Browse some of the biggest pop and rock book releases of the year, including biographies, memoirs, music history books, and more.
Pop and Rock Autobiographies
Half of one of the greatest creative partnerships in popular music, Bernie Taupin is the man who wrote the lyrics for Elton John. Taupin, a famously private person, has kept his own account of their adventures close to his chest, until now. Unique and utterly compelling, Scattershot will transport the reader across the decades and around the globe, along the way meeting some of the greatest creative minds of the 20th century, and into the vivid imaginings of one of music's most legendary lyricists.
Available Format: Book
Karma is the definitive autobiography from the incomparable Grammy, Brit and Ivor Novello award-winning lead singer of Culture Club and LGBTQ+ vanguard: Boy George. Told in his inimitable style, Karma tells the story of the charismatic frontman - the drama, the music, his journey of addiction and recovery, surviving prison, meeting legends like David Bowie, Prince and Madonna, and the highs and lows of a life lived in the spotlight and in the headlines.
Available Format: Book
A music-obsessed retrospective, beginning with his childhood epiphany of rock 'n' roll in the early 1960s into an infatuation with the subversive world of 1970s punk and no wave blasting forth from New York City - where he eventually runs off to join a band in 1978. By 1981 Moore would form the legendary and notorious experimental rock group Sonic Youth.
Available Format: Book
In 1989, a young Michael Ball landed the lead role in the musical Aspects of Love. It was a moment that changed his life forever. Over three decades later, Michael returned to a new production of the same show where he made his name, and with a lifetime's worth of stories to tell.
Available Format: Book
From S Club 7 pop star to Hollywood starlet, Hannah Spearritt has been on the stage, screen and airwaves since her teens. As one seventh of an iconic pop band, providing the soundtrack to so many childhoods, she has spent most of her life in the limelight. Now, for the first time ever, she's ready to open up in this deeply candid memoir.
Available Format: Book
A fascinating new book charting the life and career of Sex Pistols legend Glen Matlock through the lens of thirty of his most formative songs - from the ones that influenced him as a child to the ones he wrote and played on as a star. This is the story of an outspoken, uncompromising man and remarkable, game-changing musician.
Available Format: Book
Tomorrow's Here Today: Lightning Seeds, Football and Cosmic Post-Punk
Nine Eight Books | Ian Broudie
Few musicians have lived a musical life as rich as the songwriter and producer Ian Broudie. Throughout nearly fifty years of making music, he has had a front-row seat working with generations of fantastic musicians in the creation of countless groundbreaking records. In Tomorrow's Here Today, he reveals what he has learnt about creativity, how to work with musicians touched by genius and what it is like to stumble through an exploding industry without losing sight of your dreams.
Available Format: Book
Given only a few months to live following a harrowing diagnosis in 2002, Marie boldly forged ahead into a life with newfound courage and inspiration. She continued as both a solo singer and with Roxette. In all, Roxette is Sweden’s biggest music group—second only to ABBA. Heart-wrenching yet winning, and told with exceptional energy and sincerity, Listen to My Heart sheds new and revelatory light on the life and work of one of our generation’s most talented and courageous artists.
Available Format: Book
Pop and Rock Biographies
With her arrival on the music scene in the early 1980s, Madonna generated nothing short of an explosion, taking the nation by storm with her liberated politics and breathtaking talent. Deftly tracing Madonna's story from her Michigan roots to her rise to super-stardom, master biographer Mary Gabriel captures the dramatic life and achievements of one of the greatest artists of our time.
Available Format: Book
A revealing portrait of George Harrison, the most undervalued and mysterious Beatle. Unprecedented in scope and filled with numerous colour photos, this rich biography captures George Harrison at his most multi-faceted: devoted friend, loyal son, master guitar-player, brilliant songwriter, cocaine addict, serial philanderer, global philanthropist, student of Indian mysticism, self-deprecating comedian and, ultimately, iconic artist and man beloved by millions.
Available Format: Book
Paused in Cosmic Reflection is the definitive story of The Chemical Brothers. Told in the voices of Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons, with contributions from friends and collaborators, it is fully illustrated with 30 years of mind-bending visuals.
Available Format: Book
Everyone has their favourite era of the Bee Gees' career, but so much is still unclear about this celebrated but often misunderstood band. This book will provide the perfect route in, pulling together every fascinating strand to tell the story of these pioneering, melancholic masters of pop.Award winning author Bob Stanley captures the human story at the heart of the Bee Gees in this lyrical and stylish read.
Available Format: Book
The book is an encyclopaedic A-Z of The Cure examining and riffing on miscellaneous trivia, biographies of the band members past and present, summaries of each album and selected songs, details of the band's various tours and films, and essays on broader topics such as their image, their politics and their influences. Playful, eccentric and irreverent - true to the spirit of the band itself.
Available Format: Book
Comprising a vivid and varied series of miniature biographies, revealing profiles, thought-provoking essays and a multitude of previously unknown anecdotes and quotes, Hercules!: The A to Z of Elton John is the perfect compendium for the casual fan or devoted connoisseur, providing a funny, comprehensive and fully alphabetised overview of the star's life and music.
Available Format: Book
Live Dead: The Grateful Dead, Live Recordings, and the Ideology of Liveness
Duke University Press | John Brackett
The Grateful Dead were one of the most successful live acts of the rock era. In Live Dead, musicologist John Brackett examines how live recordings—from the group’s official releases to fan-produced tapes, bootlegs to “Betty Boards,” and Dick’s Picks to From the Vault—have shaped the general history and popular mythology of the Grateful Dead for more than fifty years.
Available Format: Book
The comprehensive illustrated biography of Harry Styles's amazing story to date.
Available Format: Book
Music History & Reference
Cathi Unsworth provides the first comprehensive overview of the music, context and lasting legacy of goth. This is the story of how goth was shaped by the politics of the era - from the miners' strikes and privatisation to the Troubles and AIDS - as well as how its rock 'n' roll outlaw imagery and music cross-pollinated throughout Britain and internationally, speaking to a generation of alienated youths. A fascinating social history, Season of the Witch tells the tale of an enduring counter-culture.
Available Format: Book
Lyrics and Photobooks
Amy Winehouse: In Her Words shines a spotlight on her incredible writing talent, her wit, her charm and lust for life. Bringing together Amy’s own never-before-seen journals, handwritten lyrics and family photographs together for the first time, this intimate tribute traces her creative evolution from growing up in North London to global superstardom, and provides a rare insight into the girl who became a legend.
Available Format: Book
In 2020, an extraordinary trove of nearly a thousand photographs taken by Paul McCartney on a 35mm camera was re-discovered in his archive. They intimately record the months towards the end of 1963 and beginning of 1964 when Beatlemania erupted in the UK and, after the band's first visit to the USA, they became the most famous people on the planet. 1964: Eyes of the Storm presents 275 of McCartney's photographs.
Available Format: Book
The life of the Man in Black is revealed through his lyrics and by rare photographs and ephemera, in this beautifully illustrated official hardback edition, fully authorised by the Cash estate and featuring 125 of his most iconic songs.
Available Format: Book
The only authorised and official book about one of the greatest pop groups of the 20th century. Covering their entire career, with a foreword and captions from Björn, Benny, Frida and Agnetha, the book features never-seen-before pictures spanning the band's entire career. With unprecedented behind-the-scenes access and first-hand accounts, this is the perfect gift for ABBA fans everywhere.
Available Format: Book
The centerpiece of Bob Dylan: Mixing up the Medicine is a carefully curated selection of over 600 images including never-before-circulated draft lyrics, writings, photographs, drawings and other ephemera from the Dylan archive. The magnum opus every Bob Dylan fan has been waiting for since the 60s and will be a landmark publication for the ages.
Available Format: Book
The Gods We Can Touch is a highly intimate book, taking readers on a journey to the very heart of Aurora’s world, through her creative process, and her inspiration as she wrote her acclaimed third studio album of the same name. This full-colour reproduction of Aurora’s personal notebook also features all song lyrics from the album, as a beautifully presented cloth hardback with gold foiling.
Available Format: Book
