Back in print, Moon is the brilliant and heralded biography of one of rock &amp; roll's most notorious and beloved figures: The Who's legendary drummer Keith Moon.
Moon was the bad boy of rock &amp; roll, the most manic member of an aggressive and fabulously successful band, a full-throttle hedonist who lived at the center of an unending party. He was also a musical genius who inspired whole generations of artists, a generous friend to nearly everyone who crossed his path, a guileless man of immense personal charm to whom the sweetest sound on earth was surf music. A generation after his death, Moon is still revered as the greatest drummer in rock history and the single wildest personality in an age of pop excess. Here is the truth behind the legend, the result of years of research in which music journalist Tony Fletcher interviewed dozens of Moon's friends, colleagues, and associates. An instant classic that brilliantly illuminates both the tender and self-destructive sides of this singular personality, Moon is the story of one of the most outrageous rock stars ever born.

Moon: The Life and Death of a Rock Legend

Fletcher, Tony

Humor & Entertainment

It Books

The author of highly acclaimed Keith Moon and Smiths biographies now tells his own story of a life in love with music, pre- and post-punk London, via a Top 50 countdown I was no longer fitting in at school. I was unsure of my friends, and they were increasingly unsure of me. I wanted to be a rock star. But while all around, voices were starting to break, acne beginning to appear, facial hair sprouting, I remained all flabby flesh and innate scruff, with a high-pitched whine and not a muscle to my name. I was the runt of the class and rarely allowed to forget it. I had no father at home to help me out, and could hardly talk to my mum. So I took solace in The Jam. As a boy, Tony Fletcher frequently felt out of place, yet somehow he secured a ringside seat for one of the most creative periods in British cultural history.This is the story of his formative years in the pre- and post-punk music scenes of London, told via a Top 50 countdown: attendance at seminal gigs and encounters with musical heroes; schoolboy projects that became national success stories; the style culture of punks, mods, and skinheads and the tribal violence that enveloped them; life as a latchkey kid in a single-parent household; weekends on the football terraces in a quest for street credibility; and the teenage boy's unending obsession with losing his virginity. Featuring a vibrant cast of supporting characters from school friends to rock stars, and built up from notebooks, diaries, interviews, letters, and issues of his now legendary fanzine Jamming!, thisis an evocative, bittersweet, amusing, and wholly original account of growing up and coming of age in the glory days of the 1970s.

Boy About Town: A Memoir

Windmill Books

He was the Wicked Wilson Pickett, the legendary soul man whose forty-plus hits included "In the Midnight Hour," "634-5789," "Land of 1000 Dances," "Mustang Sally," and "Don't Let the Green Grass Fool You." Remarkably handsome and with the charisma to match, Wilson Pickett was considered by many to be the greatest, the most visceral and sensual of the classic 1960s soul singers, and as a man who turned screaming into an art form, the most forceful of them all. He was the living embodiment of soul. More than that, Wilson Pickett's journey reads like a guide to popular black American music in the late 20th century. From the gospel-rich cotton fields of Alabama to the pre-Motown metropolis of Detroit, and throughout his career at Atlantic Records--he was the first artist on that label to record at Stax in Memphis, Fame in Muscle Shoals, and Sigma in Philadelphia, and rehabilitated an exiled Bobby Womack and introduced Duane Allman along the way--Wilson Pickett led the shifts in Rhythm and Blues and soul music. Pickett's downfall, precipitated by the move towards softer soul and then disco in the 1970s, proved equally dramatic, leading to a heavy alcohol and drug addiction, a reputation for violence and gun use, a no-show for his induction into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame in 1991, and two jail terms later in the decade. Nonetheless, the "Wicked" Pickett climbed out of these depths to end his career with a Grammy-nominated album before his death in 2006. For this first-ever accounting of Wilson Pickett's life, bestselling biographer Tony Fletcher interviewed members of the singer's family, friends and partners, along with dozens of his studio and touring musicians. Offering equal attention to Pickett's personal and professional life, with detailed insight into his legendary studio sessions and his combative road style, In the Midnight Hour: The Life and Soul of Wilson Pickett is the essential telling of an epic life.

In the Midnight Hour: The Life & Soul of Wilson Pickett

Biographies & Memoirs

Arts & Literature

Oxford University Press

The definitive book about The Smiths, one of the most beloved, respected, and storied indie rock bands in music history. They were, their fans believe, the best band in the world. Hailing from Manchester, England, The Smiths--Morrissey, Johnny Marr, Andy Rourke, and Mike Joyce--were critical and popular favorites throughout their mid-1980s heyday and beyond. To this day, due to their unforgettable songs and lyrics, they are considered one of the greatest British rock groups of all time--up there with the Beatles, the Stones, the Who, and the Clash. Tony Fletcher paints a vivid portrait of the fascinating personalities within the group: Morrissey, the witty, literate lead singer whose loner personality and complex lyrics made him an icon for teenagers who felt forlorn and forgotten; his songwriting partner Marr, the gregarious guitarist who became a rock god for a generation of indie kids; and the talented, good-looking rhythm section duo of bassist Rourke and drummer Joyce. Despite the band's tragic breakup at the height of their success, A Light That Never Goes Out is a celebration: the saga of four working-class kids from a northern English city who come together despite contrasting personalities, find a musical bond, inspire a fanatical following, and leave a legacy that changed the music world--and the lives of their fans.

A Light That Never Goes Out: The Enduring Saga of the Smiths

Crown/Archetype

Crown

Keith Moon was the bad boy of rock &amp; roll, the most manic member of an aggressive and fabulously successful band, a full-throttle hedonist who lived at the center of an unending party. He was also a musical genius who inspired whole generations of artists, a generous friend to nearly everyone who crossed his path, a guileless man of immense personal charm to whom the sweetest sound on earth was surf music.A generation after his death, Moon is still revered as the greatest drummer in rock history and the single wildest personality in an age of pop excess. Here is the truth behind the legend, the result of more than three years of research in which music journalist Tony Fletcher interviewed dozens of Moon's friends, colleagues, and associates. The result is an instant classic that brilliantly illuminates both the tender and self-destructive sides of this singular personality. This is the story of one of the most outrageous rock stars ever born -- and Moon is one of the greatest rock biographies ever written.

Keith Moon was an exception to every known rule. He revolutionized the concept of the drummer in rock &amp; roll, leading from the back rather than offering mere support. With the Who, he achieved far greater international fame than his instrument was meant to inspire, only to treat his celebrity as an ongoing opportunity to send up the whole notion. He sneered at the dominant British stiff upper lip while appropriating it effectively enough to delete his working-class background at will. He tempted fate with an almost unparalleled intake of alcohol and drugs, beckoning the world to laugh with him at his apparent charmed existence. More than twenty years after his death, Moon is still revered as the greatest drummer in rock history and the single wildest personality in an age of pop excess. His life and work have become the stuff of legend. Here, in the pages of this masterful book, is the unvarnished truth.
Music Journalist Tony Fletcher has spent more than three years researching Keith Moon's life and interviewing dozens of Moon's friends, colleagues, and associates. The result is an instant classic, the definitive biography of one of rock's seminal figures, a work that brilliantly illuminates both the tender and self-destructive sides of this singular personality.
Wielding the force and propulsive power of a novelist, Fletcher leads the reader through Moon's whirlwind career, making his incredible creative trailblazing easily understandable even to nonmusicians. His clear-eyed reporting of Moon's hyperactive, peripatetic offstage life is compelling and comprehensive, remarkable in its ability to remain fixed on the very human being at the center of the maelstrom.
This is the story of one of the most outrageous rock stars ever born -- and one of the greatest rock biographies ever written.

Moon:The Life and Death of a Rock Legend

Spike

A penetrating and entertaining exploration of New York’s music scene from Cubop through folk, punk, and hip-hop. From Tony Fletcher, the acclaimed biographer of Keith Moon, comes an incisive history of New York’s seminal music scenes and their vast contributions to our culture. Fletcher paints a vibrant picture of mid-twentieth-century New York and the ways in which its indigenous art, theater, literature, and political movements converged to create such unique music. With great attention to the colorful characters behind the sounds, from trumpet player Dizzy Gillespie to Tito Puente, Bob Dylan, and the Ramones, he takes us through bebop, the Latin music scene, the folk revival, glitter music, disco, punk, and hip-hop as they emerged from the neighborhood streets of Harlem, the East and West Village, Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Queens. All the while, Fletcher goes well beyond the history of the music to explain just what it was about these distinctive New York sounds that took the entire nation by storm. 33 photos

All Hopped Up and Ready to Go: Music from the Streets of New York 1927–77

Arts & Photography

Music

W.W.Norton&Company

UK Hardback cover pressing. Tony Fletcher's account is a highly enjoyable way of revisiting [the] story. Crucially, he avoids areas well-served by other Smiths tomes and brings sufficient new material to reward even well-read fans. It's a tale that's been told before, but in his biography of the Manchester four-piece Tony Fletcher reveals new details and brings new depths to the story of Morrissey, Marr, Rourke, Joyce and the birth of the band. (Mojo) [A] meticulous biography. This exhaustive, well-researched account brings fresh detail and thought to the party. (The Sunday Times) the story of the Smiths told on the basis of interviews with just about every surviving participant in the Smiths' story. As the story winds on, a chain of no-shows, fits of pique and self-sabotage... reaches it's denouement with an episode from April 1987, just prior to the band's formal break-up. Fletcher is the first writer to have got the full story. Such material highlights the extent to which Fletcher has done his research. (Guardian) There [are] fascinating passages about the bands producers: Troy Tate, John Porter, Stephen Street. Pages on the members' childhood add meaningful context, and there are some thrilling glimpses of the Smiths on tour. (Independent) a finely judged re-telling of a remarkable tale with valuable first-hand accounts of the band's American adventures, their rapid development into a wonderful live act, plus insights into the spiralling pressures and frictions that faced the individual band members. (Sabotage Times)

Light That Never Goes Out: UK Edition

Cornerstone Digital

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Fletcher, Tony. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Fletcher, Tony

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Fletcher, Tony. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Moon: The Life and Death of a Rock Legend

Boy About Town: A Memoir

In the Midnight Hour: The Life & Soul of Wilson Pickett

In the Midnight Hour: The Life & Soul of Wilson Pickett

A Light That Never Goes Out: The Enduring Saga of the Smiths

A Light That Never Goes Out: The Enduring Saga of the Smiths

Moon: The Life and Death of a Rock Legend

Moon:The Life and Death of a Rock Legend

All Hopped Up and Ready to Go: Music from the Streets of New York 1927–77

Light That Never Goes Out: UK Edition