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Gloucester Crescent is a curving, leafy street, tucked between Camden Town and Primrose Hill, filled with the sound of clacking typewriters and children playing. Unremarkable in many ways unless you notice the lady in the van outside one house and the familiar-looking famous residents crossing the road. The son of Jonathan Miller writes his memoir, written the eyes of a growing child, the story of a very particular family and their circle of brilliant, idealistic and intellectual friends in the London of the 1960s, 70s and 80s. William explores the back gardens of homes of his famous neighbours, attends dramatic rehearsals with his dad, fails exams and is bullied at school, gets drugs from the philosopher A. J. Ayer's wife, and tries to watch the moon landing with Alan Bennett and a room full of writers. But against this backdrop of lively anecdote and hitherto-unseen domestic detail, William struggles at school and at home and his at times heart-breaking memoir is about how we grow up and move on from our childhoods, and what happens when we come back. A funny, tender and moving story of a young boy trying to find his own identity, a memoir about love, life, art and whole of life. Wonderful. 336pp, paperback, photos and other illus.

The definitive portrait with unseen photographs by iconic photographer Terry O'Neill, this is like gazing through a window at the most extraordinary and exciting moments in Elton John's life complete with the madness and style. O'Neill worked for many years and took more than 5,000 photographs of Elton John from intimate back stage shots to huge stadium concerts. See Elton laden with packages leaving the Cartier shop for his Rolls Royce, during a soundcheck at the huge Dodge Stadium in Los Angeles where he truly did rock the world and had a football knockabout during rehearsals, under a huge fluffy rug on a bed reading Esquire and Penthouse magazines, wearing crazy glasses for a photo shoot aboard a plane, working with Gus Dudgeon at Caribou Ranch Recording Studio 1975, sharing a breakfast table with his white cat, signing his Captain Fantastic albums while watching TV at home, multifunctioning riding his stationary bicycle and taking phone calls in the bathroom, in sequin costumes, wearing designer labels, doing his trademark famous jump with hands still on the piano keyboard, with his long term collaborator Bernie Taupin, at home with his dogs in Windsor, dancing with Kiki Dee in 1976 when they released their classic duet, posing with his likeness in Madam Tussauds, with Diana Ross hosting the Rock Music Awards in 1975, posing with many famous names, behind the scenes at Watford Football Club, with his mother and grandmother and posing on locations such as the Palais Garnier Opera House in Paris. Elton John clearly loves the limelight! Truly a superb gallery, colour and atmospheric black and white, 256pp, 20.8 x 26cm.
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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.

The Garrick Theatre (telephone Southport 5000) poster entices listeners to come and hear the latest tunes by Joe Loss, see George Formby or watch Babes in the Wood at the Pier Pavilion. In a superb gallery of steam trains, we follow the rise of cinema and the decline of music halls, Morecambe and Wise getting their act together on a train while touring the provinces, the bread and butter circuit, the theatre architect extraordinaire Frank Matcham and right back to the good old days when Charles Dickens catches the train during Hard Times. This beautiful and nostalgic book by Lancashire-based social historian Hindle embraces more than 320 excellent colour photographs and black and white images of steam-hauled passenger trains that once conveyed passengers to the great Victorian and Edwardian music halls and variety theatres. Supported by copious variety bills, anecdotes and personal reminiscences, here are the seaside shows, the famous Blackpool Tower, the Moss Empire circuit and the infamous Glasgow Empire. Railways brought mass mobility for passengers long before the age of the car and special trains accommodated complex sets and all the paraphernalia to be transported for the performing companies around the country. They enabled famous London and northern-based performers such as Marie Lloyd to travel the country and reach their matinées and twice-nightly performances on time. The passing of Ken Dodd signalled the last of the genre of music hall performers and the end of an era, recorded beautifully in this 184 glossy page book. Colour. Satin pagemarker.

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.

A name many music lovers will know, legendary impresario Simon Napier-Bell takes us inside the world of popular music from sheet music to streaming. Not just a cradle for talent and expression, the music business has made people rich beyond their wildest dreams. Simon balances seductive anecdotes, pulling back the curtain on the gritty and absurd side of the industry, with an insightful exploration of the relationship between creativity and money. He describes the evolution of the industry from its birth in 1710 when the British Parliament first established the right of ownership in creative works, to the huge global market it has become today with streaming and downloads. You will uncover a treasure trove of musical facts including how a formula for writing hits in the 1900s which helped create 50,000 of the best-known songs of all time; how Jewish immigrants and Black jazz musicians dancing cheek-to-cheek established a template for all popular music that followed; and how rock tours became the biggest, quickest, sleaziest and most profitable ventures the industry had ever seen. We shine on this crazy diamond through the days of the American musical, Irving Berlin, pirating and other problems, dodgy producers, booze, the wireless, world wars, payola, record companies regrouping, Michael Jackson and Madonna, drugs and DJs, rap, the end of Classical and EMI, and new directions. With a cast of characters, and songs in chapter titles, index of quotations and bibliography. 388pp, paperback.