Slade in the 1970s

Author: Darren Johnson
Publisher: Sonicbond Publishing Ltd
ISBN: 1789523117
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 121

Book Description
Slade were one of the biggest British bands of the 1970s. One of the early pioneers of glam rock, they enjoyed an incredible run of six number-one singles, five top-ten albums and a succession of sell-out tours. However, after a failed attempt at an American breakthrough in the mid-1970s, Slade returned to Britain and faced dwindling record sales, smaller concert halls and a music press that had lost interest in them. By the end of the decade, they were playing residencies in cabaret clubs and recorded a cover of a children’s novelty song. But then came a last-minute invitation to play the 1980 Reading Festival, setting in motion one of the most remarkable comebacks in rock history. It’s now 50 years since Slade’s 1973 annus mirabilis that saw ‘Cum On Feel The Noize’, ‘Skweeze Me, Pleeze Me’ and ‘Merry Xmas Everybody’ all enter the UK charts at number one, and this book celebrates the music of this legendary band. From their beginnings in the mid-1960s through each year of the decade that gave them their biggest successes, every album and single is examined, as well as coverage of their raucous live shows and colourful media profile. A former politician, Darren spent many years writing about current affairs but after stepping away from politics he was able to devote time to his first love: music. His first book, The Sweet in the 1970s, was published by Sonicbond in 2021, followed by Suzi Quatro in the 1970s in 2022. Now he turns his attention to the first band he truly fell in love with: Slade. A keen follower of both rock and folk, he maintains a popular music blog – Darren’s Music Blog – and has reviewed albums and gigs for a variety of publications. He lives in Hastings, East Sussex.

Alice Cooper in the 1970s

Author: Chris Sutton
Publisher: Sonicbond Publishing Ltd
ISBN: 1789521939
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 191

Book Description
The 1970s was the decade that saw the arrival of Alice Cooper as a major force in the rock firmament. Chris Sutton explores the story of Alice Cooper the band and also Alice the solo performer from their early years through to the end of the decade. A roller-coaster ride of classic albums and singles, the songs recorded in the 1970s still dominate his live sets to this day. The book features all new interview material from key figures including Michael Bruce, Dennis Dunaway and Neal Smith from the original band, Prakash John from the solo years, and Ernie Cefalu, whose company Pacific Eye and Ear designed the sleeve packaging. Several other musicians, concert promoters and even the band's first roadie have also contributed their thoughts. All of the albums and singles from Don't Blow Your Mind, until From The Inside are examined in detail, along with related archive releases and songs that didn't make the final cut. In the course of putting the book together much new information came to light that will be of huge interest to hardened collectors and new fans alike, making this book is an essential guide to Alice Cooper in the decade that the band helped to define. Chris Sutton has been a fan of Alice Cooper since 1972 and the band’s famous debut appearance on Top Of The Pops. The reunion of the band for their UK tour in 2017 stands as one of his happiest memories. He manages Smethwick Heritage Centre Museum and has written several publications for them. He has also written several plays. Alice Cooper in the 1970s is his first venture into music writing, with others to follow. He lives in Great Malvern, UK.

URIAH HEEP A VISUAL BIOGRAPHY.

Author: MARTIN. POPOFF
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781915246509
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description

The Bee Gees in the 70s

Author: Andrew Mon Hughes
Publisher: Sonicbond Publishing Ltd
ISBN: 1789521971
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 376

Book Description
The Bee Gees’ music and image have long been synonymous with the 1970s, and the career trajectory of brothers Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb in those ten years meanders between dizzying highs and devastating lows. In 1970, the band was bitterly split after succumbing to the pressures and excesses of their first wave of international fame in the latter part of the 1960s, but by 1979 they were one of the most successful music acts on the planet. In between, the brothers crafted timeless works that defied genre, transcended societal boundaries, and permeated generations of listeners. The Bee Gees would go on to sell over 200 million records, making them among the best-selling music artists of all time; they would be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Australian Recording Industry’s Hall of Fame, and the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and receive lifetime achievement awards from the British Phonographic Industry, the American Music Awards, World Music Awards and the Grammys. According to Billboard magazine, the Bee Gees are one of the top three most successful bands in their charts’ history. In the 1970s, The Bee Gees established themselves as innovative and versatile artists, and their songs scored a turbulent decade of global cultural change and discovery.

Uriah Heep in the 1970s

Author: Steve Pilkington
Publisher: Decades
ISBN: 9781789521030
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 160

Book Description
Incredibly, Uriah Heep have now been active for a full fifty years. However, few would argue that the period which has come to define them the most, and during which they were at their most influential, was 1970-1980. During this decade they released an incredible thirteen studio albums and a legendary double live album, as well as having a regular turnaround of musicians in all but the guitar and keyboard roles. During this remarkable decade, there were the first three albums, as the band sought to find a stable line-up, followed by the classic run begun by the Demons And Wizards album featuring the definitive Box/Hensley/Byron/Kerslake/Thain line-up.When charismatic frontman David Byron departed, there was a period of some uncertainty, but still some remarkable music was made. In this book the reader will be taken on a year-by-year journey through that decade, looking at the albums, the often gruelling touring schedules and the ups and downs of the relationships within the band. Never quite attaining the sales and success of some of their rivals at the time, Uriah Heep nevertheless released some of the most extraordinary music of the decade - and this book takes you through it all.

Heavy Metal Music in Britain

Author: Dr Gerd Bayer
Publisher: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
ISBN: 1409493857
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 331

Book Description
Heavy metal has developed from a British fringe genre of rock music in the late 1960s to a global mass market consumer good in the early twenty-first century. Early proponents of the musical style, such as Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Judas Priest, Saxon, Uriah Heep and Iron Maiden, were mostly seeking to reach a young male audience. Songs were often filled with violent, sexist and nationalistic themes but were also speaking to the growing sense of deterioration in social and professional life. At the same time, however, heavy metal was seriously indebted to the legacies of blues and classical music as well as to larger literary and cultural themes. The genre also produced mythological concept albums and rewritings of classical poems. In other words, heavy metal tried from the beginning to locate itself in a liminal space between pedestrian mass culture and a rather elitist adherence to complexity and musical craftsmanship, speaking from a subaltern position against the hegemonic discourse. This collection of essays provides a comprehensive and multi-disciplinary look at British heavy metal from its beginning through The New Wave of British Heavy Metal up to the increasing internationalization and widespread acceptance in the late 1980s. The individual chapter authors approach British heavy metal from a textual perspective, providing critical analyses of the politics and ideology behind the lyrics, images and performances. Rather than focus on individual bands or songs, the essays collected here argue with the larger system of heavy metal music in mind, providing comprehensive analyses that relate directly to the larger context of British life and culture. The wide range of approaches should provide readers from various disciplines with new and original ideas about the study of this phenomenon of popular culture.

Early '70s Radio

Author: Kim Simpson
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1441136789
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 391

Book Description
Early '70s Radio focuses on the emergence of commercial music radio "formats," which refer to distinct musical genres aimed toward specific audiences. This formatting revolution took place in a period rife with heated politics, identity anxiety, large-scale disappointments and seemingly insoluble social problems. As industry professionals worked overtime to understand audiences and to generate formats, they also laid the groundwork for market segmentation. Audiences, meanwhile, approached these formats as safe havens wherein they could re-imagine and redefine key issues of identity. A fresh and accessible exercise in audience interpretation, Early '70s Radio is organized according to the era's five prominent formats and analyzes each of these in relation to their targeted demographics, including Top 40, "soft rock", album-oriented rock, soul and country. The book closes by making a case for the significance of early '70s formatting in light of commercial radio today.

Alice Cooper in the 1980s

Author: Chris Sutton
Publisher: Sonicbond Publishing Ltd
ISBN: 1789521955
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 147

Book Description
The 1980s saw Alice Cooper arguably release his most diverse collection of albums, ranging from new wave to metal to full-on radio-friendly rock. They weren’t all commercially successful, but all are worth listening to and some are excellent. This book, which follows on from the author’s acclaimed Alice Cooper In The 1970s, features all new interview material by the author with 45 musicians and performers who worked with Alice over the decade. Many have never been interviewed before but they offer a fascinating insight into working with Alice and with each other. Key interviewees include Mike Pinera, Jan Uvena, John Nitzinger, Graham Shaw, Ken Mary, Kip Winger, Kane Roberts, John McCurry and Al Pitrelli. Consequently, the book includes a lot of new information that should please fans. The author adds commentary and opinions on all of the songs from the era, Alice’s film work and the five live tours. There is also an appendix on the album that could have been but never was. Alice himself ‘contributes’ from the contemporary press of the time, his comments becoming more loquacious as the decade progresses. Alice Cooper in the 1980s, what a thrill ride that was! Chris Sutton has been a fan of Alice Cooper since 1972 and the band's famous debut appearance on Top Of The Pops. The reunion of the band for their UK tour in 2017 stands as one of his happiest memories. He manages Smethwick Heritage Centre Museum and has written several publications for them. He has also written several plays. Alice Cooper In The 1980s is his third book for Sonicbond Publishing, with several more to follow. He lives in Great Malvern, UK.

Status Quo: Mighty Innovators of 70s Rock

Author: Andrew Cope
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351025880
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 250

Book Description
Status Quo were one of the most successful, influential and innovative bands of the 1970s. During the first half of the decade, they wrote, recorded and performed a stream of inventive and highly complex rock compositions, developed 12 bar forms and techniques in new and fascinating ways, and affected important musical and cultural trends. But, despite global success on stage and in the charts, they were maligned by the UK music press, who often referred to them as lamebrained three-chord wonders, and shunned by the superstar Disk Jockeys of the era, who refused to promote their music. As a result, Status Quo remain one of the most misunderstood and underrated bands in the history of popular music. Cope redresses that misconception through a detailed study of the band’s music and live performances, related musical and cultural subtopics and interviews with key band members. The band is reinstated as a serious, artistic and creative phenomenon of the 1970s scene and shown to be vital contributors to the evolution of rock.

Nothin' to Lose

Author: Ken Sharp
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0062131745
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 709

Book Description
Nothin' to Lose: The Making of KISS (1972-1975) chronicles, for the first time, the crucial formative years of the legendary rock band KISS, culminating with the groundbreaking success of their classic 1975 album Alive! and the smash single "Rock and Roll All Nite," a song that nearly four decades later remains one of rock's most enduring anthems. Drawing on more than two hundred interviews, the book offers a captivating and intimate fly-on-the-wall account of their launch, charting the struggles and ultimate victories that led them to the threshold of superstardom. Constructed as an oral history, the book includes original interviews with Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Ace Frehley, and Peter Criss, as well as with producers; engineers; management; record company personnel; roadies; club owners; booking agents; concert promoters; costume, stage, and art designers; rock photographers; publicists; and key music journalists. Many of KISS's musical contemporaries from the time, most of whom shared concert bills with the band on their early tours, also lend their perspective via new interviews; these include Bob Seger, Alice Cooper, and Ted Nugent, as well as members of Aerosmith, Black Sabbath, Rush, Slade, Blue Öyster Cult, Mott the Hoople, Journey, REO Speedwagon, Styx, Raspberries, The James Gang, The New York Dolls, Iggy & the Stooges, The Ramones, Suzi Quatro, Argent, and Uriah Heep, among others. The result is an indelible and irresistible portrait of a band on the rise and of the music scene they changed forever.