Electronically Yours
Electronically Yours

Author: Martyn Ware

Publisher: Constable

Published: 2022-08-25

Total Pages: 364

ISBN-13: 0349135126

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This is a music autobiography to remember. This is the story of Martyn Ware. The Human League and Heaven 17 were among some of the most pioneering bands of the 1980s, with Ware having played an integral role in each of their numerous successes. A young lad from the heart of post-war Sheffield, Ware formed The Human League a few years out of school in his early twenties. Described by David Bowie as 'the future of music', it wasn't long before the band become known for their innovative and infectiously catchy singles such as 'Being Boiled', touring with the likes of Siouxsie and the Banshees and Iggy Pop before Ware's departure. Heaven 17 followed suit, with their soon-to-be classic albums, Penthouse & Pavement and The Luxury Gap, featuring several colossal hits. Ground-breaking icons in new wave and synth pop, both groups remain some of the biggest-selling bands across the UK and worldwide. In Electronically Yours, Martyn takes us through his incredible route to stardom; from his austere upbringing in various council houses and close teenage friendship with former-bandmate Phil Oakey, to the white-hot experimentation in the 'Synth Britannia' era and his production career, which allowed him to work with some of the world's greatest singers, including Tina Turner. But it's not just his life inside the industry which is compelling; a proud socialist, Martyn writes poignantly about politics - how it can be a soulful, personal, moral duty - and its role in his music creation and Britain today. With charming meditations on culture, humour, travel and sport, Martyn also shares his love of 60s films, explains why Venice is the most beautiful city in the world, and reveals how Sheffield Wednesday has forever been his first and eternal passion. A huge page-turner and always warmly told, Electronically Yours sees Martyn talk candidly for the very first time about his extraordinary journey. Discover amusing anecdotes, raw confessions, and moving reflections of a life well and truly lived at the height of the music industry.

Sound of the Crowd: a Discography of the '80s (Fourth Edition)
Sound of the Crowd: a Discography of the '80s (Fourth Edition)

Author: Steve Binnie

Publisher: Lulu.com

Published: 2018-11-05

Total Pages: 286

ISBN-13: 0244129657

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SOUND OF THE CROWD: A DISCOGRAPHY OF THE '80s is the ultimate record collector's guide to the 1980s. In the era of multi-formatting, picture discs, coloured vinyl, multiple remixes, funny shaped records and tiny CDs you could lose down the back of the sofa, this book lists every format of every single, EP and album released in the UK in the 1980s by over 140 of the decade's biggest acts, from ABBA to Paul Young. This fourth edition has been fully revised and expanded to include even more acts than ever before, with additional sections to cover Band Aid-style charity congregations and compilation albums from the early '80s K-Tel efforts through to the Now That's What I Call Music series and its competitors. Compiled by Steve Binnie, editor of the '80s music website Sound of the Crowd and writer, producer and co-host of the unconventional '80s chart show Off The Chart, broadcast weekly on Mad Wasp Radio.

Rip It Up and Start Again
Rip It Up and Start Again

Author: Simon Reynolds

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2006-02-17

Total Pages: 433

ISBN-13: 1101201053

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A landmark history of post-punk, the basis of the documentary film directed by Nikolaos Katranis Renowned music journalist Simon Reynolds celebrates the futurist spirit of such bands as Joy Division, Gang of Four, Talking Heads, and Devo, which resulted in endless innovations in music, lyrics, performance, and style and continued into the early eighties with the video-savvy synth-pop of groups such as Human League, Depeche Mode, and Soft Cell, whose success coincided with the rise of MTV. Full of insight and anecdotes and populated by charismatic characters, Rip It Up and Start Again re-creates the idealism, urgency, and excitement of one of the most important and challenging periods in the history of popular music.

Poetic Licence
Poetic Licence

Author: Antonio Di Angelo

Publisher: Lulu.com

Published: 2013-05-14

Total Pages: 497

ISBN-13: 0956631002

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A hard hitting, thought provoking and timeless collection of short stories, poetry and prose from an author who pulls no punches and directly challenges the reader to constantly reassess and engage with the world in which we live. Experience a new way of looking at life. Experience Poetic Licence.

Urban Voices
Urban Voices

Author: Mike Gould

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2009-06-18

Total Pages: 233

ISBN-13: 052173083X

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A new series of anthologies to get students reading!

Mad World
Mad World

Author: Lori Majewski

Publisher: Abrams

Published: 2014-04-15

Total Pages: 400

ISBN-13: 1613126662

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A “hugely entertaining” history of the 1980s New Wave music scene told through new interviews with its biggest artists (Rolling Stone). Mad World is a compelling oral history that celebrates the New Wave music phenomenon of the 1980s via new interviews with 35 of the most notable artists of the period. Each chapter begins with a discussion of their most popular song and leads to stories of their history and place in the scene, ultimately painting a vivid picture of this colorful, idiosyncratic time. Mixtape suggestions, fashion sidebars, and quotes from famous contemporary admirers help fill out the fun. Participants include members of Duran Duran, New Order, The Smiths, Tears for Fears, Adam Ant, Echo, and the Bunnymen, Devo, ABC, Spandau Ballet, A Flock of Seagulls, Thompson Twins, INXS, and more. “One addictive chapter after another.” —Rob Sheffield, author of Talking to Girls About Duran Duran “Tells the tale of some of the decade’s most unforgettable songs . . . in fascinating detail, letting the architects of these memorable records shine a light on how the sound of a generation came to be.” —The Hollywood Reporter “The new wave era is often dismissed for its one-hit wonders and silly haircuts, but [Mad World] examines the period with a great deal of love and reverence.” —Buzzfeed “A really informative and insightful read.” —People

The Value of Popular Music
The Value of Popular Music

Author: Alison Stone

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2016-12-17

Total Pages: 319

ISBN-13: 3319465449

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In this book, Alison Stone argues that popular music since rock-‘n’-roll is a unified form of music which has positive value. That value is that popular music affirms the importance of materiality and the body, challenging the long-standing Western elevation of the intellect above all things corporeal. Stone also argues that popular music’s stress on materiality gives it aesthetic value, drawing on ideas from the post-Kantian tradition in aesthetics by Hegel, Adorno, and others. She shows that popular music gives importance to materiality in its typical structure: in how music of this type handles the relations between matter and form, the relations between sounds and words, and in how it deals with rhythm, meaning, and emotional expression. Extensive use is made of musical examples from a wide range of popular music genres. This book is distinctive in that it defends popular music on philosophical grounds, particularly informed by the continental tradition in philosophy.

Sweet Dreams
Sweet Dreams

Author: Dylan Jones

Publisher: Faber & Faber

Published: 2020-09-29

Total Pages: 530

ISBN-13: 0571353452

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David Bowie. Culture Club. Wham!. Soft Cell. Duran Duran. Sade. Adam Ant. Spandau Ballet. The Eurythmics. ' Excellent' Guardian ' Hugely enjoyable' Irish Times ' Dazzling' LRB 'Fascinating' New Statesman 'An absolute must-read' GQ One of the most creative entrepreneurial periods since the Sixties, the era of the New Romantics grew out of the remnants of post-punk and developed quickly alongside club culture, ska, electronica, and goth. The scene had a huge influence on the growth of print and broadcast media, and was arguably one of the most bohemian environments of the late twentieth century. Not only did it visually define the decade, it was the catalyst for the Second British Invasion, when the US charts would be colonised by British pop music - making it one of the most powerful cultural exports since the Beatles. In Sweet Dreams, Dylan Jones charts the rise of the New Romantics through testimony from the people who lived it. For a while, Sweet Dreams were made of this.

The Encyclopedia of Popular Music
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music

Author: Colin Larkin

Publisher: Omnibus Press

Published: 2011-05-27

Total Pages: 4183

ISBN-13: 0857125958

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This text presents a comprehensive and up-to-date reference work on popular music, from the early 20th century to the present day.

More writing about music
More writing about music

Author: Neil Pace

Publisher: Neil Pace

Published: 2017-01-03

Total Pages: 153

ISBN-13:

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Around a year ago I published ‘Writing about music’ an anthology (which is just a posh way of saying ‘collection’) of writing previously published in varying forms in varying places, curated (which is just a posh way of saying ‘cobbled together’) into one volume. I’ve been living high on the royalties ever since. Or I would have been if anybody had been prepared to buy it. Like most items of dubious quality it has, however, proved mildly popular when given away free. This second volume, with the imaginative title of ‘More writing about music’, is similar to the first, a collection of gig and album reviews, interviews with ‘pop stars’ and a mish mash of other oddities. Includes interviews with Paul Carrack, Tom Smith, John Flansburgh (They Might Be Giants), Geoff Downes (Yes), Meilyr Jones, Frank Allen (The Searchers), Scorpio (Grandmaster’s Furious Five featuring Mele Mel and Scorpio), Glenn Gregory (Heaven 17) and Norman Blake (Teenage Fanclub).