Popular music

Jimmy was a down-at-heel guitarist in New York, relying on his latest lovers to support him while he tried to emulate his hero, Bob Dylan. A black guy playing white rock music, he wanted to be all things to all people. But when Jimmy arrived in England and became Jimi, the cream of swinging Londo...

Contains everything readers wanted, needed and will ever have to know about the King of Rock n' Roll - Elvis Presley. More than just a biography, this book features an extraordinary calendar that allows the reader to actually witness the triumphs, tragedies, and everyday life of this legend of ro...

Long before it was paired with wine and sold to the white middle-classes, jazz had been the 'unapologetic expression' of an oppressed people, a music defined as much by its rhythms and harmonies as it was by the transatlantic forces of slavery and imperialism which shaped it. Now, generations lat...

When Miranda Sawyer interviewed Liam Gallagher in 1994, his gag wishing Damon Albarn would die of AIDS became front-page news all over the world. This fascinating pop history, exploring the moment British music suddenly meant everything, explains why. Picking out twenty key songs, delving into th...

The critically acclaimed definitive biography of Kate Bush, revised and updated for 2024, with a new foreword by Sinad Gleeson. Detailing everything from Bush's upbringing to her early exposition of talent, to her subsequent evolution into a stunningly creative and endlessly fascinating visual an...

An unflinching journey through modern masculinity, mental health and dealing with the unexpected from a bold young voice in British rap.

Since the release of her debut album Whatever's For Us in 1972, Joan Armatrading has, across a fifty-year career, traversed styles and genres to create a monumental body of work. Acknowledged as the first British female singer-songwriter to gain international success, her writing is alive with in...

Andrew Ridgeley - one half of one of the most famous bands in the world - tells the inside story of Wham!, his life-long friendship with George Michael and the formation of a band that changed the shape of the music scene in the early eighties.

Something is happening in Britain, trembling the tracks as it unfolds. Recent years have borne witness to underground genres leaking out from the inner cities, going on to become some of the most popular music in the nation. In this book, journalist Aniefiok Ekpoudom travels the country to paint ...

Melanie C, aka Sporty Spice, tells her life story in her own words and gives a full and honest account of what life was really like in the Spice Girls.