There had been stars before. There had been films prior to Cleopatra. But in all the cynical, greedy, magical, histrionic history of the movies, there had never been a combination like that of Elizabeth Taylor and Cleopatra.Other films may have taken more money, won more awards or attracted better reviews, but none have come close to the legend that is Cleopatra.What began in 1958 as a remake of the 1917 Theda Bara film, which sta...

'It's Number One... it's Top Of The Pops', for every generation from 1964, until the show ended in 2006, that was the sentence every young television viewer sat down to hear. At its peak, a quarter of the UKs entire population was watching. 'Top Of The Pops' was the pivotal pop television programme over its 2,000 weekly episodes, the programme gave peak airtime to every act, from The Beatles to Beyonce... from Cream to Coldplay... from Pink Floyd to Pink! From its humble beginnings in 1964...

This full length biography is the first comprehensive account of a truly legendary artist. It covers every aspect of the life and career of a man who has never seemed to be in the slightest danger of losing his credibility to mainstream success.With twenty albums to his credit and a legion of passionate fans, the uncompromising Waits continues to conjure up tender, ragged and magical songs that have attracted cover versions by artists as esteemed as Bruce Springsteen, Rod Stewart, ...

'An exquisite portrait' MOJO'A riveting account of the golden-boy genius' EVENING STANDARDNick Drake was barely twenty-six years old when he died in 1974, but in his short lifetime he recorded three albums that are now recognised as classics: Five Leaves Left, Bryter Later and Pink Moon.Several decades after his death, he has amassed a huge following; his haunting songs cast a pervasive influence over the contempor...

From their 1962 debut single Love Me Do to the most recent remastered albums, this is an album-by-album, track-by-track catalogue of every songs ever released by The BeatlesIncludes:A chronology of key events in the life of the greatest ever rock bandSeparate sections on compilation albums, the Anthology series and non-EMI recordingsEight pages of colour picturesThis is the books th...

Against a backdrop of social unrest and protests The Rolling Stones entered 1969 as a successful blues band that had experimented with psychedelia but were returning to their rock'n'roll roots. By the end of 1969 they had released a stone cold classic, lost one of their founding members, played an era defining concert at Hyde Park to half a million people and seen a fan stabbed to death at their concert in Altamont. This is the story of how 1969 cemented the Stones as "the greatest rock & ...

Rory Gallagher is a hero and icon of rock music. He inspired guitar players from The Edge to Johnny Marr, Slash to Gary Moore, Johnny Fean to Philip Donnelly, Declan Sinnott to Brian May. He toured incessantly and sold over 30 million albums worldwide. Acknowledged as one of the world's leading guitarists, he collaborated with his boyhood hero Muddy Waters, and played with Jerry Lee Lewis, Albert King and Lonnie Donegan. In this compelling biography, contemporaries, fellow musicians, film ...

The basis for the new hit documentary 1971: The Year That Music Changed Everything, now streaming on Apple TV+.A rollicking look at 1971, rock’s golden year, the year that saw the release of the indelible recordings of Led Zeppelin, David Bowie, the Who, Rod Stewart, Carole King, the Rolling Stones, and others and produced more classics than any other year in rock history.The Sixties ended a year late. On New Year...

Goodnight and Good Riddance: How Thirty-Five Years of John Peel Helped to Shape Modern Britain is a social history, a diary of a nation's changing culture, and an in-depth appraisal of one of our greatest broadcasters, a man who can legitimately be called the most influential figure in post-war British popular music.Without the support of John Peel, it's unlikely that innumerable artists - from David Bowie to Dizzee Rascal, Jethro Tull to Joy Division - would have received...

From the acclaimed biographer who brought you the rock biography of Bruce Springsteen comes the definitive biography of musician Paul McCartney—from his groundbreaking years with the Beatles to Wings to his work as a solo artist and activist.More than a rock star, more than a celebrity,Paul McCartney is a cultural touchstone who helped transform popular music as one half of the legendary Lennon-McCartney songwriting duo. In this definitive biography, Peter Ames Car...

"A wise, breezy, supersmart memoir" from the legendary guitarist and cofounder of the seminal British band The Smiths ( The Guardian).Johnny Marr was born in 1960s Manchester to Irish emigrant parents and knew from an early age that he would be a musician. Forming his first band at thirteen, Marr spent his teenage years in public housing, playing guitar, devouring pop culture, and inventing his own musical style.It wasn't until the e...

Legendarily reticent, perverse and misleading, Prince is one of the few remaining 80s superstars who still, perhaps, remains unexplained. Now a firm fixture in the pop canon, where such classics as 'Purple Rain', 'Sign o' the Times' and 'Parade' regularly feature in Best Ever Album polls, Prince is still, as he ever was, an enigma. His live performances are legendary (21 Nights at the O2 in 2007) and while recent releases have been modestly successful at best, his influence on urban music,...