1972 saw the Rolling Stones perform on American soil for the first time since the stabbing of a fan by Hell's Angels at Altamont three years earlier. The Beatles having split up - and with Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison all dead - the Stones embodied what was 
left of Sixties counter culture. But they were close to broke and being impacted by drug use, and did America really want to see a band some thought incapable of functioning as a live act? Plus the United States was still coming to terms with 1970's Kent State massacre 
and grappling with the Vietnam War, the draft and the civil rights movement.\nSo it was that the Stones travelled coast-to-coast, playing 51 shows in 32 cities in 54 days to promote their latest album, Exile on Main St. With a groundbreaking new stage show and a setlist drawn mainly from their last four albums, demand for tickets was high and the tour a sell-out. But the Stones and their fans found themselves going head-to-head with the authorities from the outset. Concerts were marked by crowd riots in the clamour for tickets and there were drug busts and tear gassings thanks to over-zealous cops. And in Rhode Island, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards wound up in police custody while a full house in Boston was expecting them on stage.\nIn All Down the Line - A People's History of the Rolling Stones 1972 North American Tour, over 300 fans look back 50 years at the most infamous tour in rock 'n' roll history and remember every show, from opening night in Vancouver to the tour finale (and Mick 
Jagger's 29th birthday) at New York City's Madison Square Garden less than two months later. Ladies and gentlemen, the Rolling Stones.

All Down The Line: A People's History of the Rolling Stones 1972 North American Tour

Houghton, Richard

Biographies & Memoirs

Spenwood Books Limited

Tell Everyone: A People's History of the Faces is the story of one of the world's most loved, most celebrated and most mourned rock and roll bands as seen through the eyes of over 500 fans. Forged from the shards of the Small Faces and the Jeff Beck Group, the Faces - Rod Stewart, Ronnie Wood, Ronnie Lane, Ian McLagan and Kenney Jones - stumbled bleary-eyed onto the gig circuit in 1969 and packed in more than 470 shows across the UK, North America, Australia, Japan and Europe, becoming one of the top-grossing live acts of the period. They split after their twelfth and final US tour in 1975, having consumed a lot of alcoholic beverages and produced some of the 
most memorable live performances of the decade, earning a reputation for bringing a party to town, both on stage and back at the hotel afterwards. Here is the Faces story told through over 500 previously unpublished first-hand accounts, from fans who still remember the backstage parties, the all-day rock and roll shows, the pub-style singalongs and the good time vibe that the band exuded every time they stepped on to a stage.

Tell Everyone - A People's History of the Faces

Arts & Literature

Gonna See All My Friends: A People's History of Fairport Convention

In the UK in the 1970s, there was no bigger band than Slade. With six number 1 singles (three straight in at number 1) and 17 consecutive top 20 hits, Slade were the most successful British group of the 1970s measured on singles sales. But Slade were also a phenomemon live. Vocalist & guitarist Noddy Holder, guitarist Dave Hill, bassist & violinist Jim Lea and drummer Don Powell had been playing together since 1966 (initially as The N' Betweens and then Ambrose Slade) and seasoned performers by the time of their breakthrough hit in 1971. 
Slade's live concerts were something to behold, and this book captures them in performance in the words of over 300 fans. The journey goes from the boot-stomping skinhead days of 'Get Down and Get With It', through the chart-topping glam rock era of 'Mama Weer All Crazee Now' and 'Skweeze Me, Pleeze Me', and onto their ultimately unsuccessful mid-'70s attempt to break America before the chicken-in-a-basket doldrums of their career and the original line-up called it quits in 1992. 
These stories will make you laugh, cry and be transported back to the early 1970s, when Slade were all over the radio, the TV and the news. This is Slade loud and raucous, with Nod's distinctive vocals, Dave's crazy stage outfits and Jim's virtuoso guitar and violin playing, all held together by Don's solid drumming. 
With forewords from Seventies Glam Rockers Suzi Quatro and The Sweet's Andy Scott, and packed with contributions from a host of celebrity admirers including John Coughlan (Status Quo), Rick Buckler (The Jam), Gered Mankowitz, Damian O'Neill (Undertones/That Petrol Emotion), Andy Kershaw, Ray Laidlaw (Lindisfarne), Mick Talbot (Style Council/Dexy's Midnight Runners), Jim Bob (Carter USM), Dave Hemingway (Housemartins/Beautiful South), Roddy Byers (The Specials), Mathew Priest (Dodgy), JC Carroll (The Members), Gary Crowley, Carl Hunter (The Farm), Miles Hunt (The Wonder Stuff), Nik Kershaw, Bob Young (Status Quo) and Dave Wakeling (The English Beat), this is a Slade book unlike any other. 
If you grew up in the 1970s, you will have heard a Slade song on the radio every few minutes. And if you walk into a UK shopping centre or supermarket any time from mid-November onwards, you'll be sure to hear the Slade song that is now as much a part of Christmas as Santa Claus...

Wild! Wild! Wild! A People's History of Slade

Arts & Photography

Wyatt, Malcolm

Music

This Guitar Has Seconds To Live - A People's History of The Who

Houghton

Wish You Were Here - A People's History of Pink Floyd

All Our Loving - A People's History of The Beatles

Richard Houghton

Just Backdated - Melody Maker: Seven Years in the Seventies is a memoir by Chris Charlesworth who, between 1970 and 1977, was a staff writer and editor for Melody Maker, the UK's best-selling music weekly in an era when rock stars fell over themselves to appear in its pages. Initially the paper's News Editor, Chris was for four years MM's US Editor, based in New York, a unique position in music journalism, and in that time regularly rubbed shoulders with rock's most iconic heroes. John Lennon, Paul McCartney, David Bowie, Rod Stewart, Elton John and dozens more found themselves face to face with Chris. He went on tour in America with The Who, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and many others. He was at 27 concerts by the original Who, often backstage or onstage. Somewhere above Colorado he took over the controls of Led Zeppelin's private plane. He watched a hitless Elton John at a disastrous festival in 1970 and predicted he would become a star. He chased Bob Dylan in New England and ambushed Pink Floyd in Glasgow. He watched Bruce Springsteen in Norfolk, Virginia, and acclaimed his showmanship 18 months before Born To Run was released. He was among the first music writers to write about the nascent CBGBs scene in New York, introducing MM readers to Debbie Harry long before she became a household name. His only regret was never seeing Elvis. Just Backdated - Melody Maker: Seven Years in the Seventies tells all these stories and many more. If you wanted to know what it was really like working full-time for a big selling music paper, the topsy-turvy lifestyle that went with it, and - yes - enjoy a meaty, beaty, big and bouncy dollop of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll, this is the book for you.

Just Backdated - Melody Maker: Seven Years In The Seventies

Charlesworth, Chris

Magical Highs - Alvin Lee and Me

Burgon, Loraine

An oral history of legendary rock guitarist Jimi Hendrix in the words of fans who saw him live, with concert memories from 1965 to 1970, including his first UK appearances with the Jimi Hendrix Experience, touring the USA with the Experience and with the Band of Gypsys and his final UK concert appearance at the Isle of Wight Festival in 1970.

Jimi Hendrix - The Day I Was There

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