Milk, Sulphate and Alby Starvation

Literature & Fiction

Martin Millar

Contemporary

Independent Music Press

Gareth Brown was centre stage in the rebirth of one of Britain's longest surviving youth cultures. The Daily Mail re-issue of Gareth Brown's youth culture classic which presents and analyses scooter culture from its birth in the 1960s through its revival in the 1970s and again in the 1990s.

Scooter Boys

Brown, Gareth

Mike Skinner aka The Streets is arguably the most acclaimed new talent to emerge in the UK in the past five years. A Birmingham native who later ventured into the the murky depths of the capital's garage scene, Skinner was an unlikely nominee for Britain's answer to Eminem. Brought up on tough estates on a diet of cheap beer, hip-hop, house and jungle while working fast food jobs just to get by, Skinner bore witness to a teenage trawl through the lower stratum of society. Eventually he started to record his own tunes, which from the very first - such as the ultra-gritty home-cooked 'Has It Come To This?' - have injected a biting degree of social commentary into a scene that at times flirted with the banal. In so doing, Skinner has been able to capture a cross-section of the British public as his fans, from the garage heads who were with him in railway arches at the start to the glossy magazines and broadsheet editors who now fawn over his every move, Skinner is a phenomenon. His debut long-player, Original Pirate Material was an incendiary missive from the trenches of British working-classes, and almost at once, the public and media were alerted to a substantial new talent. However, it was his follow-up, the concept album 'A Grand Don't Come For Free' that propelled Skinner into music's royalty. Ramsay's incisive biography - the very first on the market - will chronicle this most extraordinary of rises to fame, talking to key observers, music experts, bands and social commentators to build up a picture of Skinner's impact. The book will also examine the so-called 'chav' culture which currently illuminates and blights UK society in equal measure. Further emphasis will be accorded to the claims that Skinner is the 'new Alan Bennett' and the countless other lofty literary claims that have been made about him by a media who presently feel he can do no wrong.

The 'Streets

Biographies & Memoirs

Jimmy Ramsay

Arts & Literature

Formed in 1976 by school friends Robert Smith, Lol Tolhurst and Michael Dempsey, The Cure was one of the first post-punk bands to inject pure pop back into post-Pistols rock. Throughout a career filled with paradox and evolution, endless personnel changes, and side-projects including stints with Siouxsie and the Banshees and The Glove, iconic frontman Robert Smith has remained alive to changes in the music scene. Now, in their third decade, they remain relevant and connected, when many of their contemporaries are reduced to nostalgia packages and worse. This full-length, extensively researched biography of the band, and of Smith - one of rock's most enduring figures - is the most up-to-date telling of a never-ending story; it also analyses in depth the 'goth' subculture and its relationship with The Cure.

Robert Smith

Richard Carman

<p>This is the first book of its kind on one of the world's hottest new bands. New Jersey band My Chemical Romance have taken the music underground by storm since their incendiary debut album in 2002. Within weeks of its release, major labels across the globe were frantically pulling out their cheque-books in an attempt to capture what is widely regarded as the world's next stadium-selling rock band in the vein of Metallica, Foo Fighters and Green Day. Their biting lyrics, beautiful visuals and relentless touring schedules have ensured that MCR have already captured the hearts and minds of the I-Pod generation - the year 2006 will see them promoted to the very upper echelons of rock music's giants. The first book to tell their tale, setting them in the context of the dormant US rock scene, through to their breakthrough live shows and meteoric success in 2004 and 2005. Mixing metal with ballads, rock with pop, MCR are the next BIG band and this tells you how a bunch of introverted high school friends achieved their dream.</p>

"My Chemical Romance"

From South California, System of a Down have evolved from a cult band of the metal underground to one of the world's biggest bands. With exclusive interviews with them and major players involved in their story, Ben Myers' book will be the first and definitive account of this remarkable band.

System of a Down: Right Here in Hollywood

Arts & Photography

Ben Myers

Music

"Trivium"

Shooman, Joe

Artists, film-makers, musicians, lonely kids looking for love...all twists on life can be found on the new breed of social networking sites. These sites - such as Bebo, Faceparty, Facebook and Myspace - are the most powerful social force since the formation of the internet itself, revolutionising not only the Internet, but an entire generation's social lives. Bloggers have found love, unwise liaisons have been discovered and careers have been launched. In June 2006, "Playboy" magazine launched a special edition focusing on 'girls of Myspace'; within the UK music industry, My Chemical Romance, Lily Allen and Arctic Monkeys have all enjoyed huge success on the back of publicising their music on such websites...the impact and repercussions are infinite. Through interviews with bands, music industry professionals, and a host of weird and wonderful characters, the history and impact of these unique websites - and their social impact - is told for the first time in a suitably irreverent style. This is not a book for computer geeks or tech-heads, but an immensely readable and entertaining insight into the real people and bewildering stories caught up in this most modern of digital communications.

Whose Space Is It Anyway?

Joe Shooman

Although nobody realised it at the time, the historic importance of the MC5 is vast. Often considered a 'post-punk' band, their influence reaches far and wide, with everyone from Green Day, The White Stripes, Motorhead, Ramones, Rage Against The Machine and Bad Brains citing them. Fuelled by the radical politics of the White Panther party, the MC5 preached revolution and were often a target for the authorities. Having released three albums between 1969 and 1971, two of the band passed away and guitarist Wayne Kramer spent time behind bars for drug-related offences. Thirty years of low-key solo projects followed, before the band reunited in the new Millennium for a one-off show that turned into a full-on reunion. It details not only the seismic impact that they've had on music, but also the social climate in which they evolved.

MC5, Sonically Speaking: A Tale of Revolution and Rock 'n' Roll by Callwood, Brett (2007) Paperback

Brett Callwood

<p>This book is about Bernard Sumner's life and times, from the back streets of Salford to the international fame and critical acclaim of Joy Division, New Order and Electronic. Jolted into action by the punk explosion of 1976, Sumner is the man who stepped into the shoes of Ian Curtis after his suicide in 1980 and steered New Order to even greater success, helping to create Acid House, the second Summer of Love and The Hacienda nightclub in Manchester, the most famous club in the world and a magnet for the city's gun and drug culture. His collaborations with The Smiths' Johnny Marr created Electronic, the first true post-punk supergroup. But Sumner's past, even his real name, has always remained a mystery...until now. In a work of rare investigative depth, Nolan re-writes the history of one of music's most influential figures, and in the process nullifies many myths, with exhaustive primary source research, dozens of exclusive interviews and scores of previously unseen photos.</p>

Bernard Sumner: Confusion: Joy Division, Electronic and New Order Versus the World

David Nolan

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