Author:Edited by Adrian Whittaker

Subtitled An Incredible String Band Compendium, this is a revised and expanded edition of the long out of print original book. It’s an epic 700 page melange of articles, memories, photographs, reviews, interviews, essays, anecdotes and general ephemera, and as such covers pretty much all you could ever want to know on this quite remarkable band, and more besides. If you have the original book then you may wonder what’s new given nothing really has happened in the intervening twenty years. Well for a start there are a couple of new articles by Rose Simpson that are well worth your time, and there are new writings by the likes of Joe Boyd, Neil Tennant, Billy Connolly and even the former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williamson. All in all, this is a quite superb and comprehensive look back not just at the band members themselves, but at their recordings and the culture they existed and thrived in – they were indeed a flame that burned briefly but so very brightly. A real treasure trove for fans to delve into – if you don’t have it then you need to remedy that situation as soon as possible!

Length » Continue Reading.

Author:Tom Werman

Tom Werman wasn’t a name that rang any bells with me, but he was a leading A&R man and subsequently a sought after producer in the US, primarily in the seventies and eighties. Boston, REO Speedwagon and Cheap Trick were among the acts he signed up for Epic Records, and he later produced big selling album for the likes of Motley Crue, Poison and Twisted Sister, amassing no fewer than twenty three gold and platinum albums along the way. This very readable book gives an honest and engaging account of the recording of some of the best selling albums he worked on, covering the recording process and the role of the producer – and how to deal with the inflated egos of drug and alcohol fuelled rock stars. He seems a personable enough chap although obviously we are only hearing his version of events, and he subsequently seems to have fallen out in a big way with some of the major acts he produced. Nevertheless, he seems to be a work hard, play hard guy who made plenty of money along the way. An interesting read all in all that charts his career from the bottom of the » Continue Reading.

Author:Scott Meze, Paul O Jenkins, Matt Karpe

I am partial to a bit of Soft Machine when I’m in the right mood. Their Open Doors album earlier this year demonstrated that the passing years haven’t dimmed their light in the slightest. This very readable book takes the reader right back to their earliest incarnation featuring Kevin Ayers and Robert Wyatt, before trawling through all their releases for the next forty five years. Along the way the author examines the frequent comings and goings in the line up, as he guides the reader through the maze of releases, song by song. The band are certainly something of an acquired taste, but I think there’s no doubt they were at their best in their 1970’s heyday where they were on a winning run of top grade material, a heady mixture of prog, freeform jazz and seemingly whatever else took their fancy. Well researched and complied, this work is certainly worth checking out if you’re a fan as it covers not only the extensive studio and live catalogue, but also the various off shoots, side projects and extracurricular activities of current and former band members.

I confess my knowledge of Ralph McTell is » Continue Reading.

Author:Francis Spufford

A literary writer venturing into crime fiction for the first time. An alternative history featuring a heavy dose of First American vs African vs Caucasian ethnic struggle written by a white Englishman. A novel over 500 pages. All these are true, and all are reasons to think that Cahokia Jazz might fall flat on its face.

There’s also a lot to get to grips with upfront: two detectives, Native American Barrow and his sharp and wily senior partner Drummond. There’s a gruesome symbolic murder that requires investigation, and there’s the city of Cahokia in an alternative twenties North America, one in which money, religion and politics are all negotiated between the three races.

Spufford’s alternative history – based on the idea that the smallpox which wiped out 95% of the original inhabitants of North America arrived in a less venomous version, leading to a continuing mass population of Native Americans – is dense at first. Though he can’t avoid the narrative dumps completely, on the whole he shapes his narrative so that the reader finds out how and why Cahokia came to be the way it is, as the detectives search for the conspiracy that lies behind the » Continue Reading.

Author:Richard Houghton

A few year’s ago we reviewed books on Simple Minds and Free/Bad Company, where the history of a band was examined by collating people’s reminiscences of attending gigs over the years. This new book is of the same ilk, very comprehensive and detailed in its scope and presented on top quality glossy paper with plenty of colour photographs of the contributors. The book begins with the band in its earliest incarnation in 1966 and ends on a show by Saucerful of Secrets in 2019, before backtracking to add a post script with the Syd Barrett tribute show in 2007, and covers not only Floyd performances, which obviously make up the bulk of the book, but also, more briefly, solo tours over the years by Gilmour and Waters. Clearly these memories are recounted with the benefit of many years of hindsight, and recollections are occasionally and understandably a little hazy, as what were then young people or perhaps just teenagers are now usually in their sixties or even older. The most fascinating aspect of this lengthy volume is the stories of epic journeys to get to gigs as well as of the experience of the show itself, although the » Continue Reading.

Author:Daryl Easlea

Anyone who, like me, began listening to music in the early 1970s will have been very much aware of Slade, one of the biggest bands of that time and seemingly ever present in the charts and on Top of the Pops. The hit singles, three of which went into the charts at number one (when that was still an almost unheard of achievement), the big selling albums such as Slayed and Old New Borrowed and New and let’s not forget the Slade in Flame feature film – they really were everywhere. Then suddenly they weren’t. What happened? Well, this long and very comprehensive book will tell you all. It charts the band’s beginnings in the 1960s beat boom and the early years of struggle with a notable lack of success, through into their explosion in the glam heyday of the early 70s. There’s plenty of detail on those glory days, the hit singles including half a dozen number ones, the big selling albums and the sell out tours. Perhaps it was the hubris of the Slade in Flame film that began the decline, or maybe they spent too much time and energy trying unsuccessfully to crack the potentially » Continue Reading.

Author:Kevan Furbank, Peter Gallagher, Gary Steel

Thick as a Brick, Close To The Edge, Foxtrot, Trilogy – and that’s just scratching the surface of the glut of prog albums that appeared in 1972, surely one of the genre’s vintage years. The author has approached this by selecting 22 albums from the year, although of course this raises the question of what is and isn’t prog. For me, The Strawbs, Uriah Heep and Santana don’t really fall into that genre but each to their own I suppose. Each album is looked at in some detail, with added background on the bands themselves, although there is a trait of saying what key a piece is in and what chords are used, which I found quite irritating. It’s always interesting to read more about this era and its music, although being a big fan already of these albums I didn’t really learn much I didn’t already know. However, it would certainly make a useful guide to someone just investigating this music for the first time.

My SAHB period really went from Framed through Next and The Impossible Dream and the subsequent live set. I rather lost touch with them after that, although » 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.

Author:Robert Galbraith

Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott return in the seventh novel in this series, and it’s another blockbuster, running to almost a thousand pages. This time a sinister religious cult masquerading as a peaceable church campaigning for a better world is at the centre of the action. Robin infiltrates the organisation to try and locate a missing person, but is soon embroiled in an increasingly disturbing web of intrigue and unexplained deaths. What’s going on beneath the seemingly benign and respectable surface is gradually revealed, but I won’t spoil it here. As you’d perhaps expect for a book of this length there are a few occasions when the story meanders a bit, but overall there’s plenty of action, not to mention numerous red herrings along the way. Despite the daunting appearance (and weight!) when you pick the book up, the fast pace means the reader soon makes rapid headway as the plot, as they say, thickens, and the pages zip past without you really noticing and before you know it you’re 200 pages in. Another enthralling read in this series that seems to get better and better with each book.

Length of Read:Epic

Might appeal to people who enjoyed…

» Continue Reading.

Author:Nick Banks

Subtitled From Punk to Pulp, this is the autobiography, written during Lockdown, of the band’s drummer going all the way from his early family life in Rotherham through to hitting the big time (after a very long wait) with Pulp. It’s always enjoyable to read something about the area you grew up in. as there are so many familiar places name checked, be they schools, pubs, clubs or even local record shops. Indeed, the whole feel of the early parts of this book evokes so many great memories of times and people and places, so many of them now long gone. I found the first half of the book the most interesting, growing up in South Yorkshire, playing in a few local bands before eventually joining Pulp – tales of their early struggles and a long, long period in the wilderness make particularly good reading, and are by far the best part of the book. I was less enamoured of the latter sections where, once the band finally broke through in a big way, it’s a treadmill of record an album, tour, record another album, tour, split up, reform etc, you get the picture. There are though some » Continue Reading.

Author:Duncan Hamilton

“They think it’s all over….”

Former RAF pilot Kenneth Wolstenholme’s inimitable lead up to Geoff Hurst’s third goal on that glorious, long-ago Wembley day are probably the five most famous words in the history of English football.

Of course, the intervening 57 years of hurt show that it’s far from over. Sadly, given England’s habit of choking in the knockout stages of big tournaments and current manager Gareth Southgate’s lack of tactical nous, nor is it likely to be over any time soon.

The latest writer to step in the time machine and travel back to join the other “people on the pitch” on Saturday July 30, 1966 is the reliably entertaining Duncan Hamilton (Provided You Don’t Kiss Me: 20 Years with Brian Clough, Harold Larwood). Problem is, as DH himself points out early on in this absorbing and hugely enjoyable book, pretty much every one of the 100,000 plus attendees and participants at Wembley that day have pretty much strip-mined the match of every possible insight:

“No game that has been staged in this country – and very few that have been staged elsewhere – have been picked apart and then put together again » Continue Reading.

Author:Kevin Jon Davies

It’s been over twenty years now since Douglas Adams passed. As Stephen Fry points out in his introduction, it’s odd to think someone so invested in the technology of the future never saw a smartphone or a tablet, never used Facebook or Twitter and never even got to say Hi to Alexa. When I think of him, I think of the Hitchhiker books (oddly I never got into the TV and radio adaptations), the Dirk Gently novels, the book he did with naturalist Mark Carwardine and the Starship Titanic computer game that I played to death at the time. Happily all these aspects and more are covered in what is effectively a scrapbook complied from the treasure trove of notes, drafts, letters and memorabilia that was left behind after his untimely premature passing in 2001. These range from his earliest attempts at comedy sketches, his work on Dr Who, early drafts of Hitchhiker material and on to his later work on new technologies and The Digital Village. There’s a frustratingly brief section on Pink Floyd’s Division Bell album, comprising a letter to David Gilmour giving his reactions and suggestions after hearing an advance tape of the record » Continue Reading.

Author:Kevin Mulryne

Sporting an introduction by Oliver Wakeman, this excellent book, written by the producer of the Yes Music podcast, takes an in depth look at the 1978 Yes album, Tormato, their final studio effort of the seventies. This may not seem an obvious choice to examine in such a detailed fashion – it certainly doesn’t rank that highly among my favourite albums by the band, not helped by the poor sound, and consequently it’s not one that gets much listening time. If I had to choose the stand out tracks I suppose I would go for Don’t Kill The Whale and On The Silent Wings of Freedom, but that’s by the by really. I have to say though that this is one of the most comprehensive, detailed and meticulously researched books I’ve ever read on a particular album. You want to know about the construction of the songs themselves, the individual instruments and set ups used, the recording studios, the artwork, the press reviews, the subsequent tours – well, it’s all here for your delectation, running to almost three hundred pages in fact. There’s even a separate colour supplement containing some great rare photos from that period. This whole » Continue Reading.

Author:John Niven

John Niven’s novels were described to me once as ‘an acquired taste,’ as if that was a uniquely bad thing. Yet isn’t the work of any author a taste you either acquire, or don’t? Surely the only criteria which really matters when recommending a book to anyone is that it is entertaining or thought-provoking? On that count, Niven’s novels score top marks. He is an entertaining and thought-provoking novelist.

However, O Brother is not a novel.

This new Niven book is the story of his younger brother and his struggle with health, both physical and mental, up to the point at which his life ended at his own hands. Yet it is much more than that. It is the story of the Niven family, of poverty, of inadequate social care and of a section of society marginalised by simply being forgotten.

It is also the best thing Niven has ever written.

I read it in just a few sittings and found myself yearning for another gap in my schedule which would allow me to pick up with Shades and his inexorable journey to a side-room in a hospital, a distracted and overworked staff and a horrible, horrific end.

» Continue Reading.

Author:Richard Osman

The elderly amateur sleuths that comprise the Thursday Murder Club return for a fourth outing in this thoroughly entertaining murder mystery. There’s something quietly reassuring about these novels, the plotting of which has got tighter and tighter as the series has progressed. Here, an old friend is murdered and a package that was in his possession has gone missing. As the team investigate, they encounter art forgers, drug dealers and online fraudsters, and all the while the body count rises in this utterly engaging and engrossing read. The short snappy chapters keep the (fairly outlandish) plot rolling along at a swift pace, and you just have to suspend disbelief for a while and go along for the ride. The book is in turn thrilling, funny and poignant, and reading it is as comforting as a cosy cup of tea by the fire on a cold winter’s day – and by the way, it will undoubtedly be one of the year’s biggest sellers.

Length of Read:Long

Might appeal to people who enjoyed…

The previous books in he series, gentle unthreatening thrillers.

One thing you’ve learned

This is the last we’ll read of the Thursday Murder Club for a while » Continue Reading.

Author:Mick Herron

Although this isn’t a Slough House novel as such, it does have many links to that superb series. The Monochrome enquiry, set up by an unsympathetic government to look into possible Secret Service overreach and misconduct, is busy going nowhere, spinning its wheels due to lack of cooperation, its progress blocked at every turn, when suddenly it anonymously receives a vital file that threatens to blow apart a whole can of worms. Meanwhile, a long retired agent living in obscurity is subject to an abduction attempt in the leafy lanes of Devon. Are the two events connected? I don’t want to give away too much of the plot here, but suffice to say that although this is a stand alone novel, it also acts as a secret history of one of the main Slough House characters and explains their relationship with another character – the names differ but it quickly becomes apparent who they are in this tale told partly in the present day and partly in flashback to the Berlin of the mid nineties. This is a superb book, one where I absolutely relished every single page – laced with the author’s trademark mix of tension, intrigue, » Continue Reading.

Author:Caroline and David Stafford

I saw Ronnie Lane live just once; January 2nd 1976 at the Great British Music Festival held at Olympia in London. Sandwiched mid bill, on before Nazareth and Bad Company, but after The Pretty Things and Be Bop Deluxe, their country flavoured, good time rock n roll wasn’t done any favours by the aircraft hanger acoustics, or the harder rock tastes of the crowd. The only memory I have of their set were the can-can dancers (led by Ronnie’s then wife Kate) that took to the stage towards the end.

By the time I saw him, Lane was fully invested in performing and recording on his own terms, a wandering troubadour who had eschewed the glitz and glamour that had been the hallmark of his time with the Small Faces and Faces, swapping limos for caravans and stadium gigs for a tent. An act that was the very embodiment of what Glastonbury would subsequently become but never got the chance to be part of.

Authors David and Caroline Stafford have written quite a catalogue of music / media biographies, including Kenney Everett, Lionel Bart, The Police, Billy Fury and Adam Faith but this isn’t cash for » Continue Reading.

Author:Ethan Roy, Barry Wood, Andy McArthur, Stephen Lambe

I think everyone would agree that 1972 – 86 captures Lou Reed’s best work. I remember buying the Transformer album, mainly due to Walk on the Wild Side and the Bowie connection. I still dig out the Berlin album too, even though it’s not an easy listen, and the Rock n Roll Animal live set has my favourite version of Sweet Jane. His masterwork for me though is the epic title track to the Street Hassle album – just stunning. Of course, there were also quite a few duds during the period, so for me it’s very much a case of cherry picking with his back catalogue, and listening to the wheat rather than the chaff. This is an interesting read though, ideal for the newcomer to Reed’s music, and it got me digging into albums I’d not heard in a long time.

I am partial to Metallica so it was a real pleasure to read this book while rejoicing in the likes of Master of Puppets and For Whom The Bell Tolls. The run of albums up to the Black Album is still essential listening, although over the years their sound » Continue Reading.

Author:John Connolly

Once upon a time John Connolly wrote a novel titled The Book of Lost Things. While this isn’t a sequel as such, this standalone work does use the same overall conceit, a story of good versus evil set in a fairy tale world that may or may not be real. A woman finds herself drawn into this mysterious place where she hopes to find a cure to return her comatose daughter back to consciousness. She is aided on her quest by The Woodcutter, a figure who reminded me a little of The Gunslinger from Stephen King’s Dark Tower series, and is pursued by a Gollum like creature, while the sinister Crooked Man looms large over this world, seeking with his new found allies to thwart her mission at every turn and become ruler of the land. In more general terms, this is a book about hopes and dreams, about yearning and loss, and about the power of love and the place books and folklore tales still have in our lives. This is a dark but beautifully crafted fable that explores loyalty and the sacrifices a parent is prepared to make for their child, and even though it’s rather » Continue Reading.

Author:Stephen King

Private eye Holly Gibney seems to have developed a life of her own. Originally just a walk on character in the Mr Mercedes trilogy, she also appeared in The Outsider, then once more in the novella If It Bleeds, and now here she is again as the lead character in this new crime thriller set in the Mid West during the Covid years. It’s a novel that finds King at his gruesome best, in a tale of horrific events happening in a most unlikely and mundane domestic setting in the affluent suburbs of a small university town. The disappearance of a young woman is the thread that soon unravels a number of other suspicious incidents that occurred in the same area, hinting that perhaps a serial killer may be at large. Surely the pair of retired academics, both octogenarians, are beyond suspicion, or is their veneer of devotion and respectability hiding a terrible secret that lurks just beneath the surface of their seemingly ordinary life? This rather grisly novel marks a sea change from last year’s fantasy based Fairy Tale, but illustrates what a master technician King is, as he seamlessly slips back into a different and perhaps » Continue Reading.

Author:Martin Power

Martin Power, an author and biographer from North London, has approached this book from the traditional, chronological standpoint – and has done a very good job of it. The research is extensive and analytical, the writing is concise and empathetic but the thing which makes the book stand out from the norm is that the storytelling rattles along at the pace of one of Gary’s guitar solos.

Gary Moore is such an interesting musician in that he was steeped in the blues, obsessed with Peter Green and Mayall-era Eric Clapton, yet quickly became bored within any structured group which didn’t allow him to fly. It is no coincidence that his greatest success was as a solo artist, playing the blues to a rock audience.

The arrival of the Belfast guitarist in Dublin provides some lovely humour as he hides from his girlfriend’s Catholic landlady when he stays ‘after hours’, and begins his adventures with Brush Shiels, Skid Row and one Philip Lynott. What could possibly go wrong?

The book carries a discography for Gary, including a a section on sessions which he played on for others, and is obviously written from a position of love. It is a » Continue Reading.

Author:Opher Goodwin, Richard James , Lisa Torem

The sixties isn’t my favourite run of Dylan albums – I’m more of a seventies sort of guy – but it does contain some of my favourite Dylan songs – Visions of Johanna, Chimes of Freedom, It’s Alright Ma, It’s All Over Now Baby Blue to pluck out a few – in fact I’d forgotten just how many there are, and a good best of compilation or Spotify playlist covering these years is essential listening while reading this book.. Of course, there have been plenty of books analysing every word of Dylan’s lyrics, but this does a fine job of providing a potted history of the songs written in that period without getting bogged down in too much detail and interpretation. One thing the book has done is made me relisten to those albums again. I really enjoyed this one, well written and put together and ideal for the more casual fan of Dylan.

Horslips are one of those bands where I heard parts of their first few albums but never fully got into or investigated in any great depth – indeed there are people on here who know far far more on » Continue Reading.

Author:Ray Padgett

My name is Junior and I am a Bobaholic. If you are one too, this is a book for you. I heartily recommend it.

Pledging My Time – Conversations with Bob Dylan Band Members is a remarkable collection of interviews with people who have intersected with Dylan across his career. The book is written by Ray Padgett who demonstrates impressive attention to detail and clearly does deep research before each of his interviews. I think this is why the interviews are so successful. The interviewees are engaged by being able to have a discussion rather than just being asked questions – there are a lot of “I had forgotten that”; “I didn’t know that” and “really you tracked that down” type comments. Sometimes Padgett has sourced pictures or recordings the interviewee has never seen which adds to the rapport. Also, I expect, interviewees who had a positive experience put him in contact or endorsed him to others in the Dylan world.

So, a bit on the author. From his bio: Ray Padgett is the founder of Cover Me, the largest blog devoted to cover songs on the web, and author of Cover Me: The Stories Behind the Greatest » Continue Reading.

Author:Robert Day-Webb, Brian J Robb, Nic Ransome, Steve Parry

I mainly know Humble Pie from the Eat It and Smokin’ albums, but for me their 1971 Rockin’ The Fillmore set captures the classic Marriott Frampton line up at their best – one of those bands where the live shows surpassed the studio albums. Steve Marriott had a great voice and they achieved some decent success in the early years of the seventies, before eventually disbanding in 1975. Inevitably this was followed by a number of reformations, with ever diminishing returns, in subsequent years, but the original magic had long since departed by then, not helped by Marriott’s well-documented personal problems, and the band was a shadow of its former self. This book takes a long lingering look at the early glory days when they seemed to have the world at their feet, the break ups and make-ups over the years, and most importantly examines the albums, essential and otherwise, on a track by track basis. Although the band was too often overshadowed by their more successful contemporaries and frequently seemed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, they certainly produced some memorable music on their day, and fans will » Continue Reading.

Author:Mark Volman and John Cody

“Happy Forever” is a book covering the life and career of Mark Volman, “world famous funny fat person”, as Frank Zappa once accurately but cruelly described him. Working with Howard Kaylan for over 50 years in The Turtles, Flo and Eddie, with Frank Zappa, and adding their distinctive backing vocals to T Rex, Bruce Springsteen, Alice Cooper, David Cassidy, Blondie, and The Ramones, you’ve probably heard them, even if you think you haven’t. Volman was the archetypical smart school slacker clowning due to undiagnosed ADHD, falling into music as he could sing excellent harmonies with Kaylan. The Turtles had the fortune to bag a handful of perrenial cheerful, tuneful hits (“Happy Together”, “Elenore”, “She’d rather be with me”, etc) early in their careers. Live, Volman and Kaylan continued the spirit of vaudeville in their performances, with skits, musical jokes, ad-libbing, and many parodies, along along with organic changes to their sound; the brilliantly-titled track “Illegal, Immoral, and Fattening”, for example, was a classic bit of 70s rock. I remember finding their version of “The Wall” hysterical, and a great deflating of the pomposity of original version (see here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXjVJXjj0dM)

For a while they were the » Continue Reading.