Let the Good Times Roll: My Life in The Small Faces, Faces and The Who by Kenney Jones (31 May 2018)
‘WHICH IS THE BEST BAND I’VE BEEN IN? THE SMALL FACES WERE THE MOST CREATIVE, THE FACES WERE THE MOST FUN,THE WHO WERE THE MOST EXCITING. THESE WERE ELECTRIFYING DAYS IN MUSIC. WE WERE ALL UNTRIED, UNTESTED. WHAT WAS STOPPING US? NOTHING.’
As drummer with the Small Faces, Faces and later The Who, Kenney Jones’ unique sense of rhythm was the heartbeat that powered three of the most in?uential rock bands of all time.
Beginning in London’s post-war East End, Kenney’s story takes us through the birth of the Mod revolution, the mind-bending days of the late-1960s and the raucous excesses of the ’70s and ’80s. In a career spanning six decades, Kenney was at the epicentre of many of the most exciting moments in music history and has experienced everything the industry has to offer. He jointly created some of the world’s most-loved records, hung out with the Stones, Beatles, David Bowie, Keith Moon and Rod Stewart, and suffered the loss of close friends to rock ‘n’ roll excess and success.
The legacy created by Kenney and his band mates has in?uenced acts as diverse as Led Zeppelin, the Sex Pistols and Oasis. Now, for the very ?rst time, Kenney tells the full story of how a young Cockney Herbert played his part in the biggest social transformation in living memory – the people, the parties, the friendships, the fall-outs, the laughter, the sadness, the sex, drugs, and a lot of rock ‘n’ roll, while also opening up about his own deeply personal battles and passions, too. This is a vivid and breath-taking immersion into the most exciting era of music history and beyond.
Strange Stars: David Bowie, Pop Music and the Decade that Sci-Fi Exploded by Jason Heller (22 Jun 2018)
In the 1960s and 70s old mores and lingering repressions were falling away, replaced with a new kind of hedonistic freedom that included sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll. Although it didn’t factor into the stereotype, it also included science fiction. Strange Stars tells the story of how incredibly well read artists – David Bowie, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, and many more – brought Sci Fi’s cosmic flare to their lyrics, sounds, and styles, and changed pop music forever.
Swans: Sacrifice and Transcendence, the Oral History by Nick Soulsby (26 Jun 2018)
I m no stranger to failure, and I m aware it can arrive at any minute as it often has. You have to keep things close to your chest and be aware of what s really important: the work, not everything around it. If you have faith in the work, then the people will come … it s an artistic imperative, it has nothing to do with public perception or career or any of that cr*p.
The name, Swans, it s synonymous with who I am, but it s how it s achieved and it s achieved by people those people need to have total commitment to making this sound and to making it utterly incisive and uncompromising. The work is everything and it has to at least at the time appear, to me, to be stellar. That s the prerequisite. It s an intangible thing where it really speaks and has some truth within it. Michael Gira
Over a span of some three and a half decades, Michael Gira s Swans have risen from chaotic origins in the aftermath of New York s No Wave scene to become one of the most acclaimed rock-orientated acts of recent years. The 1980s infamous loudest band on the planet morphed repeatedly until collapsing exhausted, broken, and dispirited in the late 1990s.
Swans returned triumphantly in 2010 to top end-of-year polls and achieve feted status among fans and critics alike as the great survivors and latter-day statesmen of the underground scene. Throughout, Gira s desire has remained to create music of such intensity that the listener might forget flesh, get rid of the body, exist as pure energy transcendent inside of the sound.
Through these pages, the musicians responsible tell the tale of one of the most significant bands of the US post-punk era. Drawing on more than 125 original interviews, Swans: Sacrifice And Transcendence is the ultimate companion to Swans and their work from the 1980s to the present day.
Outside the Jukebox: How I Turned My Vintage Music Obsession into My Dream Gig by Scott Bradlee (12 Jul 2018)
From the creator of the sensation Postmodern Jukebox–with millions of fans globally–comes an inspirational memoir about discovering what you love and turning it into a creative movement.
With student loan debt piling up and no lucrative gigs around the corner, Scott Bradlee found himself in a situation all too familiar to struggling musicians and creative professionals, unsure whether he should use the little income he had to pay the rent on his basement apartment on the fringes of New York City or to avoid defaulting on his loans.
It was in these desperate circumstances that Bradlee began experimenting, applying his passion for jazz, ragtime, and doo wop styles to contemporary hits by singers like Macklemore and Miley Cyrus–and suddenly an idea was born. The bands Bradlee went on to launch–from A Motown Tribute to Nickelback to Postmodern Jukebox, the rotating supergroup devoted to period covers of pop songs for which he is best known–borrowed from and refined the initial idea he had arrived at to bring genres now sometimes considered arcane to wide audiences. Today, the success he has had is astonishing, with Postmodern Jukebox collecting upwards of three million subscribers on YouTube, selling out major venues around the world, and developing previously unknown talent into superstar singers.
Taking readers through the false starts, absurd failures, and unexpected breakthroughs of Bradlee’s journey from a lost musician to a musical kingmaker headlining Radio City Music Hall–and presenting all the insights he learned along the way to becoming an entrepreneur like no other–OUTSIDE THE JUKEBOX is an inspiring memoir about how one musician found his rhythm and launched a movement that would forever change how people make, distribute, and enjoy their favorite songs.
Can’t Stand Up For Falling Down: Rock’n’Roll War Stories by Allan Jones (9 Aug 2018)
Allan Jones launched Uncut magazine in 1997 and for 15 years wrote a popular monthly column called Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One Before, based on his experiences as a music journalist in the 70s and 80s, a gilded time for the music press.
By turns hilarious, cautionary, poignant and powerful, the Stop Me…stories collected here include encounters with some of rock’s most iconic stars, including David Bowie, Lou Reed, Leonard Cohen, Van Morrison, Neil Young, Elvis Costello, The Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Smiths, R.E.M. and Pearl Jam. From backstage brawls and drug blow-outs, to riots, superstar punch-ups, hotel room confessionals and tour bus lunacy, these are stories from the madness of a music scene now long gone.
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