Rock Music Memoirs

'This could be heaven or this could be hell...' So sings Don Henley on their biggest hit, 'Hotel California', yet for The Eagles their story was one where the dividing line between ultimate Hollywood highs and subterranean LA lows was blurred beyond recognition, blinded by white-powdered double-visions and buried beneath greenback mountains.

Ronnie Spector’s first collaboration with producer Phil Spector, ‘Be My Baby’, stunned the world and shot girl group The Ronettes to stardom. No one could sing as clearly, as emotively as Ronnie. But her voice was soon drowned out in Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound, and lost in Ronnie and Phil’s ensuing romance and marriage. Ronnie had to fight tooth and nail to wrest back control of her life, her music and her legacy. And while she regained her footing, Ronnie found herself recording with Stevie Van Zandt, partying with David Bowie and touring with Bruce Springsteen.

Deborah Conway pulls back the curtain on the fevered world of a 1980's post punk band, the spectacular rise and fall and rise of one of the more obstreperous women working inside Australia's music industry, a woman who has straddled the high arts and the low without losing her footing or her mind and whose fierce independence has seen her produce her best work.

Scott has played over 500 concerts at hundreds of venues spanning almost two decades. From performing to the bar staff at strip mall dive bars, to a sold-out show with members of The Misfits and the Ramones, 33 Percent Rockstar: Music, Heartbreak and the Pursuit of Rock Stardom is about the love of music and life as a struggling musician. It is the true story of what happens when you give up everything to follow your dreams - even when they lead to a run-down strip club in a seedy part of Lincoln, Nebraska.

In a sodden tent at a '70s festival, the teenage Mark Ellen had a dream. He dreamt that music was a rich meadow of possibility, a liberating leap to a sparkling future, an industry of human happiness - and he wanted to be part of it. Thus began his 50-year love affair with rock and roll. From his time at the NME and Smash Hits to Radio One, Old Grey Whistle Test, Live Aid, Q, Select, Mojo, and The Word magazines, he's been at the molten core of its evolution, and watched its key figures from a unique perspective.

ROBBIE WILLLIAMS is probably the hottest celebrity artist around. When he left Take That he firmly established himself and the burning question always was - "When will he rejoin?". Robbie has attitude, he does what he wants in a very confident way. This is not a music release by the artist or record label but an exclusive audiobiog in which we hear how he continues to be a workaholic, what motivates him, why he is so controversial and how he survives.

Mysteries in the Music: Case Closed examines some of the secrets, myths, legends, hoaxes, conspiracies, and wildly inexplicable events that are such an intriguing part of rock and roll history. Travel back to the 1950s to uncover "Who Really Discovered Elvis Presley?" Revisit the 1960s when a folk troubadour tried forming a supergroup with The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. Transport back to Jamaica 1976 to discover whether the CIA tried to assassinate reggae superstar Bob Marley. Discover whether The Beach Boys actually stole a song from cult leader Charles Manson.

A personal and revealing look at the last 10 years of John Lennon’s life and his partnership with Yoko Ono, written by the friend who knew them best, publicist and music industry insider Elliot Mintz. From the moment he interviewed Yoko Ono on his late night radio show in September 1971, Elliot Mintz’s life would never the same again. That phone call would lead him to an intense and revealing friendship with Yoko and her husband, John Lennon, until John’s untimely death in 1980, and beyond, to the present day.

First as a music writer and then as an editor, promoter, manager, broadcaster, publicist and author, Stuart Coupe has experienced the giddy highs and crushing lows of a life lived in the creative fast lane. Shake Some Action is your backstage pass to his remarkable story, from starting his first magazine at the age of fourteen to hoovering heroic amounts of cocaine before interviewing Boy Dylan (who asked him where he got his drugs from).

Lead singer of the hugely successful Irish rock band Kodaline, Steve Garrigan plays to thousands of fans worldwide - his business is being in the spotlight. But for years, Steve was privately battling his own demons. Here in this deeply personal memoir, he shares his experiences.

Glen Colson lived through the golden age of Rock & Roll during the sixties, seventies and eighties, working as PR for many of the best loved acts in rock history. Among them Lindisfarne, Genesis, Pink Floyd, The Nice, Elvis Costello, Dr Feelgood, Ian Dury, Nick Lowe, Graham Parker, and Van der Graaf Generator. As the press officer at two of the UK's most iconic record labels, Stiff and Charisma, Glen worked alongside managers who made the music industry tick. Famously dry of wit, Glen's take on the inside workings of the music business is both informative and never short of laughs.

In 1969, a twenty-something screenwriter with one movie credit to his name is approached by Jimi Hendrix's management after the legendary guitarist saw the obscure indie film in London and wanted to collaborate on a project of his own. Jonathan Stathakis had no idea how thrilling the next eighteen months would be, as he and Hendrix formed not just a working partnership but a unique friendship.

Felix takes us through his life growing up in South West London and describes how his story is forever punctuated and given meaning by cricket. Through his own exploits as a slow left arm spinner of 'lovely loopy stuff', to the tragic illness of his mother, life with The Maccabees and his cricket redemption, Felix touches on both the comedic and the tragic in equal measure. Throughout, there's the ever-present roller coaster of following the England cricket team.

Seis músicos imprescindibles para comprender la compleja evolución de la historia del rock -Bowie, Cohen, Mercury, Cash, Harrison y Zevon-, en la medida que sus influyentes obras evidencian extraordinarias cualidades artísticas, tan originales como contrapuestas.

John Farnham is nothing less than an Aussie icon. In a career spanning almost five decades, the likeable, charismatic star has entertained countless Australians of every generation, selling millions of records along the way. But his extraordinary story is as much about tackling adversity as it is about topping the charts. In this compelling biography, radio broadcaster and music journalist Jane Gazzo tracks down the key figures in John's life—from the 1960s to the present day.

Told with acclaimed New Yorker writer Ariel Levy, Brothers is seventy-year-old drummer Alex Van Halen's love letter to his younger brother, Edward, (Maybe 'Ed', but never 'Eddie'), written while still mourning his untimely death. In his rough yet sweet voice, Alex recounts the brothers' childhood, first in the Netherlands and then in working class Pasadena, California, with an itinerant musician father and a very proper Indonesian-born mother—the kind of mom who admonished her boys to 'always wear a suit' no matter how famous they became—a woman who was both proud and practical.

Dal primo nucleo di quelli che diventeranno i Rolling Stones, all'arrivo di Brian Jones, che ne sarà l'anima per qualche tempo, fino alla costituzione della vera "fabbrica" Jagger/Richards. Questo audioBook è un viaggio avventuroso e a volte impietoso lungo le tappe di una delle carriere più "granitiche" del rock: quella delle Pietre per eccellenza, i Rolling Stones. Un disco dopo l'altro per raccontare l'avventura della band più longeva della musica senza dimenticare qualche aneddoto curioso e, soprattutto, dando il giusto spazio a quello che più conta.

The untold story of Mick Mars, the driving force behind Motley Crue as told by his bandmate in their dues-paying era in the Hollywood rock scene of the mid- to late 1970s.

Sex, No Drugs & Rock'N'Roll: Memoirs of a Music Junkie is a "balls-to-the-wall" coming of age narrative explicitly told through the eyes of a musical "baby-boomer Holden Caulfield", simultaneously maturing with the country itself. From the 50s' innocent invulnerability following WWII, to the teenage years of rebellion and political unrest in the 60s, to the disillusionment and cynicism of the late 70s, sowing the seeds for the "me" generation to come. The dots connected in two universal languages: music and sex.

It's been years since we won the lawsuit against Sugar Hill Records. I am at a place in my life where I finally feel it is necessary to tell my story. Lord knows I am not getting any younger. Some may not like it, but the truth stands clear when everything else crumbles. My hope is to give you a visual of my group, the Funky 4 + 1 More's journey as young teenagers from the Bronx, New York. Teenagers who were young, inner city kids who broke barriers and became the Gladys Knight and the Pips of hip-hop.