Secondhand Music Books

"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,...

'The rock memoir of the decade' Daily Mail'The rock star's gloriously entertaining and candid memoir is a gift to the reader' Sunday TimesIn his first and only official autobiography, music...

Rory Gallagher is regarded as one of the greatest guitarists of all time. He was a dazzling showman, an accomplished songwriter, and a champion of blues music.His career began in...

1973 was the year rock hit its peak while splintering - just like the rest of the world. Ziggy Stardust travelled to America in David Bowie's Aladdin Sane. The Dark...

Dublin's Thin Lizzy have become one of the most revered cult acts of all time, studious and discerning fans of hard rock the world over revelling in the storytelling acumen...

The Beatles are still the most popular band of all time - they topped all the Millennium polls This is the first book to be produced with the full co-operation...

The Woman in Me is a brave and astonishingly moving story about freedom, fame, motherhood, survival, faith, and hope. In June 2021, the whole world was listening as Britney Spears...

Seven brothers and sisters. All of them classically trained musicians. One was Young Musician of the Year and performed for the royal family. The eldest has released her first album,...

The Philosophy of Modern Song is Bob Dylan's first book of new writing since 2004's Chronicles: Volume One - and since winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016. Dylan,...

Unfaithful Music and Disappearing Ink is the long-awaited memoir from Elvis Costello, one of rock and roll's most iconic stars.Born Declan Patrick MacManus, Elvis Costello was raised in London and...

'Fascinating . . . a must-read' MojoAs bass player with the Specials, in his second-hand suit and pork pie hat, Horace Panter was a member of one of the most...

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...

The Chieftains have become international superstars as well as being an institution in Folk Music. They have performed and recorded with such stars such as Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, The...

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...

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...

The visionary choreographer and dancer Isadora Duncan (1877-1927) not only revolutionized dance in the twentieth century but blazed a path for other visionaries who would follow in her wake. While...

THE NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER 'Writing about yourself is a funny business...But in a project like this, the writer has made one promise, to show the reader his mind. In these...

There are few artists who inspire such reverence as Kim Gordon. In Girl in a Band she tells with complete openness the story of her family, her work in the...

Spanning Tom Waits' extraordinary 40-year career, from Closing Time to Orphans, Lowside of the Road is Barney Hoskyns' unique take on one of rock's great enigmas. Like Bob Dylan and...

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...

* No artist offered a more incisive and accurate portrait of the troubled landscape of the 1970s than David Bowie. Through his multi-faceted and inventive work, he encapsulated many of...

"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...

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...

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...

From The Police's earliest days together to their final tour, photographer Lynn Goldsmith had unparalleled access to Sting, Stewart Copeland and Andy Summers, capturing their meteoric and often turbulent rise...

Among the noise and clamour of the Britpop era, Blur co-founder Graham Coxon managed to carve out a niche to become one of the most innovative and respected guitarists of...

Record covers are a sign of our life and times. Like the music on the discs, they address such issues as love, life, death, fashion, and rebellion. For music fans...

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:...

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....

Few other bands in the history of pop music have been as successful as The Beatles. In little under a decade, the four young men from Liverpool, who began their...

This is a fully updated and concise edition of the six-volume encyclopedia in one volume. With over 3000 entries the book aims to answer any query about any aspect of...

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...

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...

Described as the Irish John Peel, Dave Fanning has been a major player in the Irish and global music scene for over 30 years. In this compelling memoir, RTE Radio...

Known collectively as The Priests, Fr Martin, Fr Eugene and Fr David, have taken the music world by storm. Since they signed their much-reported Sony contract in front of Westminster...

'I was saying things in songs that female singers didn't really say back then. I wasn't submissive or begging him to come back, I was kicking his ass, kicking him...

The must-read music book of the year, as heard on Steve Lamacq, The Times Radio & 5LIVE, and extracted in Rolling Stone & the Daily Telegraph'Required reading' Irish Times 'Electrifying'...

Finally the definitive biography that Frank Sinatra, justly termed 'The Entertainer of the Century,' deserves and requires. Like Peter Guralnick on Elvis, Kaplan goes behind the legend to give us...

From his allegiance to punk rock in his adolescence to becoming an essential voice on music and culture, Kelefa Sanneh makes a deep study of how popular music unites and...

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...