Popular music

'Sax Appeal' tells the story of Ivy Benson, the famous wartime leader of an all-female jazz and swing band. Battling the dangers and privations of wartime touring, male opposition and the constant loss of her 'girls' to American Servicemen, she formed a professional band which entertained success...

The memoir music fans have been waiting for. Half of one of the greatest creative partnerships in popular music, Bernie Taupin is the man who wrote the lyrics for Elton John, who conceived the ideas that spawned countless hits, and sold millions and millions of records. Together, they were a duo,...

Half of one of the greatest creative partnerships in popular music, Bernie Taupin is the man who wrote the lyrics for Elton John, who conceived the ideas that spawned countless hits, and sold millions and millions of records. Together, they were a duo, a unit, an immovable object. Their extraordi...

In the early 1980s, the pop charts were dominated by musicians tarted up in dayglo colours, who fought it out for coverage on our TV screens and magazine pages. Dexys Midnight Runners did things differently. They were surly. They were serious. They were ambitious, but success had to come on their...

As Margaret Thatcher prepared to enter 10 Downing Street, four bands born of punk - Siouxsie and the Banshees, Joy Division, the Cure and Magazine - found a way to distil the dissonance and darkness of the shifting decade into a new form of music. Pushing at the taboos the Sex Pistols had unlocke...

An electrifying look at key moments in music and entertainment history between 1955 and 1979, which helped move gay culture from the margins to the mainstream and changed the face of pop forever - from the ambiguous sexuality of stars such as Little Richard in the 1950s through to David Bowie, gl...

'Shake It Up, Baby' is the month-by-month account of the Beatles' transformation in 1963 through the memories of those who were there - the fans, friends, broadcasters, studio engineers, promoters, politicians and others who were all caught up in the maelstrom of Beatlemania and its impact.

The 1980s were about big ideas writ large - new money, new style, gender fluidity, gay pride, attritional politics, the 'special relationship', nuclear fear, AIDS, cocaine, ecstasy, tabloid royalty, the rise of urban pop, and ultimately geopolitical chaos. Using a big narrative approach, Dylan Jo...

The 1980s were about big ideas writ large - new money, new style, gender fluidity, gay pride, attritional politics, the 'special relationship', nuclear fear, AIDS, cocaine, ecstasy, tabloid royalty, the rise of urban pop, and ultimately geopolitical chaos. Using a big narrative approach, Dylan Jo...

Published to coincide with the 40th anniversary of Beatlemania, this updated edition contains insights into the rise of the Beatles, their final years, the chaos of Apple and the collapse of hippy idealism.