that she decided to post her exchanges with her love struck suitors on Twitter, gathering over 150,000 followers in a matter of months. It didn’t seem to matter how absurd her answers were, the DM’s kept rolling in, even after a few of them spotted her piss taking tweets. She was even once contacted by someone claiming to be her sister. Called Becky.

Although not a victim herself, her Twitter feed led to a number of victims to get in touch, prompting Holmes to investigate further (one of the few jokes she doesn’t make at her own expense*). Given the books origins in Holmes role reversing Twitter feed, it invites us to continue to laugh at scammers getting rinsed, but there’s quite a shift in mood required when reading » Continue Reading.

Author:Eamonn Forde

“The Web will be a great place to find music. It will make the music of the world more accessible” – Todd Rundgren, 1998

“We will never be in the business of making our music digital and degrading its value dramatically as long as we are continuing to sell CDs” Sir Colin Southgate, EMI CEO, 1996

For some lucky people, listening to music is all they need. Some don’t even bother to collect all the releases, like that rare Portuguese CD single with the extra hidden live tracks. A somewhat smaller number, like Eamonn Forde, and like me (I think there must be more of us) are also fascinated by the business of music. This is Forde’s third industry focused tome, having previously written about the demise of EMI (The Final days of EMI: Selling The Pig) and the management of musical estates (Leaving The Building: The Lucrative Afterlife of Music Estates). It’s a lot more of an engaging read than it sounds, honest. This time Word and Q alumni Forde has chosen 1999 as the tipping point that saw the record industry not so much disrupted, but dumped on it’s head, as the internet and digital music » Continue Reading.

Author:Benji Waterhouse

Graham thinks he’s Jesus but ends up being sectioned after nearly drowning in a swimming pool trying to walk on water. Barbara flies to the UK in a bridal gown so that she can marry Harry Styles, and it’s only the death threats made to Styles then girlfriend (Taylor Swift) that result in her sectioning. Jamal knows that the psychiatric ward is in fact a TV set because it’s so shitty and real ones would be much nicer. Damien unintentionally outs himself after drinking hand gel by announcing his illness, thereby proving himself sufficiently sane to remain at large. Benjamin senses his mental heath worsening, uncertain he’s really fit to do his job, struggling to come to terms with an attention seeking mother and an angry father. He’s also the psychiatrist responsible for treating all the preceding characters and author of this “fly on the padded wall” book.

Mental illness is no laughing matter, but for the most part Waterhouse makes himself the target of the jokes. It’s a personal book, as much about this relationship with his parents and his girlfriend as it is the people he works with or tries to heal each day. His patients » Continue Reading.

Author:Barney Hoskyns and Jasper Murison-Bowie

“Phew” is a celebration of Tom Hibbert’s irreverent skewering of musicians, and other assorted celebs, which gained notoriety at Smash Hits and flourished with Q Magazine’s “Who The Hell Does” pieces, The book has been complied by music journalist and author Barney Hoskyns and a chap called Jasper Murison-Bowie, who could have been a Hibbert creation but in fact works with Hoskyns at Rock’s Backpages, where most of Hibbert’s work can be found, albeit behind a paywall.

The book features articles from every era of his writing (bar his first gig with a DIY magazine) intermingled with reflections from colleagues, friends and family. Because it’s an appreciation of Hibbert’s work and not a biography, calling the book “Who The Hell Did Tom Hibbert Think He Was” must have been ruled out, but pleasingly it is used for the first section which focuses on Hibbert the man rather than his writing. An autobiographical piece Hibbert wrote for a book called “Love Is The Drug” (edited by John Aizlewood) explains how Hibbert’s early musical tastes focused on the Byrds and then Moby Grape, who he admits to becoming infatuated with, not least because by the time he » Continue Reading.

Author:Kenneth Womack

Even if you don’t recognize the name, you will have seen pictures with him in. According to Kenneth Womack, Evans was quite deliberate, sticking close to his charges, knowing there would be a very good chance he’d end up in the finally published picture. Hard to miss at 6ft 3, he’s ever present throughout the 8 hours of “Get Back”, the man with the guitar picks, tea and toast. Getting arrested at the end of the rooftop concert was a perfect encapsulation of his role – the friendly giant who always stood between the Fab Four and those that wanted to get to them.

Author Womack has written numerous books on the Beatles and was chosen by Evans son Gary and daughter Julie to tell their fathers story. Womack was given Evans diaries, the autobiographical manuscript Evans never managed to get published in his lifetime, and a treasure trove of memorabilia that he had squirreled away having worked with The Beatles from their days at the Cavern to beyond the split and the collapse of Apple into their solo careers.

Hired at George’s suggestion because of his imposing presence, Evans was unusual as a bodyguard and roadie » Continue Reading.

Author:Kevin Armstrong

I’m not sure of the date – middle of 1974 possibly. I was back in Orpington spending time with my mate Mark, on the street where we’d both grown up, now aspiring rock stars at the heady age of 14. Mark had upped the ante by getting a black Les Paul copy, a 15w amp that had dire mains hum, and a Cry Baby pedal. The only thing holding either of us back from stardom was a total absence of talent plus in my case, a total absence of an instrument. Several of Mark’s mates had formed a band, and we spent a day watching them practice. Mark seemed enthralled no doubt hoping to be asked to “sit in” whilst I was bored out of my gourd, manifesting a thumping headache born out of becoming massively de-hydrated (refreshments were only for the band, OK?). The only thing that made it interesting was the presence of a local guitarist called Kevin who had agreed to watch, play a little and offer a few tips. He was slight, friendly if a little distant, perking up when I mentioned Frank Zappa. It was clear that Kevin could really play and keep » Continue Reading.