Music

Mark McAvoy explores the history of Cork rock music from the early days of legendary blues guitarist Rory Gallagher in the 1960s, through the Finbarr Donnelly led punk era of...

As a lead singer of Westlife, one of the biggest pop acts in recent years, Shane Filan was on top of the world. Together with the band, he achieved 14...

When Sam Cooke was shot dead in a cheap motel in Hollywood, he was one of America's most successful pop stars. He left a world in which he had been...

As he did in the acclaimed Finishing the Hat, Sondheim richly annotates his lyrics with personal and theatre history, discussions of his collaborations, and exacting, charming dissections of his work...

The Sunday Times bestseller.David Bowie was arguably the most influential artist of his time, reinventing himself again and again, transforming music, style and art for over five decades. David Buckley's...

The old school register for Soho Parish Primary school has a note in the margin recording that five-year-old John Simon Ritchie turned up for his first day at school unaccompanied...

Madonna: singer, songwriter, actress, businesswoman, not to mention one of the most renowned cultural icons of the last three decades. Since her first, eponymous album, over thirty years ago Madonna...

By the late 1960s, popular British prog-rock outfit Pink Floyd were experiencing a creative voltage drop, so they turned to composer Ron Geesin for help in writing their next album....

'Hello, I'm Stephen Fry. Now time for the first outing of a brand, spanking new feature here on The Incomplete and Utter History of Classical Music... putting some unsuspecting figure...

Five decades in the music industry, 100 albums, 10 Grammys, the Kennedy Center Honors, and the Country Music Hall of Fame. Add high-profile activism for the legalisation of marijuana, the...

This is the unvarnished, complete story of Willie Nelson's life, told in his distinct voice and leaving no moment or experience unturned, from Texas and Nashville to Hawaii and his...

Blue OEyster Cult On Track is a song-by-song analysis of the discography of Long Island's greatest sons, the Blue OEyster Cult. Dubbed "the thinking man's heavy metal band" and celebrated...

A MUST-HAVE COLLECTION OF RARE AND UNSEEN PHOTOGRAPHS OF KATE BUSH.WITH ESSAYS BY HER BROTHER, JOHN CARDER BUSH, ABOUT KATE'S LIFE AND CAREER.Stunning and unique images from throughout Kate Bush's...

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...

Drawing on the personal archives of Celine and her family, this collector's edition compiles beautiful and elegant photographs of the performer with some of her favorite mementos.* Includes more than...

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...