Me Elton John by Elton John

$39.99 NZD

$49.99 (20% off)

Category: Music Biography | Reading Level: very good

In his first and only official autobiography, music icon Elton John reveals the truth about his extraordinary life. The result is Me - the joyously funny, honest and moving story of the most enduringly successful singer/songwriter of all time. Christened Reginald Dwight, he was a shy boy with Buddy Holl y glasses who grew up in the London suburb of Pinner and dreamed of becoming a pop star. By the age of twenty-three, he was performing his first gig in America, facing an astonished audience in his bright yellow dungarees, a star-spangled T-shirt and boots with wings. Elton John had arrived and the music world would never be the same again. His life has been full of drama, from the early rejection of his work with song-writing partner Bernie Taupin to spinning out of control as a chart-topping superstar; from half-heartedly trying to drown himself in his LA swimming pool to disco-dancing with the Queen; from friendships with John Lennon, Freddie Mercury and George Michael to setting up his AIDS Foundation. All the while, Elton was hiding a drug addiction that would grip him for over a decade. In Me Elton also writes powerfully about getting clean and changing his life, about finding love with David Furnish and becoming a father. In a voice that is warm, humble and open, this is Elton on his music and his relationships, his passions and his mistakes. This is a story that will stay with you, by a living legend. ...Show more

Killing Time: Short Stories From the Long Road Home by Jimmy Barnes

$49.99 NZD

Category: Music Biography

From the rock legend turned master storyteller, this collection of non-fiction short stories is vintage Jimmy. Stories of adventure, misadventure, love and loss from the #1 bestselling author of the critically acclaimed memoirs Working Class Boy and Working Class Man. Outrageous, witty, warm and wise, Killing Time shares more than 40 yarns from an epic life - a dazzling collection of tall tales, out-takes and B-sides from one of Australia's finest storytellers. ...Show more

The Meaning of Mariah Carey by Mariah Carey

$39.99 NZD

Category: Music Biography

It took me a lifetime to have the courage and the clarity to write my memoir. I want to tell the story of the moments - the ups and downs, the triumphs and traumas, the debacles and the dreams, that contributed to the person I am today. Though there have been countless stories about me throughout my car eer and very public personal life, it's been impossible to communicate the complexities and depths of my experience in any single magazine article or a ten-minute television interview. And even then, my words were filtered through someone else's lens, largely satisfying someone else's assignment to define me. This book is composed of my memories, my mishaps, my struggles, my survival and my songs. Unfiltered. I went deep into my childhood and gave the scared little girl inside of me a big voice. I let the abandoned and ambitious adolescent have her say, and the betrayed and triumphant woman I became tell her side. Writing this memoir was incredibly hard, humbling and healing. My sincere hope is that you are moved to a new understanding, not only about me, but also about the resilience of the human spirit. Love, Mariah ...Show more

Hotel Cabana: Thru the Decades by Lee Pritchard

$34.99 NZD

$70.00 (50% off)

Category: Music

Napier's most famous Art Deco Hotel, once New Zealand's most premiere Rock Hotel, dubbed by many musicians as the 'best gig in the country'. While other venues were 'wine, women and songs', The Cabana was SEX, DRUGS AND ROCK 'N' ROLL!! New Zealand's own comparison to The Beatles famous home at the Caver n. This book also contains a CD of previously unpublished live recordings from the Cabana. There is also a hardback signed limited edition version available for $130 The venue has now reopened as the Cabana, meaning there will be once again a great venue for live NZ music in Napier. ...Show more

Learn to Play Country Guitar by Phil Capone

$14.99 NZD

$27.00 (44% off)

Category: Music

Learn to play country guitar the easy way, including simple, illustrated lessons that will have you jamming in no time.From hybrid picking and double stops, to twang techniques and country licks--discover everything you need to know to create that unique country guitar sound.And there's a free CD too!- The book contains a series of exercises, explained simply and concisely (and demonstrated on an audio CD) that will allow you to pick up confidence and speed. - Also includes a useful resource section with a "country chord library" and scale libraries for the most popular open tunings used in country guitar. - Exercises are shown in standard musical notation as well as TAB, and with additional photographs to add clarity where needed. ...Show more

A Field Guide to Punk by Steve Wide

$35.00 NZD

Category: Music | Series: The\Field Guide Ser.

This book is your gateway to the safety-pinned, leather-clad, mohawk-toting, anti-establishment, and generally badass Punk movement.   What makes punk... punk? We might all know the Sex Pistols from the opening bar of their songs. But how do we place the punk movement in the context of the wider zeitg eist of the time? And how do the various international offshoots of punk - American, British, Australian - intersect and overlap? Well, that's precisely what DJ and author Steve Wide explains in this book.   In these pages, Steve explains the social climate of Thatcherism, along with a detailed timeline of foundational bands (as well as connected artists, like Damien Hurst, and other subversive genres like Britpop). There are breakdowns of the most iconic punk artists, as well as fashion designers, record labels, DJs, producers, engineers and magazines - all of which applied their own layer to the punk patchwork. There are deep dives into controversies, rivalries, and band breakups. And lastly, there's a dissection of how evolutions of punk carry on today, in recorded music and in wider pop culture. ...Show more

A Field Guide to Post-Punk & New Wave by Steve Wide

$35.00 NZD

Category: Music | Series: The\Field Guide Ser.

This book is your gateway to the pop-rock-y, disco-esque, electronic and mod-tastic movement that was (and is) New Wave.   What makes New Wave... New Wave? It's the catchall name of punk's poppy offshoot, born in the 70s, simultaneously born in the United States and United Kingdom. But how would you d escribe New Wave's context in the zeitgeist of the time, or explain how this new electro-rock made people feel? Well, that's precisely what DJ and author Steve Wide explains in this handy book.   In these pages, Steve explains the social and music industry climates of the 70s and 80s, unpacking the influence of the punk genre on NYC-based groups like the Velvet Underground and New York Dolls. There's also a timeline on the usage of the term New Wave - for a long chunk of the 70s it was used almost interchangeably with punk. There are breakdowns on the key record labels, DJs, producers, engineers and magazines - all of which stitched their own layer on the New Wave patchwork. There are deep dives into controversies, rivalries, and messy band breakups. And lastly, there's a dissection of how ripples of New Wave are still felt today, in recorded music and across wider pop culture. ...Show more

Not For You - Pearl Jam and the Present Tense by Ronen Givony

$40.99 NZD

Category: Music Biography

There has never been a band like Pearl Jam. The Seattle quintet has recorded 11 studio albums; sold 85 million records; played a 1,000 shows, in 50 countries; and had five different albums reach number one. But Pearl Jam's story is about much more than music. Through passion, integrity, and sheer force of will, they transcended several eras, and shaped the way a generation thought about music.   Not for You: Pearl Jam and the Present Tense is the first full-length biography of America's preeminent band, from Ten to Let's Play Two to Gigaton. A study of their role in history--from Operation Desert Storm to the Dixie Chicks; Jeremy to Columbine; Kurt Cobain to Chris Cornell; Ticketmaster to Trump--Not for You describes the band's origins and evolution, over thirty years of culture. It starts with their founding, and the eruption of grunge, in 1991; continues through the golden age (Vs., Vitalogy, No Code, and Yield); their middle period (Binaural, Riot Act); and the more divisive recent catalog. Along the way, it considers the band's idealism, activism, and impact, from "Better Man" to Body of War and the West Memphis Three.   More than the first critical study, Not for You is a letter to a famously obsessive fan base, in the spirit of Nick Hornby's Fever Pitch. It's an old-fashioned--if ambivalent--appreciation; a reflection on pleasure and guilt; and an essay on the nature of nostalgia, adolescence, and adulthood. Partly social history; partly autobiography; and entirely outspoken, discursive, and droll, Not for You follows Pearl Jam's odyssey, from the 1990s to the present. ...Show more

The Birth of Loud - Leo Fender, Les Paul, and the Guitar-Pioneering Rivalry That Shaped Rock 'n' Roll by Ian S. Port

$29.99 NZD

Category: Music

"A hot-rod joy ride through mid-20th-century American history" (The New York Times Book Review), this one-of-a-kind narrative masterfully recreates the rivalry between the two men who innovated the electric guitar's amplified sound--Leo Fender and Les Paul--and their intense competition to convince rock stars like the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, and Eric Clapton to play the instruments they built. In the years after World War II, music was evolving from big-band jazz into rock 'n' roll--and these louder styles demanded revolutionary instruments. When Leo Fender's tiny firm marketed the first solid-body electric guitar, the Esquire, musicians immediately saw its appeal. Not to be out-maneuvered, Gibson, the largest guitar manufacturer, raced to build a competitive product. The company designed an "axe" that would make Fender's Esquire look cheap and convinced Les Paul--whose endorsement Leo Fender had sought--to put his name on it. Thus was born the guitar world's most heated rivalry: Gibson versus Fender, Les versus Leo. While Fender was a quiet, half-blind, self-taught radio repairman, Paul was a brilliant but headstrong pop star and guitarist who spent years toying with new musical technologies. Their contest turned into an arms race as the most inventive musicians of the 1950s and 1960s--including bluesman Muddy Waters, rocker Buddy Holly, the Beatles, Bob Dylan, and Eric Clapton--adopted one maker's guitar or another. By 1969 it was clear that these new electric instruments had launched music into a radical new age, empowering artists with a vibrancy and volume never before attainable. In "an excellent dual portrait" (The Wall Street Journal), Ian S. Port tells the full story in The Birth of Loud, offering "spot-on human characterizations, and erotic paeans to the bodies of guitars" (The Atlantic). "The story of these instruments is the story of America in the postwar era: loud, cocky, brash, aggressively new" (The Washington Post). ...Show more

A Sharp Left Turn: Notes on a life in music, from Split Enz to Play It Strange by Mike Chunn

$45.00 NZD

Category: Music | Reading Level: very good

A rollicking yarn about the early days of ground-breaking band Split Enz, but also the powerful story of how Mike Chunn dealt with a crippling mental health issue and went on to become one of our most influential music identities. This is a gripping read that works on several levels. It's the sliding-d oor story of someone who might have become a world-famous pop star had he not suffered from a severe phobic disorder.It's the story of an assortment of young musicians trying to find their feet as bands in the late 70s and early 80s, and the associated euphoria and craziness of that life.It's Mike's personal story of struggling with agoraphobia and eventually finding a way through. Told in Mike's own words, this is also a loving evocation of a 50s and 60s New Zealand childhood, and a beautifully written memoir that will resonate with anyone who loves a well-told story. ...Show more

Mick Jagger: The Photobook by Francois Hebel

$19.99 NZD

Category: Music Biography

The retrospective of portraits of Mick Jagger, one of the worlds most photographed performers, was a highlight of the 2010 Arles photography festival. This book gathers together all the photographs from that exhibition. It spans Jagger's entire career.

Debbie Harry: Face It by Debbie Harry

$49.99 NZD

Category: Music Biography | Reading Level: very good

Debbie Harry has achieved a level of global success and iconic stature that is reserved for very few musicians, and even fewer women. Charismatic lead singer, critically acclaimed solo artist and style icon, her allure is endless and her legacy is enduring. In this, her first memoir, Debbie shares her r emarkable life story. Finding fame in the anarchic punk scene of mid-70s downtown New York, Blondie went on to enjoy worldwide success, freewheeling through genres, from pop to rap via disco and reggae, with a sense of assuredness and abandon that typified their lead singer. Debbie, a brilliant lyricist with a captivating stage presence, has made an indelible impression on pop culture; within the band, in her solo career and as an actor. Time and again, she has pushed boundaries and defied expectations. From gigging in CBGBs to headlining Glastonbury in 2014, Debbie's career has spanned nearly four decades and generated over 40 million record sales. Unafraid to speak her mind, she encapsulates a sense of independence, strength and sincerity that has inspired generations. Now Debbie recalls the experiences that have shaped her – the unprecedented triumphs and the darkest challenges – in her typically unapologetic, vibrant style. ...Show more