With interviews from friends, family, and associates, and material drawn from an unfinished autobiography, Shipton probes beneath the enigma to discover the real Harry Nilsson. A major celebrity at a time when huge concerts and festivals were becoming the norm, Nilsson shunned live performance. His venue was the studio, his stage the dubbing booth, his greatest triumphs masterful examples of studio craft. He was a gifted composer of songs for a wide variety of performers, including the Ronettes, the Yardbirds, and the Monkees, yet Nilsson's own biggest hits were almost all written by other songwriters. He won two Grammy awards, in 1969 for "Everybody's Talkin'" (the theme song for Midnight Cowboy), and in 1972 for "Without You," had two top ten singles, numerous album successes, and wrote a number of songs--"Coconut" and "Jump into the Fire," to name just two--that still sound remarkably fresh and original today. He was once described by his producer Richard Perry as "the finest white male singer on the planet," but near the end of his life, Nilsson's career was marked by voice-damaging substance abuse and the infamous deaths of both Keith Moon and Mama Cass in his London flat.Drawing on exclusive access to Nilsson's papers, Alyn Shipton's biography offers readers an intimate portrait of a man who has seemed both famous and unknowable--until now.

    

    This updated and candid biography covers more than four decades’ worth of life at the cutting edge of the music business, as well as providing a new and very personal insight into Midge as a family man, his battles with alcoholism and his ability to survive in a notoriously fickle industry. Few musicians have had a career of such variety: he has sold more than twenty million albums and been on a rollercoaster ride through the rock and roll business. From Number 1 hits with the pop band Slik, via Ultravox – one of the most influential bands to come out of the age of electronica and leaders of the New Romantic movement – to sell-out solo world tours, Midge has a unique perspective on the world of pop music. He played a key role in the phenomenon that was Live Aid and the making of the classic charity record Do They Know It's Christmas, which sold in excess of twelve million copies. This updated book covers the reforming of the classic eighties Ultravox line-up and the subsequent Brilliant album generated from the reunion, as well as the ongoing battles with the record labels, and even Midge’s involvement with 'reality' TV. As Midge says, 'sometimes my life feels like running up an ever quickening down escalator, but its an escalator of my own design and choosing. The trick is to sustain momentum, try and edge forward and not let it drag you to the bottom.' If I Was… is a true testament to the talent and energy of a man who remains as vibrant today as when he first set out to become a musician forty years ago. This enhanced edition contains embedded video, photographs and links to YouTube footage of Midge’s earlier gigs. Some ePub readers will not be able to display this content.

    Songs such as “Cold As Ice,” “I Want to Know What Love Is,” “Waiting for a Girl Like You,” “Double Vision,” “Urgent,” and “Midnight Blue” are among 20 Gramm songs that achieved Top 40 status on the Billboard charts and became rock classics still played often, nearly three decades after they first hit the airwaves and the record store shelves. Juke Box Hero: The My Five Decades in Rock 'n' Roll chronicles, with remarkable candor, the ups and downs of this popular rocker’s amazing life—a life which saw him achieve worldwide fame and fortune, then succumb to its trappings before summoning the courage and faith to overcome his drug addiction and a life-threatening brain tumor. Gramm takes the reader behind the scenes—into the recording studio, back stage, on the bus trips and beyond—to give an insider’s look into the life of the man Rolling Stone magazine referred to as “the Pavarotti of rock.”

    

    After caring for her beloved aunt during a terminal illness and coming to terms with the fact she may never be able to get pregnant, she retreats to her childhood home, where she’s not just the wife of a business tycoon, she’s someone the townspeople know and love. This gives Eve a sense of identity she thought she lost. When her husband asks her to come home, she decides it’s time for her to start over… alone. Alex Bolton has been so preoccupied running his family’s business that he lost sight of what’s important. Eve. He knows she’s been going through a difficult time, between trying to get pregnant and losing the woman who raised her, but he never expects her to tell him she’s leaving him. He knows he has a lot to make up for, but he’s willing to do whatever it takes. The question is, will it be too late to save their marriage?

    The California quartet has sold more than 100 million albums worldwide, won nine Grammy Awards, and had five consecutive albums hit number one on the Billboard charts. But Metallica’s story, epic in scope, is a tale about much more than sales figures and critical acclaim, and their journey from scuzzy Los Angeles garages to the world’s most storied stadiums has been dramatic and painful, their gigantic successes often shot through with tension, tragedy, loss, and controversy. Birth School Metallica Death is the definitive story of the most significant rock band since Led Zeppelin. Volume 1 covers the band’s formation up to their breakthrough eponymous fifth album, aka “The Black Album.” The intense and sometimes fraught relationship between aloof-yet-simmering singer, chief lyricist, and rhythm guitarist James Hetfield and the outspoken and ambitious drummer Lars Ulrich is the saga’s emotional core. Their earliest years saw the release of three unimpeachable classics—Kill ’Em All, Ride the Lightning, and Master of Puppets—genre-defining masterpieces that took hard rock to a new level, both artistically and commercially. During these tumultuous times, the band persevered through line-up changes when guitarist Dave Mustaine was replaced by Kirk Hammet, and their bass player, the beloved Cliff Burton, was tragically killed in a bus crash while on tour in Europe.But it was the breakthrough of …And Justice for All that rent the fabric of the mainstream, hitting the top of the charts without benefit of radio airplay or the then-crucial presence on MTV. And finally in 1991, with the release of their fifth studio album, nicknamed “The Black Album,” Metallica hit the next level—five hit singles including their best-known songs “Enter Sandman” and “Nothing Else Matters”—and their first album atop the Billboard charts.In Birth School Metallica Death, veteran music journalists and Metallica confidants Paul Brannigan and Ian Winwood detail this meteoric rise to international fame in an epic saga of family, community, self-belief, the pursuit of dreams, and music that rocks. Told through first-hand interviews with the band and those closest to them, the story of Metallica’s rise to the mainstream has never been so vividly documented.

    Though his 13 days of fame made headlines, the true mystery of Nicol's story is riddled with blacklisting, betrayal, drugs, divorce, bankruptcy and an eventual disappearance that led many to question whether he is dead or alive. Discover the incredible details of a Beatles story never before revealed! *Draws on new documentary evidence *Interviews with The Beatles, Nicol and eyewitnesses *Inner circle tour accounts of Nicol and The Beatles *Uncovers the secrets behind his post-Beatles career and disappearance *Over 100 rare archival photographs and memorabilia illustrations * Features a Foreword by Former Beatles Bass Player, Chas Newby

    She owns her own business; she has a great best friend and a boyfriend who's a doctor. Being normal was everything she hoped for; until she wins a contest that puts her face to face with pure Heaven. Nick Graham is the face of Soul Stained. His band is number one in the world and he lives the life of a rock and roll God. He has everything he could ever ask for... until Keira. She's shy and she's innocent but dealing with his own demons, he knows there's something about her that makes him think you can't read a book by its cover. Will the secrets of their pasts lead them in the opposite direction, or will fate change their futures forever?

    and some new faces, as well.Dive in and join the Trevolution with this new entry into the beloved Demo Tapes series.