Books

PAUL McCARTNEY Book With Rare BEATLEMANIA Photos Coming Up

Posted on by JL

27 January 2023

In 2020, an extraordinary trove of nearly a thousand photographs taken by
PAUL McCARTNEY himself on a 35mm camera was re-discovered in his archive.

They intimately record the months towards the end of 1963 and the beginning of 1964
when Beatlemania erupted in the UK and, after the band’s first visit to the USA, they became the most famous people on the planet.


Selfies Paris, 1964 (press photo via Macca site)

The photographs are Macca’s personal record of this explosive time, when
The Beatles, were inside looking out and were the EYES OF THE STORM.

The book features pictures of these intense, legendary months – Liverpool, London,
Paris, New York, Washington, D.C. and Miami – and many never-before-seen portraits
of John, George and Ringo.

Paul McCartney: “Anyone who rediscovers a personal relic or family treasure is instantly flooded with memories and emotions, which then trigger associations buried in the haze of time. This was exactly my experience in seeing these photos, all taken over an intense three-month period of travel, culminating in February 1964. It was a wonderful sensation to be plunged right back.”

Help, indeed

Publishing: 13 June 2023.
Pre-order: here.

Trailer

MACCA: Website

LOU REED – New Book About His Love For The Martial Art World Of THAI CHI Coming Next Month

Posted on by JL

13 January 2023

A new book called THE ART OF THE STRAIGHT LINE arrives on 14 March.
It captures the energy of LOU REED’s worlds of THAI CHI, music, and
meditation.

It’s edited by his widow Laurie Anderson, assisted
by Stephan Berwick, Bob Currie, and Scott Richman.

Reed was not only a rock ‘n’ roll star/poet, but also an accomplished martial artist whose practice began in the 1980s. He studied with Chen Tai Chi pioneer Master Ren GuangYi.

This book is a comprehensive collection of Reed’s writings on Tai Chi. It includes conversations with Reed’s fellow musicians, artists, friends, and Tai Chi practitioners, including Julian Schnabel, A. M. Homes, Hal Willner, Mingyur Rinpoche, Eddie Stern, Tony Visconti, and Iggy Pop.

The Art of the Straight Line features also Reed’s unpublished writings on the technique, practice, and purpose of martial arts, as well as essays, observations, and riffs on meditation and life.

Order info via publisher
Harper Collins Publishers.

New Book: ‘CHUCK BERRY – An American Life”

Posted on by JL

14 December 2022

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Biographer RJ SMITH crafts a comprehensive portrait of one of the great American entertainers, guitarists, and lyricists of the 20th century, bringing CHUCK BERRY to
life in vivid detail.

Based on interviews, archival research, legal documents, and a deep understanding of Berry’s St. Louis (his birthplace, and the place where he died in March 2017), Smith sheds new light on a man few have ever really understood. By placing his life within the context of the American culture he made and eventually withdrew from, we understand how Berry became such a groundbreaking figure in music, erasing racial boundaries, crafting subtle political commentary, and paying a great price for his success.

While celebrating his accomplishments, the book also does not shy away from troubling aspects of his public and private life, asking profound questions about how and why we separate the art from the artist.

Order info HERE

A Quote from Chuck Berry in the book.

“I wouldn’t say that I single-handedly invented rock ‘n’ roll. You see, there’s all types of
rock ‘n’ roll. There is rock. And there is rooooooll. See what I’m saying? And then there’s
rock ‘n’ roll which is rock ‘n’ roll, hahahaha. It’s just a matter of whatever I’ve accomplished, which is for others to say, I guess.”

CHUCK BERRY: Bio – Discography

New NICK CAVE Photo Book Called ‘…GRACE’ With DEREK RIGERS Shots

Posted on by JL

23 November 2022

Renowned British photographer DEREK RIDGERS (aged 72) has photographed
an array of youth and cultural movements in the UK, street, and alternative London
club scenes. This is the first book published on Ridgers’ early photography that focuses
on a single person as subject. This book comprises material taken from four photographic shoots with NICK CAVE, when Ridgers was working as a freelance photographer and offering material to music press publications of the time.

All formats/order info via publisher BURNING BOOK PRESS.

Taken from Ridgers’ archives and scanned directly from the original photographic transparencies this material has been printed by full colour lithography with the black
and white also being run as full colour to obtain optimal results and high contrast. With this attention this is the best these photographs can be seen.

The pages have been section stitched and hardback bound in a blue cloth with a rounded spine. There is a recessed tip in picture and the title has been gold foil blocked on the front and spine. There is an additional blind image in black on the back cover. Inside an obsolete traditional Heidelberg letterpress was employed to hole cut a perforation running down one of the pages.

DEREK RIDGERS: Website

Photos via Burning Book Press

‘GENESIS P-ORRIDGE COMPLETE POEMS 1960’s & 70’s’ – Out February 2023.

Posted on by JL

5 November 2022

The late British avant-garde artist GENESIS P-ORRIDGE (born Neil Andrew Megson in 1950 and departed in 2020), the mastermind and voice behind Throbbing Gristle and Psychic TV ic TV, Throbbing Gristle and COUM Transmissions, began their artistic journey in the 1960’s writing poetry.

Heartworm Press presents a collection of two decades of poetry, from beat to concrete, and shows the progression of the self, beginning the book under the given name of Neil Megson and eventually growing into the enigmatic Genesis P-Orridge.

The book features over 200 never before seen or published poems
including 70 images. Pre-order info HERE.


(Press photo via Heartworm Press)

Genesis P-Orridge: Bio – Discography

‘Running Up That Hill: 50 Visions Of KATE BUSH’ – New Biography Out This Week

Posted on by JL

24 October 2022

RUNNING UP THAT HILL: 50 VISIONS OF KATE BUSH is a brand new, multi-faceted biography of this famously elusive figure, viewing her life and work from fresh and illuminating angles. It’s written by respected British music journalist and author Tom Doyle.

Louder Than War writes: “Ever since a teenage Kate Bush arrived chanting Heathcliff’s in 78, stretching the key of C sharp like an oscillating wave, there’s been a sense of the otherworldly about her. As much a ground zero moment for pop as the Pistols were for the denim brigade, Wuthering Heights, a chart hit not in 4/4 time, sang about an eighteenth-century troubadour should have been an anomaly not a blueprint for a career that has now stretched out over nearly five decades and shows no sign of ending.

That veil of secrecy and strangeness is such that Kate Bush is one of the few artists you can actually look forward to books being written about. This latest release 50 Visions of Kate Bush by Tom Doyle might well be the punchiest one yet, beginning with her childhood in Welling Kent, where Bush would sit at a Mustel pump organ for hours working out chord structures and setting in motion the foundations for her future career in Dadaist pop.

Doyle, a respected music journalist does an excellent job of getting behind his subject. He’s even granted a rare interview with Bush, which acts as a preface to the book. It’s the closest we get to see the singer with her guard down, upbeat but slightly paranoid about the release of her Aerial album. With the record industry changing for the worse and with outside pressures seeping in, Bush is keen to dispel the layers of myths built up around her. “I just find it frustrating that people think I’m some sort of weirdo recluse that never comes out into the world,” she says.”

The book is out this Friday, 28 October. You can order it here via Amazon.


The single’s artwork – 1985

Their Final Year – New Book ‘THE JAM 1982’ Out Next Month

Posted on by JL

19 October 2022

This richly illustrated oral history account of THE JAM’s rollercoaster final year, led principally by the voice of Jam drummer Rick Buckler, contains a number of previously unseen images and takes in everything from the recording and release of final studio album The Gift and the rigours of the road to the announcement of the split, the final tours, The Tube and more.

The Gift’s rad single ‘Town Called Malice

In addition to Buckler’s memories of this final year, The Jam 1982 also brings together testimonies from producer Peter Wilson, A&R manager Dennis Munday, photographer
Neil ‘Twink’ Tinning, NME journalist Paolo Hewitt, Belle Stars singer Jennie Matthias, touring musicians Jamie Telford and Steve Nichol and others, to tell the tale of a single, fateful
year: the year The Jam, for better or worse, went out at the very top of their game.

Out: 17th November

Extent: 176 pages
Hardback: £25.00
Special edition: £50.00
Rick Buckler signed

Pre-order info: here

Final album THE GIFT

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THE JAM: Bio – Discography

The Story Of THE STRANGLERS As Told By The Fans – New Book ‘LIVE (EXCERPTS)’ Coming Up

Posted on by JL

5 October 2022

A new official book about British punk legends THE STRANGLERS – 368 full color pages – arrives on 27th October. It mixes hundreds of fan anecdotes with memories from the band, their collaborators, other musicians, and celebrity admirers garnered from 50 years of recording and performing.

“Passion, excitement, and emotion are the words that keep cropping up in the pages
of this book. The music and live shows The Stranglers have created, have deeply touched and affected the lives of so many people around the world.”

The book comes in two editions.

A Limited Edition Deluxe (500 copies) slipcase priced at £69.99
and a standard hardback edition is priced at £39.99

Pre-order via This Day In Music website here.

The good old days

THE STRANGLERS: Website – Instagram

New PATTI SMITH Book Coming – Inspired By Her INSTAGRAM Account

Posted on by JL

8 August 2022

A deeply moving and brilliantly idiosyncratic visual book of days by the National Book Award–winning author of Just Kids and M Train, featuring more than 365 images and reflections that chart Smith’s singular aesthetic—inspired by her wildly popular Instagram.

Followers felt an immediate affinity with these miniature windows into Smith’s world, photographs of her daily coffee, the books she’s reading, the graves of beloved heroes—William Blake, Dylan Thomas, Sylvia Plath, Simone Weil, Albert Camus. Over time, a coherent story of a life devoted to art took shape, and more than a million followers responded to Smith’s unique aesthetic in images that chart her passions, devotions, obsessions, and whims. Original to this book are vintage photographs: anniversary pearls, a mother’s keychain, and a husband’s Mosrite guitar. Here, too, are photos from Smith’s archives of life on and off the road, train stations, obscure cafés, a notebook always nearby. In wide-ranging yet intimate daily notations, Smith shares dispatches from her travels around the world.

With over 365 photographs taking you through a single year, A Book of Days is a new
way to experience the expansive mind of the visionary poet, writer, and performer. Hopeful, elegiac, playful—and complete with an introduction by Smith that explores her documentary process—A Book of Days is a timeless offering for deeply uncertain times, an inspirational map of an artist’s life.

Patti Smith on her FB page: “This is A Book of Days, to be published in the fall. It is a year of reflections and images, inspired by my Instagram, but original throughout. The fruit of much labor, populated by sacred ghosts, and celebrating the new.”

Pre-order info here
Out 15 November 2022

PATTI SMITH: Instagram

BOB DYLAN – The Noble Prize Winner’s New Book ‘THE PHILOSOPHY OF MODERN SONG’ Comes In November

Posted on by JL

2 April 2022

New book: THE PHILOSOPHY OF MODERN SONG

Author: BOB DYLAN – It’s the Nobel Prize laureate’s
first new book since 2004’s Chronicles: Volume One.

Out: 8 November 2022 – Order info here.

Content: Dylan’s unique reflection on the ideas and philosophy contained in modern
popular song. He began working on the book in 2010, offers a master class on the art
and craft of songwriting. He writes over sixty essays focusing on songs by other artists,
spanning from Stephen Foster to Elvis Costello, and in between ranging from Hank
Williams to Nina Simone.

He analyzes what he calls the trap of easy rhymes, breaks down how the addition of a single syllable can diminish a song, and even explains how bluegrass relates to heavy metal. These essays are written in Dylan’s unique prose. They are mysterious and mercurial, poignant and profound, and often laugh-out-loud funny.

And while they are ostensibly about music, they are really meditations and reflections on
the human condition. Running throughout the book are nearly 150 carefully curated photos
as well as a series of dream-like riffs that, taken together, resemble an epic poem and add to the work’s transcendence.

BOB DYLAN: Website