One of the world's greatest blues guitarists, Stevie Ray Vaughan had a meteoric career, assisted by a high-profile collaboration with David Bowie, before his life was cruelly cut short in a helicopter crash in 1990 when he was only in his thirties. This tribute book prints extracts from interviews from Guitar World magazine, not only with SRV but also interviews with friends and collaborators including his bandmates bassist Tommy Shannon, drummer Chris Layton and keyboardist Reese Wynans. A highlight of the book is the "lost interviews" with Vaughan between 1986 and 1989 when he spoke revealingly to Andy Aledort. At the time he had just left the rehab centre which also helped his friend Eric Clapton. SRV reminisces about his first records by Hendrix, Buddy Guy, Muddy Waters and B. B. King. He describes how addiction had let his self-centredness and ego get out of control, particularly when everyone was telling him he was wonderful. The lyrics of blues numbers tended to emphasize hurt and pain, but Vaughan eventually found that some songs are kinder than others. On the road, he describes repeated technical problems with amps, and Vaughan ended up with a combination of a Dumble, a Marshall, a Bassman and a Super Reverb. He reminisces about the Montreux Jazz Festival of 1982 when Bowie said "Stevie was so complete, so vital and inventive with the form" and asked him to play on his next record, which turned out to be the smash hit Let's Dance. Bowie said their collaboration was one of the greatest musical experiences of his life. Vaughan's last show was opening for Clapton at the Alpine Valley Music Theatre in Wisconsin. He hitched a lift home with some of Clapton's team, who were all lost in the crash. 254pp, a Backbeat paperback, photos.

The music journalist has covered weird, rare and collectable records for Record Collector magazine and by mixing lo-fi charm into hi-fi science Scott's book is 'skipping with real analogue delight'. It is the story of recorded sound - the technological developments, the people that made them happen, and the impact they had on society, from the earliest inventions via the phonograph to LPs, EPs and the recent resurgence of vinyl. While Thomas Edison's phonograph represented an important turning point in the story of recorded sound, it came only after decades of invention, tinkering and experimentation. The book looks at the origins of record-playing machinery and the development of the first commercial discs. We learn about the rise of the LP record, the drama of competing speed and format wars, and the fall of the 7-inch, the story of a format repeatedly written off, threats from radio, tape, compact disc and download, vinyl only seems to endure and come back stronger. The story starts with grooves in tin foil in a workshop in New Jersey in 1877 and sees records evolving and blossoming to become a cornerstone for musical culture worldwide, and even into outer space. 320pp.

Taking in superstars such as Louis Armstrong, Bessie Smith and Frank Sinatra alongside the unheralded figures behind some of our most enduring songs, Stanley paints a stunning portrait of pop music's formative years, uncovering the silver threads and golden needles that bind the form together. Who were the earliest recording stars? Who were the likes of George Gershwin writing songs for? Why did swing, the hit sound for a decade or more, become almost obsolete after World War Two? 'An absolute landmark/joy/gossip-fest/door to Narnia: the history of pop music before rock'n'roll. Fascinating.' - Caitlin Moran. The prequel to Bob Stanley's Sunday Times bestselling 'Yeah Yeah Yeah', this is the only book that brings together all genres to tell the definitive story of the birth of pop, from 1900 and the invention of the 78 rpm record to the beginnings of rock and the modern pop age. There was the maximal rhythm of Count Basie and the minimal softness of Claude Thornhill; the furrowed Jerome Kern and the flighty P. G. Wodehouse; the bellow of Sophie Tucker and the squeak of Helen Kane; the Andes siren sound of Yma Sumac and the lounge-bound purr of Julie London; the rough Louis and the smooth Hutch, and throw in the silver threads of Billie Holiday and Rodgers & Hammerstein. It is an Anglo-American story, with early nods to sounds and styles from Vienna, together with outside influences from Hawaii, Cuba, Brazil and the tape recordings and technology brought home by victorious American soldiers. We will see how World War Two broke up swing bands, putting the post-war focus on solo singers like Frank Sinatra and Peggy Lee, and how Tin Pan Alley's infantilism in the 1950s left the door open for the schism of rock'n'roll. 636 magnificent pages, illustrated. Please note contents same as code 94500.

'Chess Records and the Business of Rock & Roll', Macher is a Yiddish word for a big wheel or an operator. On the South Side of Chicago in the late 1940s, two immigrants, one a Jew born in Russia, the other a black Blues singer from Mississippi, met and changed the course of musical history. Muddy Waters electrified the Blues, and Leonard Chess recorded it. Soon Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry added a dose of pulsating rhythm, and Chess Records captured that too. Rock & Roll had arrived, and an industry was born. In a book as vibrantly and exuberantly written as the music and people it portrays, Rich Cohen tells the engrossing story of how Chess, with the other record men, made this new sound into a multi-billion-dollar business, aggressively acquiring artists, strong-arming distributors, riding the crest of a wave that would crash over a whole generation. The book is full of absorbing lore and animated by a deep love for popular music - it's a big, tough, funny, clever story. Not politically correct, the book begins at a Bar Mitzvar and immediately draws connections between blacks and Jews. 220pp, photos.

This roller-coaster of a book is impossible to put down as the author tells the story of the charismatic entrepreneur Sam Phillips, who became his friend in 1979. Credited with inventing Rock 'n' Roll by launching Elvis's career, in 1952 Sam Phillips pioneered Sun Records in Memphis, a recording company specifically designed to bring forward Black talent. His commitment to all kinds of equality was later consolidated when he founded an all-female radio station. In 1950 Black artists had no place to go to record in the South, and Sam wanted to open up an area of freedom within the artistic community regardless of colour, so in 1952 Sam and Jimmy Connolly established Sun Records in his Memphis Recording Studios, with the help of Sam's wife Becky and her business acumen. For the first time the couple were able to own a house with their young sons Knox and Jerry. Sam recorded the best of Black and white talent, but unusually most of the behind-the-scenes workers were also Black. Jimmy Bragg, the world's champion smoke ring blower, was lead singer of the Prisonaires, inmates of the Tennessee state Penitentiary, and his song "Just walkin' in the rain" was a massive hit for the studio, putting them on the map locally and nationally. Howard Seratt's country gospel music was a new direction for Sam, who at the same time had not forgotten a kid who did a personal recording for his mother in the studio some years previously. He invited the nineteen year old Elvis to a session, which did not go well until Sam unearthed the old blues number "That's All right, Mama" and Elvis's voice really took off. Sales were phenomenal and a legend was born. By the late 50s Johnny Cash was another Memphis sensation. Jerry Lee Lewis was the most naturally talented person Sam had ever worked with, although he was an unstable performer and was ricocheting from marriage to marriage. Jerry went on the road with Chuck Berry, and although Jerry Lee was the undisputed headliner, they came to blows, sometimes literally, over who was going to close the show. A fascinating action-packed narrative. 763pp, discography, photos.

A companion to The Freewheelin' code 94044, we have from the same supplier acquired an absolute facsimile of the original Columbia 12" LP, the third studio album by the legendary American singer-songwriter. Whereas his previous albums 'Bob Dylan' and 'The Freewheelin''consisted of original material among cover songs, this third album was the first to feature only original compositions. It consists of mostly stark, sparkly arranged ballads concerning issues such as racism, poverty and social change in the spirit of social and political upheaval that characterised the 1960s. It is the work of a 22 year old who found his place for rousing protests such as the title track and 'When the Ship Comes In'. These songs are outnumbered by the equally powerful likes of Only A Pawn In Their Game, The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll and The Ballad of Hollis Brown. The other tracks are With God On Our Side, One Too Many Mornings, North Country Blues, Boots of Spanish Leather and Restless Farewell. This will bring all your memories flooding back and it sounds oh so much better on real vinyl. Includes Dylan Vinyl the Definitive Collection Part One magazine. These albums are retailing at

'Wainwright tells the story of the girl with the incredible voice who, by sheer force of her personality and power of her decibels, took the operatic world by storm and managed to escape from her violent husband.' - Daily Mail. This delightfully revisionist biography of Dame Nellie Melba rescues her from fusty Victorianism to analyse her struggles and resilience to overcome misogyny and social expectations and becoming one of history's greatest opera singers. Nellie Melba is remembered as a squarish, late middle-aged woman dressed in furs and large hats, an imperious Dame whose voice ruled the world for three decades and inspired a peach and raspberry dessert. She battled misogyny and perhaps would have preferred she stay a housewife in outback Queensland Australia rather than parade herself on stage. But she endured the violence of a bad marriage, was denied by scandal a true love with the would-be King of France, and suffered for more than a decade the loss of her only son - stolen by his angry, vengeful father. Despite these obstacles, Nellie built and maintained a career as an opera singer and businesswoman on three continents which made her one of the first international superstars. Award-winning biographer Wainwright presents a very different portrait of this great diva which celebrates both her musical contributions and her rich and colourful personal life. Includes many pictures including Nellie on her way to London in 1919 to reopen Covent Garden Opera House. 344pp.

Songs about animals like Year of the Cat by Al Stewart, outstanding cover versions like Aretha Franklin's Respect or Johnny Cash's Hurt, songs about dying, songs inspired by novels or siblings, about films, Monty Python songs like Every Sperm is Sacred, songs about God and Jesus like Led Zeppelin's Stairway to Heaven, songs about environmental matters like Joni Mitchell's Big Yellow Taxi, songs about the USA, countries, being broke, prostitution, acceptance, saying goodbye, getting dumped, other women like Dolly Parton's classic Jolene and iconic opening lines like 'Hello darkness, my old friend/I've come to talk with you again' written when Paul Simon was just 21 in his chosen spot for songwriting, his bathroom, with a tiled floor providing the perfect echo chamber for his guitar and voice. It's time to rock the Casbah, sway and sing along to all these mixed emotions and memories, some with lyrics worthy of a Nobel Prize for Literature, others raw and gritty. From Adele to Aretha, Jagger to Jarvis, Rufus to Rosalía, many are well known others a little more off-radar. Each list has a scannable Spotify code to access the music directly. With very cool portrait artworks throughout, 260pp.

A fun engaging and entertaining collection of facts, figures and miscellany from opera etiquette to the role of goats in opera, bible characters to favourite foods of the leading sopranos, test you knowledge with your fellow enthusiasts. If you are an absolute beginner it is a potpourri of the sublime and the ridiculous. Find out which opera is set on a planet called Doris, what prompted Rossini to burst into tears on a boating outing, which opera singers have appeared with the Muppets, how many Spanish women were seduced by Don Giovanni and more. With foreword by Lesley Garrett for all opera buffs and bluffers. 182pp, line art.

With the big swirly typeface 1970s lettering for their band name, utopian lyrics, dreamy artworks by Roger Dean on albums like Tales from Topographic Oceans, many music lovers have been moved by classic albums like Fragile, Close to the Edge, Relayer, Going for the One, or more recent offerings like Fly From Here and Heaven & Earth. This magical book perfectly captures the spirit of progressive rock's first, biggest and best band with original interviews from Jon Anderson, Bill Bruford, Steve Howe, Rick Wakeman, the late and great bassist Chris Squire and many others. The tales unfold via an exhaustive chronology designed to satisfy the most knowledgeable of Yes fans. You just might learn what 'Close to the Edge' actually means or why Alan White and Jon Anderson might be seen prowling the junkyard for car parts! Using a timeline format, the superb biographer Popoff disentangles the convoluted tale of the band's hirings and firings, their inside creations, live shows and triumphs, and studio victories as well as the occasional controversial failure such as when Anderson wanted to record 'Tales from Topographic Oceans' in the countryside so a cut-out cow was brought in. Popoff also gets the views of contemporaries such as Steve Hackett (Genesis), Bill Ward (Black Sabbath) and John Wetton (King Crimson, Asia et al) to provide a rounded view of the prog movement. Colour photos, 205pp, large softback.