The story of Status Quo is essentially the story of two people: Francis Rossi and Rick Parfitt. It is the story of two outwardly very different characters--Rossi, the moody insecure one, and Parfitt, the smiling, permanently at ease golden boy--who forged an unlikely yet enduring bond that would see them through the dizzying highs and terrifying lows of a forty-year career. Now they are prepared to tell it all--the groupies, the drug-taking, the marriage breakdowns, and Parfitt's brush with death when he was forced to undergo bypass surgery.
Do you have an uneasy sense that you are being manipulated every day and being misled? You are, and you aren’t alone. Every day, we’re bombarded by statements, questionable reasoning, emotional pleas, and (very) selective data. These are employed by the media, politicians, public figures, and marketers in an effort to draw you to their side of the argument. At times, you may want to wave the white flag of surrender in the war for truth. Maybe there is no truth? Maybe there are many—sometimes contradictory—truths. It doesn’t feel like that could be possible, but how else do you reconcile these very articulate but diametrically opposing viewpoints and data? By developing critical analytical skills and learning what it means to be rational, you’ll be able to weigh the merits of the opposing viewpoints and more easily see gaps in others’ arguments. Being rational requires honesty and a sincere effort to determine what is true and what is not as a basis for making decisions. What are you going to do about being manipulated and misled? Learn what being rational means, how to think rationally, and develop skills to determine valid data and to have a truly rational discussion. Seeing Through the Bumpf will help you become an informed and thoughtful analyst of the daily bombardment that comes your way.
Quo are the most successful band in British history after the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. From 1973 to the mid-80s they had a string of hits, including "Down, Down", "Rockin' All Over the World", "Again and Again", "What You're Proposing" - all classic rock anthems. When the band imploded, and the other members left, Rossi and Parfitt reinvented Quo for the 90s and kept going, touring constantly and winning new fans. The story of Status Quo is essentially the story of two people: Francis Rossi and Rick Parfitt. It is the story of two outwardly very different characters - Rossi, the moody insecure one, Parfitt, the smiling, permanantly at ease golden boy - who against the odds forged an unlikely yet enduring bond that would see them through the dizzying highs and terrifying lows of a forty-year career. Rossi and Parfitt admit that in the past they've hidden some of the truth about their lives, unable to admit how out of control things were even to themselves. Now they tell it all - the drug-taking, the marriage breakdowns, Parfitt's brush with death when he was forced to undergo by-pass surgery. From their early days as a sixties "boy band" through the massive international success of the seventies to the present day, this is an explosive no-holds-barred autobiography from two of Britain's most enduring rock stars.
“Surely make you lose your mind…” So the Eagles warn us about the outrageous and ruthless lifestyle of the ambitious rock-n-roller. In fact, Don Henley could barely listen to the track “Life in the Fast Lane” when they were recording it. He was so high that it made him sick. The band that embodied the American dream with globe-straddling success, impossibly luxurious lives, and almost supernatural talent also descended into nightmare with bloodletting betrayal, hate-filled hubris, the skeletons of perceived enemies, brutally discarded lovers and former band mates left unburied in the road behind them. The Eagles’ story is a truly gothic American fable: one of ultimate power and rivers of money; of sex and drugs at a time when both were the lingua-franca of sophisticated So-Cal living; of a band who sang of peaceful easy feelings in public while threatening to kill each other in private. Now, legendary rock journalist Mick Wall delivers definitive insight into America's best-selling band of all time, a band that has sold more records than Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones combined, exploring their meteoric rise to fame and the hedonistic days of the 70s music scene in LA, when American music was taking over the world.
The first significant fresh reporting on the legendary band in twenty years, built on interviews with all surviving band members and revealing a never-before-seen side of the genius and debauchery that defined their heyday. Veteran rock journalist Mick Wall unflinchingly tells the story of the band that pushed the envelope on both creativity and excess, even by rock ‘n' roll standards. Led Zeppelin was the last great band of the 1960s and the first great band of the 1970s—and When Giants Walked the Earth is the full, enthralling story of Zep from the inside, written by a former confidante of both Jimmy Page and Robert Plant. Rich and revealing, it bores into not only the disaster, addiction and death that haunted the band but also into the real relationship between Page and Plant, including how it was influenced by Page's interest in the occult. Comprehensive and yet intimately detailed, When Giants Walked the Earth literally gets into the principals' heads to bring to life both an unforgettable band and an unrepeatable slice of rock history.
'Unflinching, forthright and full of wry humour as the man himself, and there's little praise greater than that' CLASSIC ROCK 'Wall's vision of Lemmy as a Rock'n'Roll stalwart who made no concessions is vivid to the last' GUARDIAN In 'The Ace of Spades', Motörhead's most famous song, Lemmy, the born-to-lose, live-to-win frontman of the band sang, 'I don't want to live forever'. Yet as he told his friend of 35 years, former PR and biographer Mick Wall, 'Actually, I want to go the day before forever. To avoid the rush...'. This is his strange but true story. Brutally frank, painfully funny, wincingly sad, and always beautifully told, LEMMY: THE DEFINITIVE BIOGRAPHY is the story of the only rock'n'roller never to sell his soul for silver and gold, while keeping the devil, as he put it, 'very close to my side'. From school days growing up in North Wales, to first finding fame in the mid-60s with the Rockin' Vicars; from being Jimi Hendrix's personal roadie ('I would score acid for him'), to leading Hawkwind to the top of the charts in 1972 with 'Silver Machine' ('I was fired for taking the wrong drugs'); from forming Motörhead ('I wanted to call the band Bastard but my manager wouldn't let me'), whose iconoclastic album NO SLEEP 'TIL HAMMERSMITH entered the UK charts at No. 1. Based on Mick's original interviews with Lemmy conducted over numerous years, along with the insights of those who knew him best - former band mates, friends, managers, fellow artists and record business insiders - this is an unputdownable story of one of Britain's greatest characters. As Lemmy once said of Wall, 'Mick Wall is one of the few rock writers in the world who can actually write and seems to know anything about rock music. I can and do talk to him for hours - poor bastard.' With the hard part of his journey now over, Lemmy is set to become a legend. LEMMY: THE DEFINITIVE BIOGRAPHY explains exactly how that came to be.
This is the powerful, detailed and enlightening biography of the iconic composer, singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist - the inimitable Prince. Prince was an icon. A man who defined an era of music and changed the shape of popular culture forever. There is no doubt that he was one of the most talented and influential artists of all time, and also one of the most mysterious. On 21st April 2016 the world lost its Prince; it was the day the music died. This book will open a door to Prince's world like never before - from his traumatic childhood and demonic pursuit of music as a means of escape, to his rise to superstardom, professional rivalries and marriages shrouded in tragedy, internationally bestselling music writer Mick Wall explores the historical, cultural and personal backdrop that gave rise to an artist the likes of which the world has never seen - and never will again. Mick, a lifelong Prince fan, was one of the first UK journalists to ever write about this enigmatic star, and it was his story that put Prince on the cover of Kerrang magazine in 1984 and inspired the biggest mailbag of letters the magazine has ever had. As Prince sang in '7', 'no one in the whole universe will ever compare', and this book is a shining tribute to the forever incomparable Prince.
