Music

SHORTLISTED FOR THE COSTA BIOGRAPHY AWARD 2016 'Celebratory and elegiac' Guardian 'A roller-coaster memoir' Sunday Times 'Funny, anecdote-packed, nostalgic but also very touching' The Pool'Patterson fillets out the pretentious bones...

With Duran Duran, John Taylor has created some of the greatest songs of our time. From the disco dazzle of debut single 'Planet Earth' right up to their latest number...

I wonder, "Why me? Why have I survived?"' Eric Clapton, Rolling Stone, 1991The million-selling, Grammy award-winning master of the blues guitar, Eric Clapton still generates the kind of adulation that...

**THE DEFINITIVE, UP-TO-DATE BIOGRAPHY OF FREDDIE MERCURY**'An outstanding biography. . .a fitting testament to the creative genius' -- Daily Mail'Touches all manner of intriguing rock 'n' roll debauchery. . .fascinating...

As the lead guitarist of Queen, Brian May is one of rock's most recognisable stars. Brian May: the definitive biography charts his life from his childhood, through his years studying...

From his first guitar at age 13 and his early days on the Bournemouth music scene, to his relationships and encounters in London and the US with Zoot Money's Big...

Before The Sex Pistols, before The Clash, before The Ramones, there was Patti Smith. The poet laureate of punk, she burst onto a vacuous music scene in the mid-1970s with...

Michael Buble is an international singing sensation. Since his debut in 2003, he has sold 18 million albums, won numerous awards (including a Grammy), reached the top 10 in the...

George Michael is an enigma. While he is one of the most open and vocal pop superstars on the planet, he also fiercely protective of his privacy. From the formation...

Edith Piaf was one of the most greatly loved singers of the twentieth century. From the start of her exceptional career in the 1930s, her waif-like form and heart-wrenching voice...

Far beyond its immediate image of robed choirs, Gospel - through its solo singers and quartets, its impresarios and recording companies - has helped to give voice to the history...

Life changed for Michael Francis at the age of 21 when Paul McCartney walked into his father's boxing gym to watch his friend John Conteh preparing for a fight. Paul...

Step into the tumultuous world of music stardom with this collection of obituaries from The Times. From the rock'n'roll pioneers of the 1950s, to the pop superstars of the 21st...

Many millions of words have already been written about Guns N' Roses, the old line-up, the new line-up. But none of them have ever really gotten to the truth. Which...

The making of Music is the story of our musical history, its origins and how it has shaped us. We have all grown up with a common background noise, whether...

He left KoRn to help himself. He went back to help others. And along the way, he nearly lost everything.A life-changing spiritual awakening freed Brian "Head" Welch from a stranglehold...

'A thorough, objective telling of McCartney's story - in and out of the most famous band ever.' ESQUIREThe first biography written with McCartney's approval and with access to family members...

'I've been on six-week tours of America and it breaks you open, but to do it straight off the bat, in the middle of winter, with three new girls... I...

Waging Heavy Peace is the remarkable memoir of rock icon Neil YoungNeil Young is a singular figure in the history of rock and pop culture in the last four decades,...

X-Factor judge, Louis Walsh, has managed acts such as Westlife, Girls Aloud, Shayne Ward and G4. He formerly steered Boyzone to chart topping success and also propelled Ronan Keating to...

Now for the first time, INXS band members tell their own story about the meeting (and sometimes clashing) of minds that produced their music. In this gritty, in-depth narrative, one...

A new edition as part of the Faber Greatest Hits - books that have taken writing about music in new and exciting directions for the twenty-first century.Spanning Tom Waits' extraordinary...

Sunday Times Classical Music Book of the YearA landmark biography of the Polish composer by one of the world's leading authorities on Chopin and his timeBased on ten years of...

At the launch party for her memoir in 2014, the musician Viv Albertine received news that her mother was dying, and spent a few final hours with the woman who...

How does music reflect the key moments in our lives? How do we choose the works that inspire, delight, comfort or console? Fiona Maddocks selects 100 classical works from across...

A new edition of Humphrey Burton's celebrated biography of Leonard Bernstein, published to coincide with the centenary of his birth. With a new introduction by the author.'Humphrey Burton's biography remains...

Born in New York City in 1935, Peggy Seeger enjoyed a childhood steeped in music and politics. Her father was the noted musicologist Charles Seeger; her mother, the modernist composer...

In 2008 Paul Robertson, the renowned violinist and leader of the Medici Quartet, suffered a ruptured aorta. After dying for a lengthy period on the operating table, he remained in...

Robert Schumann was far ahead of his time, not least in his attitude to children and young people; his 'Advice for Young Musicians', originally created to accompany his famous 'Album...

How does music reflect the key moments in our lives? How do we choose the works that inspire, delight, comfort or console? Fiona Maddocks selects 100 classical works from across...

Emerging from the jazz clubs of the early '50s, skiffle - a uniquely British take on American folk and blues - caused a sensation among a generation of kids who...

SHORTLISTED FOR THE COSTA BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARDS 2018'Fierce, direct, unashamed. She masks nothing ... Scythes through the myths, the distortions, the adornments and finds the rich, distinctive stories...

Since 2000, when this biography was first published, Menuhin's name has not faded from public attention, as often happens in the decades after the death of a popular performing artist....

SHORTLISTED FOR THE PENDERYN MUSIC BOOK PRIZE 2017The Rise, The Fall, and The Rise is the extraordinary story, in her own words, of Brix Smith Start. Best known for her...

Mike Love is a founding member of the Beach Boys and the lead singer and lyricist of their biggest hits. With their lush vocals and endlessly inventive arrangements, the band...

Mike Love is a founding member, lyricist and vocalist of The Beach Boys, considered to be the most popular American band in history, with 13 Gold Albums, 55 top-100 singles,...

Rapturous in its ability to depict the creative process, Words Without Music allows readers to experience that sublime moment of creative fusion when life merges with art. Biography lovers will...

There were many reasons Moby was never going to make it as a DJ and musician in the New York club scene of the late 1980s and early 90s. This...

'They are not for you but for a later age!' Ludwig van Beethoven, on the Opus 59 quartetsBeethoven's sixteen string quartets are some of the most extraordinary and challenging pieces...

'They are not for you but for a later age!' Ludwig van Beethoven, on the Opus 59 quartets Beethoven's sixteen string quartets are some of the most extraordinary and challenging...

The only in-depth biographical account of the legendary lead singer of Joy Division, written by his widow. Includes a foreword by Jon Savage and an introduction by Joy Division drummer,...

In the early nineties, a group of disaffected and fiercely political young men from the Welsh valleys exploded onto a British music scene still in thrall to rave and acid...

Think 'Woodstock' and the mind turns to the seminal 1969 festival. But Woodstock itself was over sixty miles away, and already a key location in the rock landscape as a...