'A wholly successful endeavour carried along by waves of infectious enthusiasm' Mojo'Fascinating' New StatesmanThe '80s 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. Dylan Jones' history of the decade in pop frames the '80s th...

'It's just another song to me. I've written 1,000 of them and it's really just another one.' Jimmy Webb'When I heard it I cried. It made me cry because I was homesick. It's just a masterfully written song.' Glen CampbellThe sound of 'Wichita Lineman' was the sound of ecstatic solitude, but then its hero was the quintessential loner. What a great metaphor he was: a man who needed a woman more than he actually wanted her.Written in 19...

** Shortlisted for the NME Best Music Book Award 2018 **THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERA TIMES BOOK OF THE YEARA GUARDIAN BOOK OF THE YEARA HERALD BOOK OF THE YEARAN IRISH INDEPENDENT BOOK OF THE YEAR'The definitive book on Bowie' The TimesDrawn from a series of co...

Decades tend to crest halfway through, and 1995 was the year of the Nineties: peak Britpop (Oasis v Blur), peak YBA (Tracey Emin's tent), peak New Lad (when Nick Hornby published High Fidelity, when James Brown's Loaded detonated the publishing industry, and when pubs were finally allowed to stay open on a Sunday). It was the year of The Bends, the year Danny Boyle started filming Trainspotting, the year Richey Edwards went missing, the year Ale...

The oral history of the golden age of London's most fashionable restaurants.In October 1976, the London restaurant world was turned upside down when Michael Caine, celebrated chef Richard Shepherd and Irish entrepreneur Peter Langan opened Langan's, a celebrity hangout that would revolutionise the capital's dining scene. This soon became the most celebrated restaurant in the city, and helped turn London into an internationally recognised culinary hot spot. Inheriti...

Rebellion always starts somewhere, and in the music world of the transgressive teen whether it be the 1960s of the 2020s, The Velvet Underground represent ground zero. Crystallizing the idea of the bohemian, urban, narcissistic art school gang, around a psychedelic rock and roll band - a stylistic idea that evolved in the rarefied environs of Andy Warhol's Factory - The Velvets were the first major American rock group with a mixed gender line-up; they never smiled in photographs, wore sung...

Rebellion always starts somewhere, and in the music world of the transgressive teen whether it be the 1960s of the 2020s, The Velvet Underground represent ground zero. Crystallizing the idea of the bohemian, urban, narcissistic art school gang, around a psychedelic rock and roll band - a stylistic idea that evolved in the rarefied environs of Andy Warhol's Factory - The Velvets were the first major American rock group with a mixed gender line-up; they never smiled in photographs, wore sung...

______________'A perceptive and thorough examination of both the man and the music' ? NME'A highly engaging and refreshingly irreverent portrait of the Doors' frontman'? i-D______________A revealing biography of Jim Morrison, lead singer of The Doors and a musical iconIn Paris's Père-Lachaise cemetery, Jim Morrison's graffiti-scrawled tombstone is a...

The oral history of the golden age of London's most fashionable restaurants.In October 1976, the London restaurant world was turned upside down when Michael Caine, celebrated chef Richard Shepherd and Irish entrepreneur Peter Langan opened Langan's, a celebrity hangout that would revolutionise the capital's dining scene. This soon became the most celebrated restaurant in the city, and helped turn London into an internationally recognised culinary hot spot. Inheriti...

The King departed this world during the month of punk Rock's apotheosis. Punk had set out to destroy Elvis, or at least everything he came to represent, but never got the chance. Elvis destroyed himself before anyone else could.Nearly forty years after his death, Rock's ultimate legend and prototype just won't go away and his influence and legacy are to be found not just in music today, but the world over. Elvis Presley has permeated the modern world in ways that are bizarre and in...