Secondhand Music Books

One afternoon, in 1994, I had an idea.So begins Stuart David's magical, evocative memoir about Belle and Sebastian. Determined to make his living writing stories and songs, Stuart had spent...

The extraordinary life of Cher can be told by only one person ... Cher herself. After more than seventy years of fighting to live her life on her own terms,...

London. Wham! Pop, glitz and glamour. And two girls with stars in their eyes.Our friendship began one windy day in 1982, outside Finsbury Park tube. It was an instant like...

"Having been a songwriter most of my life, condensing my ideas and emotions into short rhyming couplets and setting them to music, I had never really considered writing a book,...

With the Rolling Stones, Keith Richards created the riffs, the lyrics and the songs that roused the world, and over four decades he lived the original rock and roll life:...

"Not only is it the best song I ever wrote, it's the best song anybody ever wrote." Irving Berlin, 1942. This book provides both the story behind the making of...

In 1994 punk rock trio Green Day were on top of the world with DOOKIE, their massive hit album. They were loud, fast, bratty, pissed off, hopeless, truthful, drunk, maybe...

Throughout his life Mozart was inspired, fascinated, amused, aroused, hurt, disappointed and betrayed by women; and he appeared equally fascinating to them. But, first and last, Mozart loved and respected...

From a Tesco check-out to the X Factor stage ... Mary Byrne has lived every undiscovered singer's dream.With a voice of pure gold, Mary Byrne took X Factor by storm....

The eagerly awaited follow-up to the best-selling Why Beethoven Threw the Stew.What did Haydn's wife use for curling-paper for her hair?What did Schubert do with his old spectacles case?Why was...

___________'Incredibly tense and thriller-like . . . I totally recommend it' LEE CHILD'The dialogue is punchy, cinematic . . . we get inside the mind of Patterson's villain, the delusional...

The definitive story of The Stone Roses by Simon Spence, with an updated final chapter covering the reunion rollercoaster ride. From the Manchester backwaters to the worldwide 2012 tour, War...

The remarkable autobiography of the last great wartime icon. Born Vera Welch on 20 March, 1917 in the East End of London, Dame Vera Lynn's career was set from an...

Bruce Springsteen turned fifty in 1999--the same year he was inducted into both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame. He remains one of...

'For a lot of years, I've answered a lot of questions, but have never told my story before.'Across six decades, Sir Tom Jones has maintained a vital career in a...

'Squirm-inducing, excruciatingly honest and painfully funny' Joseph O'ConnorWe all went to school with friends who've turned out more successful than ourselves. But they don't all phone from improbably glamorous places...

The genius behind such classic songs as "Suzanne", "Bird on the Wire" and "Hallelujah", Leonard Cohen has been one of the most important and influential songwriters of our time, a...

The definitive list of the most popular albums since the 1950s. Each full-colour entry includes full track listing, band members, number one singles, recording data and album history.

After 3 decades of groundbreaking music Bruce Springsteen still manages to amaze audiences around the world with his live shows and bring new fans to his music with every album...

Pete Townshend wrote 'Hope I die before I get old' in 1965 and took the Who to the top of the world in 1969's smash hit Tommy. He was inducted...

For the first time ever, Melanie C, aka Sporty Spice, tells her amazing life story in her own words and gives a full and honest account of what life was...

Margot Fonteyn - born plain Peggy Hookham - was dreamed into existence by the architects of British ballet: Ninette de Valois, Frederick Ashton and Constant Lambert. Carried to fame on...

The remarkable autobiography of the last great wartime icon. Born Vera Welch on 20 March, 1917 in the East End of London, Dame Vera Lynn's career was set from an...

"Looking at Terry's photographs is like gazing through a window at the most extraordinary and exciting moments of my life."ELTON JOHNElton John and iconic photographer Terry O'Neill worked together for...

Grammy Award-winning singer Angelique Kidjo is known for her electrifying voice and fearless advocacy work. In this intimate memoir, she reveals how she escaped Communist Africa to make her dreams...

The bestselling author of Call Her Miss Ross, J. Randy Taraborrelli knows and understands Diana better than any other writer and tells her story in vivid detail in a no-holds-barred...

Anthony Reynolds' fascinating and detailed biography draws on scores of new interviews conducted with Cohen's band members past and present, his business associates, editors, friends, fans, producers, colleagues, enemies and...

On January 13, 1968, Johnny Cash (1932-2003) took the stage at Folsom Prison in Folsom, California. The concert and the live album, Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison , propelled him...

Gary Giddins has been called "the best jazz writer in America today" ( Esquire ). Louis Armstrong has been called the most influential jazz musician of the century. Together this...

'One of the greatest music photographers of all time...this book is indispensable to anyone who is a fan of Morrissey, or of great photography 'Classic Pop magazine'Unsurprisingly, given Cummin's history,...

'You the funkiest man alive.' Miles Davis' accolade was the perfect expression of John Lee Hooker's apotheosis as blues superstar: recording with the likes of Van Morrison, Keith Richards and...

Mozart's famous opera is the starting point, though not always the destination, for this collection of specially commissioned essays on the Don Giovanni story. This is not an "academic" book,...

Emerging from the potent musical legacy of Nirvana and the emotional fallout of Kurt Cobain's suicide, the Foo Fighters established themselves - against all the odds - as one of...

From the author of KYLIE CONFIDENTIAL, comes the first ever in-depth biography of one of Britain's biggest pop icons This first full length major biography of one of pop's biggest...

Classic FM's Big Book of Classical Music is a fully illustrated book detailing each day of the year in classical music - the perfect coffee table companion for any classical...

James Rhodes' passion for music has been his absolute lifeline. It has been the thread that has held him together through a life that has encompassed pain, conflict and turmoil....

After leaving Wernham-Hogg, David Brent has been working as a rep selling cleaning (and ladies personal hygiene) products up and down the country, but he hasn't given up his dream...

With the song 'Rise Like a Phoenix', Thomas Neuwirth - better known to the world as Conchita Wurst - stormed to victory in 2014's Eurovision Song Contest. The bearded drag...

So you think you know everything there is to know about One Direction? It's time to put your knowledge to the test and discover if you are genuine super-fan! Directioners...

Daniel O'Donnell is a musical phenomenon, with millions of dedicated fans on both sides of the Atlantic. Following the tremendous success of his autobiography and the illustrated My Pictures and...

Including over 500 composers and discussing in depth the music of 350 of them, this dictionary is arranged by country, from Argentina and Austria to the Ukraine and the USA....