Product Description

Rock music, since its pre-history in blues, country music and 40s and early 50s pop, through to the well-publicised excesses of touring bands of today, has left a legacy of thousands of weird and wonderful stories in its wake. We've all read about the Who's Keith Moon driving a Rolls Royce into a hotel swimming pool, but far more bizarre tales of on-the-road mayhem have never been widely told. Likewise, Svengali-like managers have manipulated star-struck musicians since rock began, though hanging your well-known client from a third floor window was a less usual way of ensuring their loyalty. And just where was the stalled hotel lift in which all four Beatles, according to legend, were turned on to marijuana? There are the unsung heroes of rock - pioneering eccentrics who helped make the music what it is and ended up as mere footnotes in the history books. Men such as UK producer Joe Meek who created seminal classics from a bed-sit above a cleaners on the Holloway Road, and the New York DJ who originally coined the phrase 'rock 'n'roll' and died in alcoholic poverty. Not to mention the stories behind the stars: when Debbie Harry was a 'Playboy' Bunny, Paul Simon wrote 'Homeward Bound' on Widnes railway station in Lancashire, and the Gallagher brothers (so they claim) were petty thieves.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #345928 in Books
• Published on: 2006-04-27
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Review
"An accessible format . . . and reader-friendly prose." --"Alarm"

About the Author
With a background as a musician on the Sixties rock scene, Mike Evans began writing about popular music in the Seventies as a broadcaster in local radio and freelance writer, his work appearing in 'Sounds', 'Elle', and as a regular contributor to 'Melody Maker'. As author his books have included the much-acclaimed 'The Art of the Beatles' in 1984, the best-selling 'Elvis: A Celebration' (2002), 'NYC Rock: Rock'n'Roll in the Big Apple' and 'Waking Up In New York City' (2003), 'The Marilyn Handbook' (2004) and 'Ray Charles: The Birth Of Soul' to be published in August 2005. He lives in London SW6.

Customer Reviews

Very entertaining.
Although I knew a lot of the things in this book, it added to my knowledge on most of them and I learnt a lot of things that were totally new to me. It's well presented in an entertaining and easy to read way. I'd recommend it to any rock/pop music lover that wants to have a laugh and learn a little. An ideal stocking filler.