Books

The Blondie guitarist charts his drug-fuelled journey from young punk to pop pioneer with charming nonchalance

For fifty years as DJ, producer and remixer, Arthur Baker has been at the pioneering forefront of hip-hop, rock, and electronic music

This is the iconic Josephine Baker in her own words. Funny, candid and unconventional: the wildly famous but elusive Josephine Baker tells her own story in this enchanting memoir.

Between the late '60s and early '80s, design house Hipgnosis created some of the most iconic and ubiquitous album artwork of all time.

Alan Edwards, the godfather of British music PR, has worked with some of the most legendary artists of our time, from David Bowie to the Spice Girls via the Rolling Stones, the Stranglers, Prince and Amy Winehouse.

Lawrence is the greatest pop star who never made it, his dreams of glory thwarted over the past five decades by bad luck and self-sabotage

An Evangelist's Guide to Late 20th Century Underground Music

Wildfire tells the story of the first decade of The Prodigy from the perspective of original member Leeroy Thornhill.

Through cultural theory, historical research, and original interviews with key figures and collaborators in the UK rap scene, from pioneers like Malcolm McLaren, Soul II Soul, Tricky, Roots Manuva, and Roll Deep to modern artists like Dave, CASISDEAD, Little Simz, Loyle Carner, and Skengdo x AM, adds a rich human dimension to the UK rap story — one that helped change British music and culture forever.

Selling The Night witnesses how ideas migrate from subculture to influence the creative industries. It searches for lessons in improving the value exchange between dance music and brands, seeking something more symbiotic and less parasitic. All the while, it celebrates what makes after-dark ideas so special – the unique and democratising role they play.

"Suzi gets as close to Bowie as anyone. Pulls few punches"

My Family and Other Rock Stars is Tiff's remarkable, truly unique story of growing up in a rural idyll, of Cordon Bleu cookery and of a childhood where the chances of bumping into Freddie Mercury playing piano, or a group of Hell's Angels turning up to record for Lemmy, or even the hope of David Bowie appearing, were as normal as hopscotch and homework.

An inspiring memoir-manifesto from one of the UK’s leading DJs. WITH A NEW FOREWORD BY ANNIE MAC

A landmark social history of British rap and grime - from the artists and communities who created and were shaped by the music, to the listeners who found a sense of identity and home within it. WITH A NEW FOREWORD BY GARY YOUNGE

A revelatory look at the tumultuous life of a jazz legend and American cultural icon

1959 saw Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bill Evans, and the other members of Miles's sextet come together to record the seminal jazz album of all time Kind of Blue. 3 Shades of Blue is a magnificent, blended biography on the meandering paths which led Miles, Coltrane and Evans to the mountaintop of...

The story of recorded sound - the technological developments, the people that made them happen and the impact they had on society - from the earliest inventions via the phonograph to LPs, EPs and the recent resurgence of vinyl.

Available in this new hardback edition for the first time in decades, Sweet Soul Music was hailed by Newsweek on publication as 'a stunning chronicle.... a panoramic survey of a lost world [and] one of the best books ever written on American popular music'.

Before she became Smokin Jo – the most famous and visible of the first generation of ‘superstar DJs’ – Joanne Joseph was a young girl growing up in a children’s home with her sister. Until her mother returned and whisked the siblings away just before secondary school to a flat on the Portobello R...

'I doubt I'll ever read a better account of the history and sociology of popular music than this one.' Brian Eno

Between 1976 and 2019 we worked with over 200 different bands and artists, creating many hundreds of covers, all with a story... the book covers (sorry) just some of them. Full colour throughout

When hip-hop first emerged in the 1970s, it wasn't expected to become the cultural force it is today. But for a young Black kid growing up in a musical family in Philadelphia, it was everything. He stayed up late to hear the newest songs on the radio. He saved his money to buy vinyl as soon as it...

The only book about jazz that i have recommended to my friends. It is a little gem. - Keith Jarrett

Yo! The Early Days of Hip-Hop 1982-84 is a new book published by Soul Jazz Books/Records that features 300+ pages of stunning photographs documenting the rise of hip hop in the early 1980s.

Many famed music producers are known for a particular sound that has its day and then ages out. Rick Rubin is known for something else: creating a space where artists of all different genres and traditions can home in on who they really are and what they really offer.

Equal parts biography, musicology, and cultural history, Dilla Time chronicles the life and legacy of J Dilla, a musical genius who transformed the sound of popular music for the twenty-first century.