THE NEW BOOK FROM THE MUCH-LOVED AUTHOR OF THE GRAN TOUR, A CHIP SHOP IN POZNAN AND THE MARMALADE DIARIES Food fights, fishing and French cooking - bestselling author Ben Aitken's year of actively pursuing fun Ben Aitken wasn't getting enough. He knew it and so did everyone else. He was grumpy, increasingly boring, mostly joyless. So, he joined a lawn bowls club. A week later, he doubled down on the doldrums by learning to dance like they do in Bollywood. Then - with an almost entirely reformed selfhood winking appealingly just around the corner - he started swimming in cold water and was back to square one. Despite the setbacks (and hyperventilation), it was becoming clear to him that the very pursuit of fun was a great way of not feeling naff. And so he made a vow to have as much of the f-stuff as he possibly could. Taking a liberal approach to the subject, he sought out things that he used to find fun a long time ago (i.e. food fights and wrestling); things that he'd never done before but reckoned could be fun (boozy French cooking classes, tantric sex); things whose fun-factor was less obvious and more down to earth (nostalgia, volunteering, edible gardening, watching chickens); and things that he wasn't at all sure about but were fun according to other people (gym classes, caving, TikTok). Unsurprisingly, the results were mixed, but he was undoubtedly left feeling ... better. Which left him asking, if fun is the finest medicine, why do we stop doing it?
The long-awaited memoir of the legendary drummer's life and times in the bands Small Faces, Faces, and The Who. From the Mod revolution and the British Invasion of the 1960s, through the psychedelic era of the 1970s, and into the exuberance and excesses of stadium rock in the 1980s, Kenney Jones helped to build rock and roll as we know it. He was the beat behind three of the world's most enduring and significant bands. He wasn't just in the right place at the right time. Along with Keith Moon, John Bonham, and Charlie Watts, Jones is regarded as one of the greatest drummers of all time, sought after by a wide variety of the best-known and best-selling artists to bring his unique skill into the studio for the recording of classic albums and songs—including, of course, the Rolling Stones's "It's Only Rock 'n' Roll (But I Like It)." And Jones is no shallow rock star. He may play polo with royalty from across the globe now, but this is the story of a ragamuffin from the East End of London, a boy who watched his bandmates, friends since his teens, die early, combated dyslexia to find a medium in which he could uniquely excel, and later found a way through the wilderness years when the good times seemed to have gone and he had little to fall back on. Kenney Jones has seen it all, played with everyone, and partied with all of them. He's enjoyed the highs, battled the lows, and emerged in one piece. Let the Good Times Roll is a breathtaking immersion into music past that leaves readers feeling as if they lived it too.
A heartwarming and hilarious novel from the Sunday Times bestselling author ‘The feeling you get when you read a Milly Johnson book should be bottled and made available on the NHS’ Debbie Johnson Ven, Roz, Olive and Frankie have been friends since school. They day-dreamed of glorious futures, full of riches, romance and fabulous jobs. The world would be their oyster. Twenty-five years later, Olive cleans other people's houses to support her lazy, out-of-work husband and his ailing mother. Roz cannot show her kind, caring husband Manus any love because her philandering ex has left her trust in shreds. And she and Frankie have fallen out big time. But Ven is determined to reunite her friends and realise the dream they had of taking a cruise before they hit forty. Before they know it, the four of them are far from home, on the high seas. Can blue skies, hot sun and sixteen days of luxury and indulgence change their outlook on life? Praise for Milly Johnson: 'Every time you discover a new Milly book, it’s like finding a pot of gold' heat 'A glorious, heartfelt novel' Rowan Coleman ‘Absolutely loved it. Milly's writing is like getting a big hug with just the right amount of bite underneath. I was rooting for Bonnie from the start' Jane Fallon ‘Bursting with warmth and joie de vivre’ Jill Mansell ‘Warm, optimistic and romantic’ Katie Fforde
(Book). This entertaining book presents the U.S. and U.K. Top 20 charts side by side, month by month showing how rock and pop developed on each side of the Atlantic. Fully updated, it lists the hits from 1954 through 2003. Alongside every song listing, readers will find important facts such as the artist's name and nationality, current and previous month's chart position, record label, weeks on the chart, and simultaneous position on the other side of the pond. Includes an alphabetical listing of song titles with artists, and an alphabetical listing of artists with song titles and chart-entry dates, enabling easy cross-referencing to help you track down any Top 20 record since 1954.
From the concert stage to the dressing room, from the recording studio to the digital realm, SPIN surveys the modern musical landscape and the culture around it with authoritative reporting, provocative interviews, and a discerning critical ear. With dynamic photography, bold graphic design, and informed irreverence, the pages of SPIN pulsate with the energy of today's most innovative sounds. Whether covering what's new or what's next, SPIN is your monthly VIP pass to all that rocks.
The Small Faces & Other Stories is a trip back in time, charting the rise and fall of one of the Sixties most energetic and successful bands. It is the extraordinary story of how this bold four-piece, led by mercurial cockney Steve Marriot, found fame and then splintered by the end of the decade to evolve into Humble Pie with Peter Frampton, and the Faces fronted by Rod Stewart. Along the way their trademark songs Itchycoo Park, All or Nothing, Stay With Me and Baby I Love Your Way would influence future generations of musicians such as Paul Weller, Ocean Colour Scene and Blur. By way of anecdote, interview and analysis, Uli Twelker and Roland Schmitt lift the lid on the bands’ complex histories and the explosive characters involved that built one of rock music’s most enduring and successful family trees.
An account of one year in the life of a primary school, seen from the perspective of a head teacher. It is written with humour and concentrates on an untidy reality rather than a system, on a human perspective rather than one that is manipulative of human reality.
"Here Come the Colts!" . . . .That was the slogan that was written on the side of the team buses, and this is the story of a decade of championship football, the Atlanta Colts of the 1970's, who won 17 of a possible 30 championships in the three age/weight classifications of the Georgia Youth Football Conference from 1970-1979, dominating that league in that decade. This book is about the players and coaches in the decade of the 1970's for this Atlanta Colt youth football program, the ACYA, based in north Atlanta, Georgia who participated in the three age and weight classifications of the varsity program. It also includes information and recounts about some of the opposing teams and their coaches and layers that made up metropolitan Atlanta's most competitive big league youth football organization of the era of the 1970's, the Georgia Youth Football Conference. It is the author's tribute to the ACYA founder and leader, the late Bob Johnson, who is mentioned frequently throughout the book. The Atlanta Colt Youth Association program, aka "ACYA" was often referred to as the number one "Pop Warner" sanctioned youth football program in the entire US in the 1970's. The book is written in narrative from the perspective of the author, who participated as one of the Varsity Colt head coaches in the last eight years of that decade (1972-1979) and observed the 1970 and 1971 seasons from an Interleague coaching position within that same famous Pop Warner program. The chapters detail the author's recollections and opinions and most of the detail centers mainly around his own players' and teams' experiences. The author provides season by season summaries of each of the varsity Colt teams, highlighting some of the most important games in which his own team participated, with capsules of many others. He also reveals some of the strategies employed in detail and the actual on the field rationale and logic behind many of the significant plays and events in some of those games. The author is Doug Bennett, who was a head coach for the "varsity" Colts for nine years, and participated in the ACYA program a total of 12 years from 1969-1980. In the subject decade of this book, the 1970's, Bennett was a varsity Colt Head Coach for the years 1972-1979. His teams won six consecutive GYFC championships from 1972 to 1977, finishing second in 1978 and third in 1979. Using a combination of research from written historical material, actual game films and the author's memory, as much detail as possible is written, including the author's recollection of specific game circumstances, situations and plays, with emphasis on individual player and team performances, etc. There are chapters describing the program's and author's philosophies and strategies on Offense, Defense, Special Teams, Practice and Game Preparation providing written description and analysis of how these championship teams were built from the first day of practice through the end of a season as it was learned from the legendary Coach Bob Johnson. The ACYA program was not only a football program for the children, it was almost a society within the society of the Dunwoody area and surrounding neighborhoods in the northern suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia, particularly in the decade of the '70's. It was run totally by adult volunteers, whose dedication allowed the program to prosper and flourish from its inception in 1965. The ACYA program was the annual focal point in the lives of these families from the start of football tryouts in early August until the last bowl games in December, for all of the years they were involved. Lifelong friendships were formed there, among the children football players and the adult parents and volunteers in those families. The program still serves the community today and many of the volunteers who have been involved in recent years are former players from the era discussed in this book.
