Johnny Cigarini: Confessions of a King's Road Cowboy
Johnny Cigarini: Confessions of a King's Road Cowboy

Author: Johnny Cigarini

Publisher: Troubador Publishing

Published: 2014-09-04

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 9781784621322

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Johnny Cigarini: Confessions of a King's Road Cowboy is an autobiographical account told from the perspective of a sharp young producer who kicked back with celebrity acquaintances after hours of working in the ambitious and daring world of advertising. Being surrounded by fame and glory during the 70s meant the company Cigarini worked for was at its most succesful - and King's Road in Chelsea became their local playground. This story of luck, chance and heartache shows how the entertainment culture allowed Cigarini to reach the top of his game. Against a backdrop of the 60s sexual liberation, we learn of the real man, Johnny; he was not always a Ferrari-driving trendsetter with long hair, picking up models on the King's Road, partying with Pink Floyd and dating Patti D'Arbanville, but he was once 'Little Johnny', an orphan and the victim of child sex abuse. Exposed to a silent and sinister world of establishment paedophile rings, John's story is certainly one of tragedy and introspection as he picks up the pieces of a lost life. From Italy to England, Africa, America, and back to Italy, Cigarini's nomadic lifestyle became the catalyst to his emotional rollercoaster. His memoirs reach back in time to a war that separated him from his sisters and exposes the revolutionary changes that developed Britain during this era. This mesmerising account offers an insight to the intimate secrets of life in the heart of Britain's pop culture and will appeal primarily to the generation who grew up in the swinging 70s and early 80s. This book may also be of interest to individuals who have worked in production and the advertising sector.

Ninety-Nine Glimpses of Princess Margaret
Ninety-Nine Glimpses of Princess Margaret

Author: Craig Brown

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Published: 2018-08-07

Total Pages: 433

ISBN-13: 0374719683

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“Rollicking, irresistible, un-put-downable . . . For anyone . . . who swooned to Netflix’s The Crown, this book will be manna from heaven.” —Hamish Bowles, Vogue “Ninety-Nine Glimpses of Princess Margaret is a brilliant, eccentric treat.” —Anna Mundow, The Wall Street Journal “I ripped through the book with the avidity of Margaret attacking her morning vodka and orange juice . . . The wisdom of the book, and the artistry, is in how Brown subtly expands his lens from Margaret’s misbehavior . . . to those who gawked at her, who huddled around her, pens poised over their diaries, hoping for the show she never denied them.” —Parul Sehgal, The New York Times “Brown has done something astonishing: He makes the reader care, even sympathize, with perhaps the last subject worthy of such affection . . . His book is big fun, equal measures insightful and hysterical.” —Karen Heller, The Washington Post A witty and profound portrait of the most talked-about English royal She made John Lennon blush and Marlon Brando tongue-tied. She iced out Princess Diana and humiliated Elizabeth Taylor. Andy Warhol photographed her. Jack Nicholson offered her cocaine. Gore Vidal revered her. Francis Bacon heckled her. Peter Sellers was madly in love with her. For Pablo Picasso, she was the object of sexual fantasy. Princess Margaret aroused passion and indignation in equal measures. To her friends, she was witty and regal. To her enemies, she was rude and demanding. In her 1950s heyday, she was seen as one of the most glamorous and desirable women in the world. By the time of her death in 2002, she had come to personify disappointment. One friend said he had never known an unhappier woman. The tale of Princess Margaret is Cinderella in reverse: hope dashed, happiness mislaid, life mishandled. Such an enigmatic and divisive figure demands a reckoning that is far from the usual fare. Combining interviews, parodies, dreams, parallel lives, diaries, announcements, lists, catalogues, and essays, Craig Brown’s Ninety-Nine Glimpses of Princess Margaret is a kaleidoscopic experiment in biography and a witty meditation on fame and art, snobbery and deference, bohemia and high society.

Bring It On Home
Bring It On Home

Author: Mark Blake

Publisher: Da Capo Press

Published: 2018-11-27

Total Pages: 419

ISBN-13: 0306902850

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The authorized biography of the most notorious rock manager of all time, Peter Grant, best known for his work with Led Zeppelin Peter Grant is the most famous music manager of all time. Often acknowledged as the "fifth member of Led Zeppelin," Grant's story has appeared in fragments across countless Zeppelin biographies, but none has explored who this brilliant and intuitive manager yet flawed and sometimes dangerous man truly was. No one has successfully captured the scope of his personality or his long-lasting impact on the music business. Acclaimed author and journalist Mark Blake seeks to rectify that. Bring It On Home is the first book to tell the complete uncensored story of this industry giant. With support from Grant's family interviews with Led Zeppelin's surviving band members, and access to Grant's extensive archive and scores of unpublished material, including his never-before-published final interview, Blake sheds new light on the history of Led Zeppelin and on the wider story of rock music in the 1960s and '70s. Full of new insights into Grant's early life as an actor, wrestler, and road manager for rock 'n' roll pioneers Chuck Berry and Little Richard; the formation of Led Zeppelin; his seclusion following the demise of the band; and his recovery from substance abuse, Bring It On Home reveals a man who, after the extraordinary highs and lows of a career in rock 'n' roll, found peace and happiness in a more ordinary life. It is a celebration, a cautionary tale, and a compelling human drama.

I Think You're Totally Wrong
I Think You're Totally Wrong

Author: David Shields

Publisher: Vintage

Published: 2015-09-01

Total Pages: 274

ISBN-13: 0804169810

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Caleb Powell always wanted to become an artist, but he overcommitted to life; his former professor David Shields always wanted to become a human being, but he overcommitted to art. The stay-at-home dad (three young girls) and the workaholic writer (eighteen books) head to the woods to spend four days together in a cabin, arguing life vs. art. I Think You’re Totally Wrong is an impassioned, funny, probing, fiercely inconclusive, nearly-to-the-death debate. Shields and Powell talk about everything—marriage, family, sports, sex, happiness, drugs, death, betrayal, and (of course) writers and writing—in the name of exploring and debating their central question: the lived life versus the examined life. There are no teachers or students here, no interviewers or interviewees, no masters of the universe—only a chasm of uncertainty, in a dialogue that remains dazzlingly provocative and entertaining from start to finish. James Franco’s film adaptation of I Think You’re Totally Wrong, starring the authors, premiered in 2015.

Get Smashed
Get Smashed

Author: Sam Delaney

Publisher: Sceptre

Published: 2008-04

Total Pages: 214

ISBN-13: 9780340922514

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They were young. They were making it up as they went along. They introduced the world to Smash Martians, Honeymonsters and a beer that refreshes the parts that others cannot reach. And pretty soon, they were millionaires. As one survivor put it: 'No one in the real world knew who the f*** we were. But we'd sit in the first-class departure lounge with rock stars and Hollywood actresses and we convinced ourselves we were celebrities. It probably wasn't a very healthy state of mind.' Some, including Ridley Scott, Alan Parker, David Puttnam and, of course, Charles Saatchi, became famous. Others OD'ed on sex, drugs and 30 second commercials. This was advertising as it had never been before. And has never been since. GET SMASHED is a story of ambition, obsession and excess and how the ads that began by reflecting British culture came to define it.

New York City's Greatest Boxers
New York City's Greatest Boxers

Author: Jose Corpas

Publisher: Arcadia Publishing

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 132

ISBN-13: 9780738549019

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For many years, New York City was considered to be the fight capital of the world." Local venues put on shows almost daily, and the mecca of boxing, Madison Square Garden, hosted boxing regularly. Fans flocked from one arena to the other to catch all of the action. New York City's Greatest Boxers is a photographic journey featuring over 180 photographs showcasing many of the outstanding boxers who helped make up the city's colorful history. New York City's biggest boxing stars are all found here, from legendary champions like Terry McGovern and Benny Leonard to local stars and celebrities like Joe Miceli, Tiger Jones, and Tony Danza."

Shadowland
Shadowland

Author: Douglas Thompson

Publisher: Random House

Published: 2011-10-14

Total Pages: 242

ISBN-13: 1780571542

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Shadowland is a revelatory and dramatic true-life thriller spanning much of the twentieth century, a page-turning chronicle of an elaborate Mafia plan to 'invade' Europe using 1960s London as a bridgehead. The capital city of the Swinging Sixties was also a world of gambling, guns and gangsters. Several veterans of the era are astonished that they survived it and some feel protected enough - now that most of the killers are themselves dead - to reveal to bestselling author Douglas Thompson the details and secrets of one of history's greatest criminal conspiracies, and of how world-champion boxer Freddie Mills really died. The tension in this real-life narrative is ferocious as the tale moves from London to New York and Las Vegas, down to Miami, into Havana, then on to the Bahamas and back to an unexpected denouement in London. Brutal, terrifying and intrigue-packed, it is an account of the Mob's Machiavellian global manipulation of governments and officials. Shadowland recounts events from the viewpoint of the pawns as well as the kingmakers. All the big players of Mafia history are here, controlled by the gangster genius Meyer Lansky, but so are the hit men, the fixers, the hoodlums and the wiseguys.

The Greater New York Sports Chronology
The Greater New York Sports Chronology

Author: Jeffrey A. Kroessler

Publisher: Columbia University Press

Published: 2009-12-15

Total Pages: 337

ISBN-13: 0231518277

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Jeffrey A. Kroessler's comprehensive and entertaining time line stretches from the pastoral entertainments of the Dutch to the corporate captivity of professional sports. He chronicles events ranging from the truly heroic to the heartbreaking, from moments of municipal greatness to inescapable social change. Through it all he plants the world of sport at the very center of New York's story. Fully illustrated, The Greater New York Sports Chronology covers the spectacle of blood sports like bullbaiting to the birth of baseball, the now-forgotten six-day pedestrian contests, and today's New York City Marathon. Alongside great moments like the Mets' "amazin'" World Series win in 1969, Joe Louis's historic bouts with Max Schmeling, Jackie Robinson's breaking of baseball's color line, and Secretariat's remarkable Triple Crown win at Belmont, we encounter the point-shaving scandals of college basketball and the corrupting influence of organized crime in professional boxing. Beyond immortals like Lou Gehrig and Joe Namath, we also find such once well known figures as Joe Lapchick, Marty Glickman, Gertrude Ederle, and Toots Shor. Year by year, this chronology recounts chess matches, America's Cup races, dog shows, golf tournaments, polo matches, tennis games, and more. Kroessler describes the historic venues, boxing arenas, gyms, stadiums, ballparks, and racetracks that have come and gone, yet made New York the undisputed capital of American sport. Witnessing it all, of course, are the greatest fans in the world.

I Am Nobody's Nigger
I Am Nobody's Nigger

Author: Dean Atta

Publisher: Saqi

Published: 2013-03-04

Total Pages: 80

ISBN-13: 1908906170

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Revolutionary, reflective and romantic, I Am Nobody's Nigger is the powerful debut collection by one of the UK's finest emerging poets. Exploring race, identity and sexuality, Dean Atta shares his perspective on family, friendship, relationships and London life, from riots to one-night stands. Longlisted for the Polari First Book Prize 2014'Go Dean Atta. Speak the truth. Tweet the truth. Upload it. Let it ring out over the digital domain and strike at the heart of the offline wireless and disconnected.' Lemn Sissay 'Dean Atta's poetry is as honest as truth itself. He follows no trend; he seeks no favours ... Beyond black, beyond white, beyond straight, beyond gay, so I say. Love your eyes over these words of truth. You will be uplifted.' Benjamin Zephaniah 'Righteous and forceful' Peter Tatchell'I can do nothing but take my hat off to Dean Atta for speaking out, saying what he believed, and doing it so effectively and powerfully that countless people heard it who would never normally have done so. Poetry is a powerful tool, and I Am Nobody's Nigger is a perfect example of when that tool shows its full strength.' Huffington Post' Huffington Post 'Raconteur Dean Atta doing what he does best; articulating London's dark, deep-rooted social cancers through a beautiful and intricately personal narrative.' Clash

A Life in Three Acts
A Life in Three Acts

Author: Bette Bourne

Publisher: A&C Black

Published: 2010-04-16

Total Pages: 66

ISBN-13: 1408133431

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With honesty, humour and occasional anger, performer Bette Bourne tells the playwright Mark Ravenhill about his brave and flamboyant life. Crafted from transcripts of a series of long, private conversations, actor Bette Bourne reminisces and replays scenes from his life from a postwar childhood,a stint as a classical actor in the late 60s, to living in a drag commune in Notting Hill and being an active member of the Gay Liberation Front. Bette then talks about his touring with the New York based Hot Peaches cabaret group and founding his own cabaret troop, Bloolips, which redefined the term gay theatre by creating their very own unique celebration of dramatic and colourful homosexuality. The piece, in three parts, marks a different series of events in Bette's life to reveal both a portrait of a pioneering, radical individual and a historical document of the struggles and achievements of gay liberation.