Jack White

Jack White

Author: Nick Hasted

Publisher: Omnibus Press

Published: 2016

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781468313772

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The only biography of Jack White, widely considered the twenty-first century's most vital rock star.


The Life of Blur

The Life of Blur

Author: Martin Power

Publisher: Omnibus Press

Published: 2018-06-14

Total Pages: 463

ISBN-13: 0857128620

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

As with most great bands, it is difficult to remember a time when Blur weren’t a part of Britain’s rich musical landscape. From art-rock origins they went on to make four multi-platinum number one albums and produced some of the finest songs of the modern era: End of A Century, Girls And Boys, Parklife, Song 2, Beetlebum... And it might not be over yet! The Life Of Blur charts their story from shaky beginnings through to the full-blown superstardom of Parklife, The Great Escape and beyond. At the heart of this tale is the complex, sometimes explosive relationship between Blur’s four founding members: Damon Albarn, Graham Coxon, Dave Rowntree and Alex James. A rich soup of relentless ambition, dogged persistence, fraying tempers and a million clanging champagne bottles, the emotional chemistry that makes up Blur has been just as interesting to watch as the songs the band have produced. Author Martin Power has talked with band’s former managers, fellow musicians, old school teachers and close friends to shed new light on a group once called “the most intelligent, enduring and credible band to emerge from the Nineties”. With a concise critical commentary on their music, rare photographs and a complete discography, as well as shedding new light on the group's various solo activities - including Damon Albarn's Gorillaz and Graham Coxon's one-man assault on the indie charts - this is the definitive account of Blur’s epic journey.


Nailed to History: The Story of Manic Street Preachers

Nailed to History: The Story of Manic Street Preachers

Author: Martin Power

Publisher: Omnibus Press

Published: 2018-04-05

Total Pages: 363

ISBN-13: 0857127764

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Manic Street Preachers have established themselves as one the UK's most enduring, intelligent and credible rocks groups, but that quest for greatness has been a difficult, sometimes torturous path; a path which one of their number – the gifted and troubled Richley Edwards – abandoned for destinations still unknown. Nailed To History traces the slow yet inexorable climb of the South Wales band from their 1980s glam-punk origins, critically derided as 'Generation Terrorists', to their current position as respected art-rock intellectuals - a fact underlined by 2009's award-winning ‘A Journal For Plague Lovers’. This Omnibus Enhanced edition now includes a multimedia discography, charting every album and single release the band has made through a timeline of music videos and album art. Author Martin Power also examines the life and complex personality of Edwards, whose highly politicised, morally disquieting wordplay defined much of the Manics' early appeal - his personal demons writ large across 1994's dark masterwork ‘The Holy Bible’. Edwards' evermore extreme behaviour culminated in his sad, strange disappearance in February, 1995. A story of honour and enduring friendship, of 'culture, alienation, boredom' and despair, Nailed To History examines the Manic Street Preachers’ musical output and the personalities that make them an enduring artistic and political force.


Beyoncé in Formation

Beyoncé in Formation

Author: Omise'eke Natasha Tinsley

Publisher: University of Texas Press

Published: 2018-11-06

Total Pages: 215

ISBN-13: 1477317724

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Making headlines when it was launched in 2015, Omise’eke Tinsley’s undergraduate course “Beyoncé Feminism, Rihanna Womanism” has inspired students from all walks of life. In Beyoncé in Formation, Tinsley now takes her rich observations beyond the classroom, using the blockbuster album and video Lemonade as a soundtrack for vital new-millennium narratives. Woven with candid observations about her life as a feminist scholar of African studies and a cisgender femme married to a trans spouse, Tinsley’s “Femme-onade” mixtape explores myriad facets of black women’s sexuality and gender. Turning to Beyoncé’s “Don’t Hurt Yourself,” Tinsley assesses black feminist critiques of marriage and then considers the models of motherhood offered in “Daddy Lessons,” interspersing these passages with memories from Tinsley’s multiracial family history. Her chapters on nontraditional bonds culminate in a discussion of contemporary LGBT politics through the lens of the internet-breaking video “Formation,” underscoring why Beyoncé’s black femme-inism isn’t only for ciswomen. From pleasure politics and the struggle for black women’s reproductive justice to the subtext of blues and country music traditions, the landscape in this tour is populated by activists and artists (including Loretta Lynn) and infused with vibrant interpretations of Queen Bey’s provocative, peerless imagery and lyrics. In the tradition of Roxanne Gay’s Bad Feminist and Jill Lepore’s best-selling cultural histories, Beyoncé in Formation is the work of a daring intellectual who is poised to spark a new conversation about freedom and identity in America.


Blondie: Parallel Lives

Blondie: Parallel Lives

Author: Dick Porter

Publisher: Omnibus Press

Published: 2017-02-13

Total Pages: 444

ISBN-13: 0857127802

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Parallel Lives is the definitive biography of Blondie, the iconic New York band led by singer Debbie Harry and guitarist Chris Stein. One of the most iconic groups of their generation, Blondie experienced an unparalleled rise to global superstardom during the late 1970s, topping charts and breaking moulds. This Omnibus Enhanced edition includes a Digital Timeline of Blondie's career packed with audio, video and images of tour nights, memorabilia, music videos and interviews. Additionally, throughout the book are links to curated playlists allowing you to hear Blondie's finest gems, their early influences and more. Beginning with their childhoods, backgrounds and influences, Parallel Lives charts the development of Blondie towards their global success and fractured break-up; followed by their 1997 reformation, critical renaissance and controversial induction into the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame. Drawing upon extensive and revealing interviews with Debbie Harry, Chris Stein and other significant players, the Omnibus Enhanced Blondie: Parallel Lives is the definitive, eye-witness account of the group’s long and tumultuous existence. Co-author Kris Needs had established a friendship with Harry, Stein and the rest of the band that endures to this day. Now, as a trusted confidante, he finally reveals the full story.


American Hiro

American Hiro

Author: Jack McCallum

Publisher: Diversion Books

Published: 2022-05-17

Total Pages: 244

ISBN-13: 1635767717

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

An in-depth biography of the famed Japanese American restaurateur, his rags to riches story, his determination in business, and his zest for life. “Traveling the world with my father, watching him interact with people, famous and ordinary, observing up close his balls-out sense of adventure, and having a larger-than-life personality to live up to had a profound effect on me and the formation of my character.” —From the foreword by Steve Aoki, Grammy–nominated producer and Billboard Award–winning DJ Hiroaki “Rocky” Aoki was a man who succeeded in everything he pursued—from world-class wrestling, ballooning, underwater exploration, and car and boat racing to founding Benihana. Rocky’s passion for life infected all around him and accelerated the exchange of Japanese culture and cuisine with America. His rags to riches story, from dishwasher and busboy to owner of a multi-million-dollar restaurant empire, is a wild American dream realized unlike any other. Running and expanding the business would be all-consuming for most people—not to mention battling the perception of otherness—but Rocky would not be deterred. His determination for the business rivaled the drive he demonstrated in his other interests, some of which almost killed him. American Hiro by Jack McCallum, who had full access to Rocky Aoki and those in his enterprises, provides the only full inside account of one of the most famous symbols of cultural assimilation and capitalistic zeal in modern US history—a champion in business, sports, and life.


Love Becomes a Funeral Pyre

Love Becomes a Funeral Pyre

Author: Mick Wall

Publisher: Chicago Review Press

Published: 2015-09-01

Total Pages: 460

ISBN-13: 1613734115

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

From one of rock's greatest writers, Love Becomes a Funeral Pyre is the definitive biography of the Doors Spanning the entire history of the band, from the birth of its members to the deaths of those who have departed, this book will long remain the definitive history of a band that changed the history of popular music. The band that started out as the "American Rolling Stones," noted for their wildly unpredictable performances, their jazzy vibe, and the crazed monologues of their front man, ended as badly as did the '60s: abruptly, bloodily, cripplingly. Along with evoking the cultural milieu of Los Angeles in the era, bestselling writer Mick Wall captures the true spirit of that tarnished age. From the release of their classic first album, The Doors, to their last with Jim Morrison, L.A. Woman, this band biography is a brilliantly penetrating and contemporary investigation into the real story of the Doors.


What You Want Is in the Limo

What You Want Is in the Limo

Author: Michael Walker

Publisher: Random House

Published: 2013-07-23

Total Pages: 266

ISBN-13: 0679644156

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

An epic joyride through three history-making tours in 1973 that defined rock and roll superstardom—the money, the access, the excess—forevermore. The Who’s Quadrophenia. Led Zeppelin’s Houses of the Holy. Alice Cooper’s Billion Dollar Babies. These three unprecedented tours—and the albums that inspired them—were the most ambitious of these artists’ careers, and they forever changed the landscape of rock and roll: the economics, the privileges, and the very essence of the concert experience. On these juggernauts, rock gods—and their entourages—were born, along with unimaginable overindulgence and the legendary flameouts. Tour buses were traded for private jets, arenas replaced theaters, and performances transmogrified into over-the-top, operatic spectacles. As the sixties ended and the seventies began, an altogether more cynical era took hold: peace, love, and understanding gave way to sex, drugs, and rock and roll. But the decade didn’t become the seventies, acclaimed journalist Michael Walker writes, until 1973, a historic and mind-bogglingly prolific year for rock and roll that saw the release of countless classic albums, from The Dark Side of the Moon to Goat’s Head Soup; Goodbye Yellow Brick Road; Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J.; and The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle. Aerosmith, Queen, and Lynyrd Skynyrd released their debut albums. The Roxy and CBGB opened their doors. Every major act of the era—from Fleetwood Mac to Black Sabbath—was on the road that summer, but of them all, Walker writes, it was The Who, Led Zeppelin, and Alice Cooper who emerged as the game changers. Walker revisits each of these three tours in memorable, all-access detail: he goes backstage, onto the jets, and into the limos, where every conceivable wish could be granted. He wedges himself into the sweaty throng of teenage fans (Walker himself was one of them) who suddenly were an economic force to be reckoned with, and he vividly describes how a decade’s worth of decadence was squeezed into twelve heart-pounding, backbreaking, and rule-defying months that redefined, for our modern times, the business of superstardom. Praise for What You Want Is in the Limo “Required reading . . . 1973 is a turning point in popular music — the border between hippie-ethos ’60s rock ’n’ roll and conspicuous-consumption excess ’70s rock.”—New York Post “Loud and boisterous . . . Like a good vinyl-era single, it’s over before it wears out its welcome. You may even want to flip it over and start again when you’re finished.”—Fort Worth Star-Telegram “You don’t have to love the music or personas of the three bands highlighted here . . . to appreciate the vital roles that all three played in creating the modern rock star. . . . [Walker] is convincing and entertaining in explaining why 1973 was a seminal year in rock.”—The Daily Beast “[There’s] so much rock n' roll history packed inside.”—GQ “Very well written . . . It gives an intellectual immersion into these bands’ lives.”—Led-Zeppelin.org “[Walker] argues for [1973] as a tipping point, when big tours—and bigger money—became a defining ethos in rock music.”—NPR