Michael Symmons Roberts’s fourth book of poetry, Corpus, was the winner of the 2004 Whitbread Poetry Award, and was shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize, the Forward Prize, and the Griffin International Prize. His sixth collection, Drysalter, was the winner of both the Forward Prize and the Costa Poetry Prize in 2013. He collaborated with Paul Farley on Edgelands (Cape/Vintage) and will do so again in The Deaths of the Poets (Cape, 2017). He has also worked many times with the composer James MacMillan. He has published two novels, and is Professor of Poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University.

Michael Symmons Roberts

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Simon Goddard

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.

Rollaresque

The Rakish Progress of The Rolling Stones

Stuart Maconie

The Lives Less Ordinary series brings you the most exciting, adventurous and entertaining true-life writing that is out there, for men who are time-poor but want the best. Lives Less Ordinary drops you into extreme first-hand accounts of human experience, whether that's the adrenaline-pumping heights of professional sport, the brutality of the modern battlefield, the casual violence of the criminal world, the mind-blowing frontiers of science, or the excesses of rock 'n' roll, high finance and Hollywood. Lives Less Ordinary also brings you some of the finest comic voices around, on every subject from toilet etiquette to Paul Gascoigne. 
 
Anyone who every dreams of being in the music business thinks that 'being with the band' is an instant passport to free drugs, women and hedonistic, rock 'n' roll good times. But Stuart Maconie hilariously tells a different story of the slow-drip hell of continental travel in the claustrophobic confines a small van with a certain death metal trio. 
 
This digital bite has been extracted from Stuart Maconie's brilliant book Cider with Roadies.

How to Survive on Tour with a Rock Band

Lives Less Ordinary

Rita Gilligan

Meet Rita Gilligan, Hard Rock Cafe’s original ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll’ waitress and international cultural ambassador and MBE. It was 1971 when Hard Rock first opened its doors in London, and Rita was there with her spunky, chatty, and absolutely lovable personality. Over the forty-five years she served at Hard Rock, Rita has collected quite some stories to tell, including her relationship with rock ‘n’ roll celebrities, Hard Rock’s history, and her own personal life struggles. In this book Rita tells her story from being a shy Catholic schoolgirl in Galway to becoming the best known waitress and later ambassador of one of history's most iconic American style restaurants. She also narrates how she met Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton, The Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen and many other famous celebrities during her time at the Hard Rock. Written with candid humour and disarming honesty, Rita serves up a brilliantly crafted story about how the Hard Rock, like herself, defied all the odds to become a global phenomenon.

The Rock 'N’ Roll Waitress at the Hard Rock Cafe

John Robb

In the crazed aftermath of the late '80s northern pop explosion there have been few survivors. The Charlatans, however, still prosper despite once being perceived as runts of the Manchester music scene. The cruellest of luck has visited heartbreaking death, nervous exhaustion, a jail sentence, and the prospect of falling almost totally out of fashion upon them. And yet, a deceptively tough band with a charismatic lead singer, their combination of unnerving honesty, sheer pop talent, great live shows, and a total and touching commitment to their fans has seen them survive some of the worst disasters that fate has thrown at any pop group. They have remarkable street suss that, with their small town backgrounds makes them totally at one with their huge following -- a relationship that has given them a fistful of number one albums. This is a tale of a love of pop and a lust for life. A story of northern pop and a band with guts and a passion for creativity. It traces the rise of the Charlatans from the fringes of the Manchester scene in the late Eighties to their current position at the top of British music, one of the key bands of the Nineties in possession of a rare and beautiful canon of great pop tunes.

The Charlatans We Are Rock

Since forming in 2007, JLS have achieved everything they'd hoped for and more. From four smash-hit albums and five number one singles, to BRIT and MOBO awards and sell-out tours, Oritsé, Marvin, JB, and Aston have proved themselves as one of Britain's biggest boybands ever. 
 
But all good things come to an end and in this, their last ever official book together, the boys share their favourite memories with the people they love most: their fans. 
 
Inside, they reflect on everything they've experienced in the last six years, as a band and in their own personal lives, while sharing exclusive photos and the secrets they've kept. Find out how they feel about juggling family and finding love with life on the road and recording in the studio; how special it feels to step out on stage in front of thousands of fans and why choosing to part from the best friends they could have ever found was the hardest decision of all. 
 
The highs, the lows; the good times and bad, this is JLS like you've never seen them before. Older, wiser and hotter than ever, this is their final farewell and a treasured keepsake for years to come.

JLS: Forever and a Day

IF YOU REMEMBER THE NINETIES...YOU WERE THERE! 
 
The Rock 'N' Roll Fifties. The Swinging Sixties. The trashy Seventies. The money-grabbing Eighties. There is a neat bunch of clichés for every era, but THE NINETIES... 
What the f**k was that all about? 
 
John Robb takes us on a personal odyssey through the definitive pop cultural moments that shaped the decade in the UK.

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