Jarvis Cocker (Author)
The Sunday Times bestselling hit memoir from Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker.
'It's real gold... its storytelling first class' Sunday Times
What if the things we keep hidden say more about us than those we put on display?
We all have a random collection of the things that made us - photos, tickets, clothes, souvenirs, stuffed in a box, packed in a suitcase, crammed into a drawer. When Jarvis Cocker starts clearing out his loft, he finds a jumble of objects that catalogue his story and ask him some awkward questions:
Who do you think you are?
Are clothes important?
Why are there so many pairs of broken glasses up here?
From a Gold Star polycotton shirt to a pack of Wrigley's Extra, from his teenage attempts to write songs to the Sexy Laughs Fantastic Dirty Joke Book, this is the hard evidence of Jarvis's unique life, Pulp, 20th century pop culture, the good times and the mistakes he'd rather forget.
This is not a life story. It's a loft story.
'Nostalgic, playful and beautifully designed' Daily Mail
'Brilliant...lurid, entertaining' Daily Telegraph
'Terrific... Very funny' Guardian
* A Book of the Year in the Daily Telegraph, Financial Times, Daily Mail and Uncut *
David Hepworth (Author)
*THE SUNDAY TIMES TOP TEN BESTSELLER*
As seen on Apple TV - 1971: The Year That Music Changed Everything
The Sixties ended a year late - on New Year's Eve 1970, when Paul McCartney initiated proceedings to wind up The Beatles. Music would never be the same again.
The next day would see the dawning of a new era. 1971 saw the release of more monumental albums than any year before or since and the establishment of a pantheon of stars to dominate the next forty years - Led Zeppelin, David Bowie, the Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Marvin Gaye, Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Rod Stewart, the solo Beatles and more.
January that year fired the gun on an unrepeatable surge of creativity, technological innovation, blissful ignorance, naked ambition and outrageous good fortune. By December rock had exploded into the mainstream.
How did it happen? This book tells you how.
It's the story of 1971, rock's golden year.
Billie Holiday (Author)
"I've been told that no one sings the word 'hunger' like I do. Or the word 'love'."
Lady Sings the Blues is the inimitable autobiography of one of the greatest icons of the twentieth century. Born to a single mother in 1915 Baltimore, Billie Holiday had her first run-in with the law at aged 13. But Billie Holiday is no victim. Her memoir tells the story of her life spent in jazz, smoky Harlem clubs and packed-out concert halls, her love affairs, her wildly creative friends, her struggles with addiction and her adventures in love. Billie Holiday is a wise and aphoristic guide to the story of her unforgettable life.
Stormzy (Author)
The incredible, must-read true story of the meteoric rise of the music star and the #Merky brand – and a guide to achieving success in your own life, on your own terms.
‘Extraordinary’ NME Books of the Year
‘An inspirational must-read’ Evening Standard
THE #MERKY STORY SO FAR
‘It’s been a long time coming, I swear...’
In recent years Stormzy has risen from one of the most promising musicians of his generation to a spokesperson for a generation. Rise Up is the story of how he got there.
It’s a story about faith and the ideas worth fighting for. It’s about knowing where you’re from, and where you’re going. It’s about following your dreams without compromising who you are.
Featuring never-before-seen photographs, annotated lyrics and contributions from those closest to him, Rise Up is the #Merky story, and the record of a journey unlike any other.
Edited and co-written by Jude Yawson
Contributions by Team #Merky
Images by Kaylum Dennis
Praise for Rise Up:
‘Inspirational’ Guardian Books of the Year
'A very important book. ... It is truly inspiring to read about the accomplishments of Team Stormzy, realised largely without money or expertise, but with bucketloads of intelligence and hard work.' BBC
‘Motivational, inspirational. If Rise Up is just the beginning, I cannot wait for the next stage.’ iNews
‘Provides a real insight into what it takes to become... the country's biggest grime star… Don’t sleep on it’ Metro
‘More than an oral history, Rise Up is a model for those seeking to replicate Stormzy and his team’s accomplishments.’ The Times
‘A book written not to the greater glory of Stormzy, but as a way of inspiring the next generation.’ Q Magazine, 'Best Music Books of the Month'
Paul McCartney (Author)
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Jill Lepore (Introducer)
In 2020, an extraordinary trove of nearly a thousand photographs taken by Paul McCartney on a 35mm camera was re-discovered in his archive. They intimately record the months towards the end of 1963 and beginning of 1964 when Beatlemania erupted in the UK and, after the band's first visit to the USA, they became the most famous people on the planet. The photographs are McCartney's personal record of this explosive time, when he was, as he puts it, in the 'Eyes of the Storm'.
1964: Eyes of the Storm presents 275 of McCartney's photographs from the six cities of these intense, legendary months - Liverpool, London, Paris, New York, Washington, D.C. and Miami - and many never-before-seen portraits of John, George and Ringo. In his Foreword and Introductions to these city portfolios, McCartney remembers 'what else can you call it - pandemonium' and conveys his impressions of Britain and America in 1964 - the moment when the culture changed and the Sixties really began.
Haruki Murakami (Author)
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Seiji Ozawa (Author)
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Jay Rubin (Translator)
An intimate conversation about music and creativity, between the internationally bestselling writer Haruki Murakami and world-class conductor, Seiji Ozawa.
Haruki Murakami's passion for music runs deep. Before turning his hand to writing, he ran a jazz club in Tokyo, and the aesthetic and emotional power of music permeates every one of his much-loved books. Now, in Absolutely on Music, Murakami fulfills a personal dream, sitting down with his friend, acclaimed conductor Seiji Ozawa, to talk about their shared interest.
They discuss everything from Brahms to Beethoven, from Leonard Bernstein to Glenn Gould, from record collecting to pop-up orchestras, and much more.
'Absolutely on Music is an unprecedented treasure... Talking about music is like dancing about architecture, it's often said, but what joy to watch these two friends dance.' Guardian
Giles Smith (Author)
'In the Spring of 1989, shortly after my twenty-seventh birthday, as I stood in the sleet at a bus stop in Colchester, it dawned on me that I had probably, all things considered, failed in my mission to become Sting. At least, for the time being.'
Lost in Music is about growing up with pop music - about hearing it, buying it, loving it, and attempting to play it in public for money. A brilliant combination of the confessional and the unapologetic, this is a book for anyone who has ever treasured vinyl, or sung into a roll-on deodorant in front of the bedroom mirror and dreamed of playing Wembley.
Praise for Lost in Music
'Very, very funny . . . Giles Smith is a wonderful writer' Nick Hornby
'A wonderfully funny pop-music memoir . . . You don't have to know who Nik Kershaw is to laugh out loud at the chapter about him' Sebastian Faulks, Spectator
'One of the best books about music that you will ever read . . . It is impossible to read Lost in Music without laughing out loud' Daily Telegraph
David Hepworth (Author)
Pop music’s a simple pleasure. Is it catchy? Can you dance to it? Do you fancy the singer?
But what’s fascinating about pop is our relationship with it. David Hepworth is interested in the human side of pop. He’s interested in how people make the stuff and, more importantly, what it means to us.
In this collection of essays written throughout his career, Hepworth shows how it is possible to take music seriously and, at the same time, not drain the life out of it. From the legacy of the Beatles to the dramatic decline of the record shop via the bewildering nomenclature of musical genres; with characteristic insight and humour Hepworth asks some essential questions about music and, indeed, life: is it all about the drummer; are band managers misunderstood; and is it appropriate to play ‘Angels’ at funerals?
As Pope John Paul II said ‘of all the unimportant things, football is the most important’. David Hepworth believes the same to be true of music and this selection of his best writing, covering the music of last fifty years, shows you precisely why.
