Books

Books

When we are not listening to music, we like to read about music. We work with Paul and his team at the fantastic City Books just up the road from us to apply our curated approach to an ever changing but choice selection of books about the music and musicians whose records we sell.  Below are some of our current favourite books to inspire and inform your musical taste.

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33 products
As one-third of seminal band Cocteau Twins, Simon Raymonde helped to create some of the most beautiful and memorable albums of the '80s and '90s - music that continues to cast a spell over millions. This is the story of the band, in his words.Beginning with Simon's remarkable childhood and explor...
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In One Ear 'Cocteau Twins, Ivor and Me'
Simon Raymonde
£22.00
The music. The fashion. The nights. The people. The love. These are the threads that came together to make the Haçienda great.
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The Hacienda Threads (signed copy)
foreword by Peter Hook
£40.00
Featuring contribution from Gillian Gilbert, Gina Birch, Cath Carroll, Penny Henry and over fifty more interviewees
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I Thought I Heard You Speak: Women at Factory Records
Audrey Golden
£12.99
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.
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Into the Groove: The Story of Sound From Tin Foil to Vinyl
Jonathan Scott
£12.99
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'.
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Sweet Soul Music: Rhythm And Blues And The Southern Dream Of Freedom
Peter Guralnick
£30.00
The greatest popular songs, whether it’s Aretha Franklin singing ‘Respect’ or Bob Dylan performing ‘Blind Willie McTell’, have a way of embedding themselves in our memories. You remember a time and a place and a feeling when you hear that song again.
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Holding the Note: Writing On Music
David Remnick
£12.99
Pressure Drop chronicles reggae’s most tumultuous and influential decade. Beginning in 1970 and unfolding both in Britain and Jamaica, reggae flourished against a backdrop of political upheaval, gang warfare, Black Nationalism, racial and class discrimination and grinding poverty.
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Pressure Drop: Reggae in the Seventies
John Masouri
£28.00
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...
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You Don't Need a Dick to DJ (Signed Copy)
Smokin Jo
£22.00
Egostrip Book 1 is a beautifully designed collection of Dan Lish’s stunning character illustrations from the world of hip hop and beyond.
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Egostrip Book 1
Dan Lish
£35.00
'I doubt I'll ever read a better account of the history and sociology of popular music than this one.' Brian Eno
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And the Roots of Rhythm Remain A Journey Through Global Music (Signed Copy)
Joe Boyd
£30.00
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
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Cover Stories - 5 Decades of Album Art
Bill Smith
£25.00
A fascinating new book charting the life and career of Sex Pistols legend Glen Matlock through the lens of his most formative songs.
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Triggers - A life in Music
Glen Matlock
£10.99
Trombone Man: Ska's Fallen Genius tells in illustrated comic book form, the tragic story of the Skatalites' doomed trombonist and composer, Don Drummond and his lover, the rhumba dancer Margarita Mahfood.
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The Don Drummond Story - Trombone Man
Adam Reeves & Constantinos Pissourios
£9.99
Celebrated music critic Ann Powers explores the life and career of the legendary Joni Mitchell What you are about to read is not a standard account of the life and work of Joni Mitchell. Instead, it’s a tale of long journeying through a life that changed popular music: of a homesick wanderer fo...
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Travelling: On The Path of Joni Mitchell
Ann Powers
£25.00
The DJ was born on Christmas Eve, 1906 when Reginald Fessenden became the first person to play a record over the radio. A century later and the DJ is the central figure in popular music. From these humble 'talking jukebox' origins to today's DJ superstars earning rock star salaries with a fanbase...
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Last Night a DJ Saved My Life (updated): The History of the Disc Jockey
Bill Brewster
£16.99
This is the memoir music fans have been waiting for. Half of one of the greatest creative partnerships in popular music, Bernie Taupin is the man who wrote the lyrics for Elton John, who conceived the ideas that spawned countless hits, and sold millions and millions of records. Together, they wer...
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Scattershot: Life, Music, Elton and Me
Bernie Taupin
£10.99
Party Lines is a groundbreaking new history of UK dance music, exploring its pivotal role in the social, political and economic shifts on which modern Britain has been built.
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Party Lines: Dance Music and The Making of Modern Britain (Paperback)
Ed Gillet
£12.99
Told in three parts, Too Much Too Young is the definitive story of a label that for a brief, bright burning moment, shaped British culture.
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Too Much Too Young: The 2 Tone Records Story Rude Boys, Racism and the Soundtrack of a Generation (Paperback)
Daniel Rachel
£12.99
Jim Ottewill’s exploration of UK club culture and the urban landscapes that have housed it returns in a newly remixed form. This extended version features a new chapter exploring hidden histories and untold stories within Birmingham’s nocturnal scene to provide more insights into the past, presen...
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Out Of Space
Jim Ottewill
£14.99
Contemporary pop music, art, fashion, style and the avant-garde was never the same after The Velvet Underground. Dylan Jones' definitive oral history of The Velvet Underground draws on contributions from remaining members, contemporaneous musicians, critics, film-makers, and the generation of art...
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Loaded (The Life of the Velvet Underground) (Paperback)
Dylan Jones
£12.99
What does dancing tell us about ourselves, individually and collectively? Whether at home, in '80s club nights, Irish dancehalls or youth centres, Emma Warren has sought the answers to these questions her entire life. Dancing is a part of our stories - the part that finds us as children dancing o...
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Dance Your Way Home
Emma Warren
£10.99
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...
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Hip Hop is History
Questlove
£25.00
Unapologetic Expression captures the radical spirit of a vital British musical movement
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Unapologetic Expression: The Inside Story of the UK Jazz Explosion
Andre Marmot
£25.00
What was it about Bob Marley that made him so popular in a world dominated by rock’n’roll? How is that he has not only remained the single most successful reggae artist ever, but has also become a shining beacon of radicalism and peace to generation after generation of fans across the globe? On M...
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Bob Marley The Untold Story
Chris Salewicz
£12.99
The only book about jazz that i have recommended to my friends. It is a little gem. - Keith Jarrett
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But Beautiful: A Book About Jazz
Geoff Dyer
£10.99
The first decades of the 21st century saw dramatic changes in the music industry as new technology transformed creation, communication, and consumption.
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Bedroom Beats & B-Sides: Instrumental Hip Hop & Electronic Music at the Turn of the Century
Laurent Fintoni
£14.99
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.
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Yo! The Early Days of Hip-Hop 1982-84
Sophie Bramly
£35.00
Soul Jazz Records are proud to present this amazing collection of sleeves from the deepest, deepest jazz music ever - compiled by Gilles Peterson and Stuart Baker (Soul Jazz Records).
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Freedom, Rhythm and Sound: Revolutionary Jazz Cover Art 1960-78
Gilles Peterson, Stuart Baker
£29.99
Highlighting the pre-rave era, taking in the DJs, clubs and music that laid the groundwork on which a now global dance culture was built.
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Greg Wilson's Discotheque Archives (signed)
Greg Wilson
£22.00
New printing with new introduction of this definitive study and essential guide to Jamaican Dancehall in the 1980s featuring hundreds of exclusive photographs with accompanying text, interviews and biographies.
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Dancehall BOOK: The Rise of Jamaican Dancehall Culture
Stuart Baker, Beth Lesser
£40.00
Miles: The Autobiography, like the man himself, holds nothing back.
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Miles: The Autobiography
Miles Davis
£14.99
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.
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The Creative Act: A Way of Being
Rick Rubin
£27.00
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.
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Dilla Time: The Life and Afterlife of J Dilla, the Hip-Hop Producer Who Reinvented Rhythm
Dan Charmas
£12.99