In August 1964 The Kinks released their third single. After a little noticed debut and a follow-up that had failed to chart at all, Pye Records were threatening to annul the group’s contract. But with its unforgettable distorted guitar riff, 'You Really Got Me’ went on to reach No.1, entering the US Top Ten later the same year. Followed by a string of hits, it marked the breakthrough of one of Britain’s most innovative and influential bands, and a turning point in the fortunes of two brothers whose troubled story is as tumultuous and characterful as the music they produced: Ray and Dave Davies. Born into a deeply musical working-class family in London’s Muswell Hill, Ray and Dave grew up in a city recovering from the bombs and privations of the Second World War. More than any other musicians of the Sixties, they crafted the soundtrack that made it swing again. In songs such as ‘Dedicated Follower of Fashion’, ‘Sunny Afternoon’ – which toppled The Beatles to become the hit of Summer 1966 – ‘Waterloo Sunset’, ‘Days’ and ‘Lola’, they drew on music hall, folk and rhythm and blues to craft a peculiarly English pop idiom, inspiring generations of songwriters from David Bowie to Jarvis Cocker and Damon Albarn. Pocked by sibling rivalry, furious on-stage violence, walkouts, overdoses, a career-throttling ban from the US, gross self-indulgence, and the band's curious rebirth as eighties stadium rockers, the story laid bare in God Save The Kinks is one of the greatest in British pop history.
I want to make an album of real genius, to sit alongside the Stones' 'Exile On Main Street', and Big Star's 'Third'" (Peter Buck, R.E.M. 1991) The definitive biography of Big Star, the most influential band of the last 30 years.
With exclusive new interviews from the band, this is a captivating account of one of the most influential groups in rock history. Brian Eno famously said "the first Velvet Underground album only sold 10,000 copies, but everyone who bought it formed a band." Perhaps no other musicians can claim such limited chart success and so enduring a musical legacy as The Velvet Underground. Artists including David Bowie, The Sex Pistols, Joy Division, Roxy Music, Nirvana, U2, R.E.M., and even dissident Czech playwright and eventual president Václav Havel have cited the Velvets as a major influence. Seeing the Light presents the untold story of the band. Formed by the mercurial Lou Reed and classically trained Welshman John Cale in the mid-1960s, the band first gained notoriety after being adopted by Andy Warhol. Warhol's patronage allowed the group to chart unexplored regions of rock 'n' roll, producing unforgettable and unsettling music that veered from droning, avant-garde experimentalism to folk-infused pop, offering taboo-busting tales of drug addiction, prostitution, and sexual deviance. Creative tensions and frustrated ambition eventually saw both Cale and Reed leave the band, to its ignominious end. In the decades since, The Velvet Underground's music has attained classic status, revered alongside The Beatles and The Beach Boys as one of the sources of modern pop. With exclusive new interviews from members Moe Tucker and Doug Yule, as well as the widow of their bandmate Sterling Morrison, journalist Rob Jovanovic peels back the mystique of one of the most important bands in rock history.
Moving The Goalposts is the book for the statistics junkies, tactics lovers and analysis gurus who follow the beautiful game. It's a sideways glance at the world of football which debunks a few long-standing myths, examines the aspects of the game that are often overlooked, ignored and taken for granted, and shows football is a sport which is regular misinterpreted. Taking a look at legends from the past and trends for the future, those who read Moving The Goalposts will never watch the game in the same way again.Key features- Includes investigations into more than 75 football topics, challenging long-standing myths and offering a new light on the beautiful game- Features analysis of a number of on- and off-field aspects of the game from over one-hundred years- Covers World Cups, continental championships, European club competitions and the domestic game- Features the great national and club sides, as well as the legends of the game and their legacies: including Moore, Clough, Shankly, Busby, Pele and Maradona- Examines who really were the greatest teams and players from the past and why- Discovers what really has an impact on a team and what really contributes to winning a game
R.E.M. have been together for twenty years. From Athens, Georgia in the early 1980s through to world tours in the late nineties, Rob Jovanovic and Tim Abbott have closely followed their rise to global superstardom. Here, having unearthed a wealth of previously unseen photos and memorabilia, they chronicle the full story of twenty years of R.E.M. (Foreword with Peter Buck; introduction by Scott 'Spiral Stairs' Kannberg, ex-Pavement.)
The missing Manic - an authoritative look into the life and times of Richey Edwards, the Manic Street Preachers' guitarist who disappeared in 1995. The disappearance of Richey Edwards, troubled guitarist with the Manic Street Preachers, is one of rock and roll's great unresolved mysteries. His Vauxhall Cavalier was found abandoned in a service station car park near the Severn Bridge, a notorious suicide spot, in February 1995, a fortnight after Edwards had last been seen. The location of the car and the tape left in the deck - Nirvana's album In Utero - tended to point to one conclusion. However, it almost seemed too obvious a statement, and in A VERSION OF REASON, Rob Jovanovic unravels the complicated life and final days of Richey Edwards. Piecing together testimony from those close to Edwards Jovanovic seeks to produce an authoritative account of the life and times of Richey Edwards.
George Michael is an enigma. While he is one of the most open and vocal pop superstars on the planet, he also fiercely protective of his privacy. From the formation of Wham! In 1981 he immediately found fame and fortune beyond his wildest dreams. His music formed the soundtrack to the 1980s and he achieved all of this despite growing up in a dysfunctional family where his father openly proclaimed that George had no talent. Wham! split in 1986 but Michael went on to greater things as a solo artist. Along the way he has been embroiled in several controversies, but in refreshing contrast to other superstars, he has been happy to address his issues head-on in the media. Rob Jovanovic's biography tackles all the issues that formed George Michael and his place as a cultural icon. It also, for the first time, analyses Michael's musical output and groundbreaking videos.
Kate Bush has written some of the most memorable songs in pop music history. Wuthering Heights, her debut single shot to number 1 in 1978 and she remains something of an enigma over a quarter of a century later. A singer, songwriter, musician, dancer, actress and director, Kate has inspired a devoted following around the world. Rob Jovanovic traces the story of Kate Bush's career, from her up-bringing in the Essex countryside through her first forays into music with a series of home recordings, to her number 1 debut album that propelled her to international stardom. Including exclusive interviews with studio musicians and choreographers, Jovanovic's biography emphasises both her voracious talent and her intensely private personality.
The definitive story of one of the most influential groups in rock 'n' rolll history includes exclusive input from John Cale, Moe Tucker, and Doug Yule, and the first ever interview with Sterling Morrison's widow Perhaps no other band can claim such scant chart success and so enduring a musical legacy as The Velvet Underground. Artists including David Bowie, the Sex Pistols, Joy Division, Roxy Music, Nirvana, U2, R.E.M., and dissident Czech playwright and eventual president, Vaclav Havel have cited the Velvets as a major influence. Yet only two of their albums even scraped Billboard's Top 200. Formed by the mercurial Lou Reed and classically-trained Welshman John Cale, the band first achieved notoriety after being adopted by Andy Warhol, who set himself up as manager and producer and included the Velvets in his Exploding Plastic Inevitable multimedia roadshow. The freedom Warhol's patronage brought enabled the group to chart hitherto unexplored regions of the rock n' roll soundscape, producing unforgettable and unsettling music that veered from droning, avant-garde experimentalism to folk-infused pop, taking in taboo-busting tales of drug addiction, prostitution, and sexual deviance along the way. Creative tensions and frustrated ambition eventually saw both Cale and Reed leave the band, with Doug Yule taking over on lead vocals before an entirely unoriginal lineup came to an ignominious end in Europe. In the decades since and several abortive reunions later, VU's music has attained classic status, revered alongside The Beatles and The Beach Boys as one of the wellsprings of modern pop. Now Rob Jovanovic peels back the mystique to tell the story of one of the most important bands in rock history.
For your average 1960s or 70s schoolboy, the week was largely given over to amassing a football card collection, and later, the sticker annual. The cards were swapped with schoolmates, fought over, and more were purchased—yet somehow you still ended up with only the Birmingham City first team. In this history of the football card and sticker annual, Rob Jovanovic traces the history of the playing card right back to the golden age of the cigarette card, charting its development through the decades up to the modern-day sticker album. In doing so, the book provides a nostalgic, photographic history of the game.
Beck is 40 years of American music all rolled into one small frame. This biography follows his career from Los Angeles busker, to his first ever single, Loser, to his status today as a musician considered by many to be extremely innovative. It also closely examines the man behind the music.
A rock journalist takes readers behind the music of Beck and into his life as the grandson of an avant-garde Fluxus movement leader, the son of a bluegrass musician who worked with Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones, and his own accomplishments in the music industry.
Shedding light on the making of a modern masterpiece, this is the behind-the-scenes story of John Lennon's beloved and still controversial album, "Imagine, " recorded in London in 1971.
Moving The Goalposts is the book for the statistics junkies, tactics lovers and analysis gurus who follow the beautiful game. It's a sideways glance at the world of football which debunks a few long-standing myths, examines the aspects of the game that are often overlooked, ignored and taken for granted, and shows football is a sport which is regular misinterpreted. Taking a look at legends from the past and trends for the future, those who read Moving The Goalposts will never watch the game in the same way again.Key features- Includes investigations into more than 75 football topics, challenging long-standing myths and offering a new light on the beautiful game- Features analysis of a number of on- and off-field aspects of the game from over one-hundred years- Covers World Cups, continental championships, European club competitions and the domestic game- Features the great national and club sides, as well as the legends of the game and their legacies: including Moore, Clough, Shankly, Busby, Pele and Maradona- Examines who really were the greatest teams and players from the past and why- Discovers what really has an impact on a team and what really contributes to winning a game
This book shows that the problem of climate adaptation, which is described in social planning terms as ‘wicked,’ is at odds with the contemporary practice of spatial planning. The author proposes a new adjusted framework which is more adaptable to unpredictable, wicked, dynamic and non-linear processes. The inspiration for this new method is the behaviour of swarms: bees, ants, birds and fish are capable of self-organization, which enables the system to become less vulnerable to sudden environmental changes. The framework proposed in Swarm Planning consists of these four elements: Two levels of complexity, the first being the whole system and the second its individual components. Each of these has different attributes for adapting to change. Five layers, consisting of networks, focal points, unplanned space, natural resources and emerging occupation patterns. Each layer has its own spatial dynamic, and each is connected to a spatial scale. Non-linear processes, which emerge in different parts of the framework and include emerging patterns, connectedness and tipping points among others. Two planning processes; the first, ‘from small to large’ works upward from the slowest changing elements to more rapidly-changing ones. The second, ‘on the list of partners’ addresses each layer from networks through emerging occupation patterns. Swarm Planning applies this framework to a series of pilot studies, and appraises its performance using criteria for an adaptive landscape. The results show that the use of the Swarm Planning Framework reduces the vulnerability of landscapes as well as the impact of climate hazards and disasters, improves response to unexpected hazards and contains adaptation strategies. “This book is a must for planners in government and the private sector as it outlines the concept, strategies and techniques for swarm planning. It is also an important guide for policymakers looking to engage communities in a dialogue about the adaptation planning process.” Professor John Martin, La Trobe University “The ultimate value of the book lies in encouraging the planning community to consider options that go far beyond those offered by business-as-usual planning methodologies developed for a set of operating conditions that are fast becoming obsolete. As such it makes an important and much needed contribution to the field.” Assistant Professor Dr. Chrisna du Plessis, University of Pretoria
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