Showing results by publisher "W. F. Howes Ltd" in Music

Since the age of 20, Paul McCartney has lived one of the ultimate rock 'n' roll lives played out on the most public of stages. Now Paul's story is told by rock music's foremost biographer, with McCartney's consent and access to family members and close friends who have never spoken on the record before. Paul McCartney reveals the complex character behind the façade and sheds new light on his childhood - blighted by his mother's death but redeemed by the father who introduced him to music.

Adele touches the hearts of millions of people who love her for her music and share the real and honest emotion she brings to each and every song. In Adele, best-selling biographer Sean Smith talks to those close to her as he follows her astonishing journey to fame that began on the gritty streets of Tottenham. Through compelling new research and interviews, he reveals that there is far more to Adele than the superstar we all think we know.

Music is like no other business. It's about being at the right place at the right time, following your nose and diving in feet first. It's about being plugged into the mystical electricity and about surfing on the wild energy. And no one captures this wild feral spirit better than Alan McGee whose helter-skelter career through music has made him a major force. His ability to start a raw power ruckus brought the visceral danger back to a moribund mid-eighties music scene.

As lead singer of Happy Mondays and Black Grape, Shaun Ryder was the Keith Richards and Mick Jagger of his generation - one of the last real rock 'n' roll stars. A true rebel, who formed and led not one but two seminal bands, he's had number-one albums, headlined Glastonbury, toured the world numerous times, taken every drug under the sun, been through rehab - and come out the other side as a national treasure.

From lullabies to songs for the dying, this is a fascinating exploration of singing in all its varied forms, from the personal perspective of a music therapist, teacher and performer. In interrogating her own life experience and using the latest scientific research and experiences of other singers and specialists, the author investigates the way singing works and why it is re-establishing itself as an essential aspect of contemporary life, inspiring listeners to participate in the ongoing revolution, doing for singing what The Well-Gardened Mind and Why We Eat did for our diets.

An intensely beautiful, profound and poetic biography of the formative years of the dark prince of rock 'n' roll, Boy on Fire is Nick Cave's creation story, a portrait of the artist first as a boy, then as a young man. A deeply insightful work which charts his family, friends, influences, milieu and, most of all, his music, it reveals how Nick Cave shaped himself into the extraordinary artist he would become.

This audiobook takes the listener on a grand musical tour from its origins in prehistory to the 21st century. It describes its roles in culture and religion in ancient China and the Middle East and how it developed in the Mediterranean world of classical Greece and Rome. Andrew Gant considers the evolution of music in medieval Europe and looks at what led to the astonishing revolution of musical forms and genres that took place in the Renaissance, first in Italy and then across the rest of Europe.

Banker-turned-writer Nels Abbey offers an alternative and entertaining look at business and economics through the rise and triumph of Hip-Hop. This is the story of how rap industrialists—like Jay-Z, Suge Knight, Sylvia Robinson, Puff Daddy, 50 Cent and Bryan 'Birdman' Williams—took chronic economic pain and turned it into champagne. With a business acumen often acquired in the streets, these moguls created and sustained a multi-billion-dollar industry—leaving Greek mythology-worthy stories of success and failure, betrayal and revenge in their wakes.

This is the impassioned and exhilarating story of the composers who dared to challenge the conventional world of classical music in the twentieth century. Traversing the globe from Ethiopia and the Philippines to Mexico, Jerusalem, Russia and beyond, journalist, critic and BBC Radio 3 broadcaster Kate Molleson tells the stories of ten figures who altered the course of musical history, only to be side-lined and denied recognition during an era that systemically favoured certain sounds—and people—over others.

Hold Tight is the book that kick-started the 'Grime Library'. Bursting into bookshops in July 2017 to rave reviews and a sold-out event at Rough Trade East, Hold Tight paved the way for Grime-related books such as Wiley's Eskiboy, Dan Hancox's Inner City Pressure and DJ Target’s Grime Kids. Celebrating more than 60 key songs that make up Grime’s DNA, Jeffrey Boakye explores the meaning of the music and why it has such resonance in the UK.

The story of the National Youth Orchestra of Iraq is here told by its musical director, from its inception to its eventual end. The NYOI came through the most difficult and dangerous of times to produce fine music not only in Iraq but also in Britain, Germany and France. A beacon of hope and achievement, the young musicians and their tutors made bridges across their own ethnic divisions. They made great music in the most trying and tragic of circumstances and became their country's best ambassadors in 5,000 years.