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Reading lists

Books to read if you love David Bowie

The Rakish Progress of The Rolling Stones

Rollaresque

The story of The Rolling Stones as Dickens might have written it - the rise of the greatest rock and roll band in the world told as a bawdy picaresque novel, complete with original comic illustrations.

Rollaresque proves an excellent history of the early years of the Rolling Stones ... one of the most remarkable adventures in pop history

Entertaining and befitting of the greatest rock 'n' roll band of all time

Reinventing the group's early glory days as a picaresque novel in the style of Thackeray or Fielding, he  brings their rich vocabulary and florid wit to bear on "five of the boldest English rogues as have ever trodden their native soil",

Simon Goddard grew up in Wales and Scotland before studying art in the North of England. He later moved to London to work as a music journalist and is now recognised as one of the most unique voices in pop writing. In addition to Simply Thrilled, he has written acclaimed books about The Smiths and Morrissey (Songs That Saved Your Life, Mozipedia), Bowie (Ziggyology) and the Stones (Rollaresque). Mozipedia was voted Mojo magazine readers’ Book Of The Year and has since been published in three continents.

London 1962. Five young hooligans have formed a band and are on a collision course with the austere and intolerant values of post-war Britain. From their beginning in a scummy flat off the Kings Road to the notorious Redlands scandal, this is the anarchic rollercoaster ride of the Stones’ first five years. 
 
We follow our heroes in a rags-to-riches romp of sex, scandal, mischief and uproarious behaviour as they challenge the establishment, invent the archetype of the rebellious, parent-scaring rock star lothario and, eventually, receive their comeuppance from the powers that be. 
 
Presented with the audacious wit and bawdy humour of a vintage novel, complete with Dickensian illustrations, Rollaresque celebrates the young Stones in the grand English literary tradition of lovable rogues. This is the music biography reinvented as a ripping yarn.

Ziggyology

Find out how the Starman came to be in the most ambitious and important book on Ziggy Stardust ever written

Dazzlingly pulls together all the vibrant strands  that made up the star-spun cloth of Ziggy. Goddard is the aficionado.

Does for David Bowie what Greil Marcus's Lipstick Traces did for the Sex Pistols... Big, bold and refreshingly original... It's Ziggy as experienced from the alien inside

If you’ve been enjoying David Bowie’s comeback, you’ll relish Simon Goddard’s offbeat paean of man-love to his earlier incarnation. Goddard offers a thrillingly unusual slant on how Ziggy Stardust…came into being

A great deal of research has gone into Ziggyology… Ziggy becomes a forcefield of fabulation, an imaginative cartography through and to whom all manner of ley lines pass…ingeniously and entertainingly (rendered)

I heartily recommend Ziggyology, not just to those fans of Bowie and Ziggy, but to anyone with an interest in the popular culture of the last hundred years or so, to anyone with a passing interest in the world around us, and all beautifully written by a fine writer who displays a great gift of passing on his enthusiasm to the reader.

Simon Goddard is a freelance UK music journalist whose work has appeared in, amongst others, Q magazine, Uncut and the Independent On Sunday. He is best known for his two previous books on The Smiths and their former lead singer Morrissey. His first, Songs That Saved Your Life, was named 'the best Smiths book' by the Guardian and was followed up by the critically acclaimed Mozipedia - The Encyclopedia Of Morrissey and The Smiths. He lives in London.

He came from Outer Space... 
 
It was the greatest invention in the history of pop music – the rock god who came from the stars – which struck a young David Bowie like a lightning bolt from the heavens. 
 
When Ziggy the glam alien messiah fell to Earth, he transformed Bowie from a prodigy to a superstar who changed the face of music forever. But who was Ziggy Stardust? And where did he really come from? 
 
In a work of supreme pop archaeology, Simon Goddard unearths every influence that brought Ziggy to life – from HG Wells to Holst, Kabuki to Kubrick, and Elvis to Iggy. Ziggyology documents the epic drama of the Starman’s short but eventful time on Planet Earth… and why Bowie eventually had to kill him.

The Encyclopaedia of Morrissey and the Smiths

Mozipedia

The definitive guide to everything you could possibly need to know about Morrissey and The Smiths

Genius ... the fullest portrait of Morrissey yet put to paper. Goddard has become what Hunter Davies is to The Beatles or Jon Savage is to punk; the number one authority on the subject

The next best thing to Morrissey’s autobiography

A witty, well-informed collection of fact and anecdote, full of fascinating bits and pieces

Goddard widens his previous book's mixture of detail and passionate celebration to Morrissey's entire aesthetic universe

Simon Goddard is a regular contributor to Q Magazine and has also written for the Guardian, Independent on Sunday, Sunday Herald and Uncut. Dubbed 'the Smiths authority' by NME, his 2002 book The Smiths: Songs That Saved Your Life was described as a 'mighty achievement' by both Time Out and Mojo and is recognised as one of the key works on the group by fans and critics. It is also the only Smiths book to earn the approval of group founder and guitarist Johnny Marr.

Steven Patrick Morrissey is one of the most original and controversial voices in the history of popular music. With The Smiths, he led the most influential British guitar group of the 1980s, his enigmatic wit and style defining a generation. As a solo artist, he has continued to broach subjects no other singer would dare. 
 
Worshipped by some, vilified by others, Morrissey is a unique rock and roll creation. The 300,000 words of Mozipedia make this the most intimate and in-depth biographical portrait of the man and his music yet. Bringing together every song, album, collaborator, key location, every hero, book, film and record to have influenced his art, it is the summation of years of meticulous research. Morrissey authority Simon Goddard has interviewed almost everybody of any importance, making Mozipedia the last word on Morrissey and The Smiths.

Simon Goddard

Simply Thrilled is a brilliant caper, just like the Postcard label itself

At some point, someone was going to write a book about the history of Postcard Records and barely a chapter into Simply Thrilled, you realise it would have been a tragedy if anyone other than Simon Goddard had taken on the job... It’s a testament to Goddard’s masterful storytelling that – once you’ve hooted at the last preposterous tale in Simply Thrilled – the myth looms larger than ever, the music a little more breathlessly brilliant than ever before.

The Preposterous Story of Postcard Records

They had just a few hundred pounds, one band missing a drummer, a sock drawer for an office, more dreams than sense and not a clue between them how to run a record company. But when Alan Horne and Edwyn Collins decided to start their own label from a shabby Glasgow flat in 1979, nobody was going to stand in their way. 
 
Postcard Records was the mad, makeshift and quite preposterous result. Launching the careers of Orange Juice, Aztec Camera and cult heroes Josef K, the self-styled ‘Sound of Young Scotland’ stuck it to the London music biz and, quite by accident, kickstarted the 1980s indie music revolution. 
 
Simon Goddard has interviewed everyone involved in the making of the Postcard legend to tell this thrilling rock’n’roll story of punk audacity, knickerbocker glories, broken windscreens, raccoon-fur hats, comedy, violence and creating something beautiful from nothing, against all the odds.

Simon Goddard

Books by Simon Goddard

Articles featuring Simon Goddard

Books to read if you love David Bowie

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