History & Criticism

The origin story of a groundbreaking album The 1971 Allman Brothers Band album At Fillmore East was a musical manifesto years in the making. In Play All Night!, Bob Beatty dives deep into the motivations and musical background of band founder Duane...

When a musician dies, it is rarely the end of their story. While death can propel megastars to even further success, artists overlooked in their lifetime might also find a new type of fame. But a badly timed move or the wrong deal can see the artist...

Sit back, relax and relive the memories of over 90 more classic albums selected by Tim Burgess from his legendary Listening PartiesIn less than 2 years, tens of thousands of music lovers have pressed play at the same time as legendary musicians to share...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781556525421Author Clinton HeylinFormat PaperbackPage Count 576Imprint Chicago Review PressPublisher Chicago Review PressWeight(grams) 757gDimensions(mm)...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9780714510439Author John CageFormat PaperbackPage Count 276Imprint Marion Boyars Publishers LtdPublisher Marion Boyars Publishers Ltd

'A great writer' Paul Weller'A music journalist of integrity' Billy Childish'There's only one Ted Kessler!' Liam GallagherPAPER CUTS is the inside story of the slow death of the British music press. But it's also a love letter to it, the tale of how...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781629920467Author Miranda WilsonFormat PaperbackPage Count 256Imprint Fairhaven PressPublisher Fairhaven PressWeight(grams) 399gDimensions(mm) 234mm *...

Nothing in the history of recording approaches Decca's mammoth venture in producing Wagner's Ring complete for the first time. It was eight years in the making and this book tells the story of how it was made and the people who made it, written by the...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781901447361Author John RobbFormat PaperbackPage Count 395Imprint Cherry Red BooksPublisher Cherry Red BooksWeight(grams) 536g

A revisionist history of minimalism's transformative rise, through the voices of the musicians who created it. When composers like Philip Glass and Steve Reich began creating hypnotically repetitive music in the 1960s, it upended the world of American...

An insightful biography of the great composer, revealing Schubert’s complex and fascinating private life alongside his musical genius   Brilliant, short-lived, incredibly prolific—Schubert is one of the most intriguing figures in music history. While his...

A radical new book by journalist, critic and BBC Radio 3 broadcaster Kate Molleson, which fundamentally changes the way we think about classical music and the musicians who made it on a global scale.'Wonderful . . . This is a book of discovery that...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781915316059Author Will YorkFormat PaperbackPage Count 572Imprint HeadpressPublisher Headpress

Contradicting assumptions that disco albums are shallow and packed with filler, Donna Summer's double album Once Upon A Time stands out as a piece that delivers on its promise of an immaculately crafted journey from start to finish. A new interpretation...

Notes and Tones is one of the most controversial, honest, and insightful books ever written about jazz. As a black musician himself, Arthur Taylor was able to ask his subjects hard questions about the role of black artists in a white society. Free to...

Robert Shelton met Bob Dylan when the young singer arrived in New York in 1961. He became Dylan's friend, champion, and critic. His book, first published in 1986, was hailed as the definitive unauthorized biography of this moody, passionate genius...

Draws upon unpublished sources and interviews with those who knew him to give a full picture of Roger Quilter's artistic world and musical output. The songs of Roger Quilter are a staple of the English art song repertoire, yet little is known of his...

'The Stone Roses have become folk heroes, frozen in time. And their story, with roots in punk through post-punk, scooter boys, skinheads, Northern Soul, psychedelia, acid house and Madchester, is everything that is great about British street culture...

Dusty in Memphis, Dusty Springfield's beautiful and bizarre magnum opus, remains as fine a hybrid of pop and rhythm and blues as has ever been made. In this remarkable book, Warren Zanes explores his own love affair with the record. He digs deep into the...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9780983955481Author Greg KadingFormat PaperbackPage Count 270Imprint One Time PublishingPublisher One Time PublishingWeight(grams) 408gDimensions(mm) 226mm *...

Get your backstage pass to the world-famous Rockfield Recording Studios in Monmouth, Wales. Featuring frank and funny interviews with the artists who recorded there and studio staff, Rock Legends at Rockfield reveals the fascinating stories behind some...

By June 1993, when Washington, D.C.'s Fugazi released their third full-length album In on the Kill Taker, the quartet was reaching a thunderous peak in popularity and influence. With two EPs (combined into the classic CD 13 songs) and two albums (1990's...

In a collection of essays published by the New York Times, MTV, and Pitchfork, among others - along with original, previously unreleased essays - Hanif Abdurraqib explores the political, social, racial condition of our world today through the language of...

LONGLISTED FOR THE CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE LONGLISTED FOR THE HWA NON-FICTION CROWN 'A moving, powerful and highly innovative sidelight on the fall of Communism in East Germany through punk style and music. This is a complete original' HWA...

Ginger tells his story for the first time. It's often harrowing but outrageously honest as he journey's from war-torn south London to his adopted home in South Africa's beautiful Western Cape - where he has his own polo club. Along the way he tells of...

Though "Nevermind" was Nirvana's most commercially successful album, and the record that broke them - and the grunge phenomenon - internationally, "In Utero" has increasingly become regarded as the band's best album, both by the critics and the band...

A new edition of Adam Zamoyski's definitive biography of Chopin, first published in 1979 and unavailable in English for many years. Few composers elicit such strong emotions as Chopin. Few have been more revered and cherished. And few have had...

A fascinating history of the piano explored through 100 pieces chosen by one of the UK's most renowned concert pianists "Tomes . . . casts her net widely, taking in chamber music and concertos, knotty avant-garde masterworks and (most welcome) jazz...

This book examines the key ingredients of Radio City's lasting appeal. Virtually anyone who's ever picked up a guitar - whether wood or air - has fantasized about playing onstage alongside his musical hero. Bruce Eaton actually did it. This book is based...

On Saturday, June 28, 1986, George Michael picked up his tasselled leather jacket, walked out of London's Wembley Stadium and cheerfully tore up five years of glittering pop history. He'd just disposed of Wham!, the band he'd formed with school friend...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781594632952Author Lisa RobinsonFormat PaperbackPage Count 368Imprint Hudson Street Press (an imprint of Penguin Group (USA) Inc)Publisher Penguin Putnam...

Noise, an underground music made through an amalgam of feedback, distortion, and electronic effects, first emerged as a genre in the 1980s, circulating on cassette tapes traded between fans in Japan, Europe, and North America. With its cultivated...

In these fifty-two interviews, the greatest songwriters of our time go straight to the source of the magic of songwriting by offering their thoughts, feelings, and opinions on their art. Representing almost every genre of popular music, from folk to Tin...

Celebrated rock archivist Pete Frame has turned his attention to The Beatles and their contemporaries. Focusing on one of the most exciting periods in British rock history, he has created comprehensive Family Trees for the quintessential groups of the...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781556527906Author Carol Ann HarrisFormat PaperbackPage Count 400Imprint A Cappella BooksPublisher A Cappella BooksWeight(grams) 539g

Formed at their Oxfordshire secondary school in the mid-eighties, Radiohead have gone on arguably to be not only the most important rock group of the 1990s, but also the most significant post-rock group of the new century. Few would have predicted such...

Breaking the global record for streams in a single day, nearly 10 million people around the world tuned in to hear Kendrick Lamar's sophomore album in the hours after its release. To Pimp a Butterfly was widely hailed as an instant classic, garnering...

Taking cue from the do-it-yourself attitude of their country's punk movement, Britain's up-and-coming heavy metal bands that comprised the New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM) were not content to wait for record labels to come knocking. Instead, they...

The Incredible String Band evoke love and devotion to all those who fall under their spell. Their world is not ours, but a land of mythical creatures and fey beings. This book looks at all their recorded output from the first album which saw the turning...

After 40 years in existence, the shorthand of critics of Tears for Fears has been to describe them as an 80s band. It is understandable why that categorisation happens when songs like 'Mad World' appear in films that typify that period and 'Everybody...