This book traces U2's incredible ascent from a young fledgling Irish band on its first tour of America in 1980 to one of the world's biggest groups. As a free-lance writer and disc jockey and Music Director with Boston's WBCN-FM, Carter Alan traveled extensively with U2 and conducted many interviews which form the basis of this unique and personal story. Originally printed in 1992 by Faber and Faber, "Outside is America" was updated in '97 as "The Road to Pop." After selling out of several editions, "Outside is America" has been out of print. This new 2009 version adds fresh interview material.

Outside is America

Alan, Carter

Biographies & Memoirs

lulu.com

From the award-winning music director for WBCN-FM, Boston, here is the first book about the Irish rock band U2's conquest of the American public. Since their U.S. debut in 1980, U2 has become a phenomenon, capturing a Grammy Award and the cover of Time magazine. Alan follows the group's rise from their first visit to America to their 1992 tour. 20 photographs.

Outside Is America: U2 in the U.S.

Arts & Photography

Music

Faber&Faber

Carter Alan tracks the U2's incredible rise in America. Alan, a freelance writer and music director for WBCN Boston, one of the country's most important modern rock radio stations, has traveled extensively with U2 and hosted several syndicated radio specials with the band. Using material from years of exclusive interviews with the group and its management, he explores the chemistry between U2 and its American audience. Illustrated with photos of the group in concert and behind the scenes, U2: The Road to POP charts U2's progress from the fledgling performance at the tiny Paradise nightclub in Boston through 1985's legendary Live Aid appearance to the alien landscapes and technological reinvention of the band in the 1990s. Alan considers the price U2, whose aim has always been to connect with its audiences, has paid for its popularity as well as the need to challenge itself artistically while still writing music fans adore.

U2: The Road to Pop

Alan Carter: Light in the Darkness: The Truth about Mal, Kenny and Me

Football World

A Radical Green Political Theory

Taylor&Francis

Blaring the Cream anthem “I Feel Free,” WBCN went on the air in March 1968 as an experiment in free-form rock on the fledgling FM radio band. It broadcast its final song, Pink Floyd’s “Shine On You Crazy Diamond,” in August 2009. In between, WBCN became the musical, cultural, and political voice of the young people of Boston and New England, sustaining a vibrant local music scene that launched such artists as the J. Geils Band, Aerosmith, James Taylor, Boston, the Cars, and the Dropkick Murphys, as well as paving the way for Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty, U2, and many others. Along the way, WBCN both pioneered and defined progressive rock radio, the dominant format for a generation of listeners. Brilliantly told by Carter Alan―and featuring the voices of station insiders and the artists they loved―Radio Free Boston is the story of a city; of artistic freedom, of music and politics and identity; and of the cultural, technological, and financial forces that killed rock radio.

Radio Free Boston: The Rise and Fall of WBCN

University Press of New England

Sometimes a rock concert is more than just an event. Every so often a band’s performance becomes a musical milestone, a cultural watershed, a political statement, and a personal apotheosis. On any given night a rock concert can tell the truth about who we are, where we are, and what’s going on in music and life right now. In The Decibel Diaries, Carter Alan, longtime DJ and music director at WZLX in Boston, chronicles a lifetime in rock with a tour through fifty concerts that defined such moments―from Crosby, Stills, Nash &amp; Young playing in the rain when Richard Nixon resigned to Talking Heads and the first stirrings of punk in the basement bars of New York and Boston to the bluegrass angel Alison Krauss and the adaptable veteran Robert Plant forging a plangent, plaintive postmodern synergy. For each event Alan shows us what it was like to be there and telescopes out to reveal how this show fit into the arc of the artist’s career, the artist’s place in music, and the music’s place in the wider world. Taken together, The Decibel Diaries is a visceral and visionary portrait of nearly fifty years of rock ’n’ roll.

The Decibel Diaries: A Journey through Rock in 50 Concerts

ForeEdge

Prime Cut

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Thrillers & Suspense

Fremantle Press

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Books by Alan, Carter