Authors Catherine and David Stafford’s new title on one of Britain’s most important bass players, Ronnie Lane (1946-1997), successfully fills some information gaps rock music lovers may have encountered, concerning show biz and London’s music scene of the 1960s and 70s. Their Anymore for Anymore: The Ronnie Lane Story tells of his humble beginnings as […]
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Tag: Mods
The Rebel’s Wardrobe. The Untold Story of Menswear’s Renegade Past by gestalten et als. (eds.) (2022
Lots of items from modern men’s wardrobes come loaded with history, were featured in cult movies worn by famous actors or have a past strongly connected to popular culture. Even if many are not aware of that. Everyday apparel, such as the base cap, Dr. Marten’s boots, a pair of jeans, chinos or the leather […]
Paul Weller and Popular Music. Identity, Idiolect and Image by Andrew West (2023)
There is hardly another active English musician who can look back on a catalog of great music and social comment like Paul Weller, former front man of significant bands of the 1970s, 1980s and well-known solo artist of the 2000s, and also as a political voice addressing important issues. On roughly 160 pages author Andrew […]
All or Nothing: The Authorised Story of Steve Marriott: by Simon Spence (2021)
The careers of many heroes of the British Invasion and musicians of the 1960s have been adequately documented in books, films and memoirs. Some performers, nevertheless, have still not yet received the attention and the praise they deserve. If there was a reliable ranking of the best British soul/blues singers of all times, it could […]
A Band with Built-In Hate: The Who from Pop Art to Punk by Peter Stanfield (2021)
The story of The Who, a band that stared out as The Detours and the High Numbers, is probably the best example of a group that combined an innovative stage show that incorporated ideas borrowed from art theory with a strong dialogue directed at a style-minded fan base and consumer culture. “Across The Who’s first […]
Ready Steady Go!: The Weekend Starts Here … by Andy Neill (2020)
What was set up as a somewhat risky experiment featuring unusual approaches towards audiences, concepts and TV viewing habits, the live broadcast of the London based production Ready, Steady, Go! became probably the best pop TV show ever. As it united a fresh concept of live music (although until 1965, bands were only miming their […]
Heart Full of Soul. Keith Relf of the Yardbirds by David French (2020)
In the southwest of London, in 1962 a young Richmond band called The Metropolis Blues Quartet was staring to become England’s probably most innovative rock band. This band would become the nucleus of a guitar based outfit that later significantly altered music history and start, among other things, the American psychedelic and garage rock period. […]
Five Years Ahead of My Time: Garage Rock from the 1950s to the Present by Seth Bovey (2019)
The Third Bardo’s 1967 song “Five Years Ahead of My Time,” a musical gem by the psychedelic garage band from New York is the eponym for this book, as the many garage bands of the 1960s laid the foundations for American Rock music. The word “garage” in this context actually describes their foremost place of […]
The Northern Soul Scene by Sarah E. Raine et al. (eds.) (2019)
Only a few recent local dance scenes gained enough influence on a global scale, so they could be called some sort of movement; with powerful and addictive rhythms, strong horn sections, strings, highly emotional (shouted) lyrics, an overall richly decorated studio sound, a positive outlook (in the lyrics), a genre of late-1960s soul music, played […]