Flying Saucer Rock Roll

The best of the cult-favorite music magazine Roctobers conversations with overlooked or forgotten artists, from the Outlaw Country singer David Allan Coe to the frustrated interstellar glam act Zolar X.

A bittersweet novel about friendship, being a teenager, and the redemption to be found in rock music. Chris is learning guitar at school in an attempt to emulate his rock god hero, Joe Satriani, if only he can get the hang of ‘Streets of London’ first. But there’s another boy in his guitar class who’s miles ahead of everybody. His name is Ben. It’s only a matter of time before Chris and Ben form a band. With easy-going Jase on drums and the ginger, bespectacled and bad-tempered Thomas on bass, Animal Magnets are only lacking a frontman. And although they hate to admit it, there is only one boy for the job. Flying Saucer Rock & Roll follows the boys through their teenage years and out the other side into the disappointment of adult life. It is a beautifully observed novel about guitar riffs, friendship and faded dreams. Praise for Flying Saucer Rock & Roll ‘A wry, sometimes painful, tale of adolescence... well evoked.’ Sunday Herald ‘Blandford captures the awkwardness of youth with a deft realism... a witty and sometimes poignant coming-of-age tale.’ The List

From the huge success of the Chords' "Sh-Boom" to the arrival of the Beatles a decade later, rock 'n' roll influenced an entire generation of young Americans. Combining popular culture and social history with a sourcebook of lists and a biographical dictionary, That Old-Time Rock & Roll recreates the fun and excitement of rock's first decade and shows how the music reflected American life and thought in the 1950s and early 1960s. Richard Aquila provides an overview of the birth and growth of this pivotal genre and demonstrates early rock's links to both the youth culture and the dominant culture of the Eisenhower/Kennedy era. Year-by-year timelines and a photo essay place the music in historical perspective by illustrating the decade's top news stories, movies, TV shows, fads, and lifestyles. Complementing this topical summary is a concise biographical dictionary that details all the performers who made the charts between 1954 and 1963, along with the label and chart position of each hit. Both a history of the music and a history of the times, That Old-Time Rock & Roll is an outstanding source of information about the charter members of the baby-boom generation. In a new introduction, Aquila discusses how his long-time interest in rock 'n' roll came to fruition and surveys the progress of rock 'n' roll scholarship since his book's original publication.

First paperback edition of a landmark collection of maverick science fiction.

Series numbering from publisher's website.

Rock music, since its pre-history in blues, country music and 40s and early 50s pop, through to the well-publicised excesses of touring bands of today, has left a legacy of thousands of weird and wonderful stories in its wake. We’ve all read about the Who’s Keith Moon driving a Rolls Royce into a hotel swimming pool, but far more bizarre tales of on-the-road mayhem have never been widely told. Likewise, Svengali-like managers have manipulated starstruck musicians since rock began, though hanging your well-known client from a third floor window was a less usual way of ensuring their loyalty. And just where was the stalled hotel lift in which all four Beatles, according to legend, were turned on to marijuana? There are the unsung heroes of rock – pioneering eccentrics who helped make the music what it is and ended up as mere footnotes in the history books. Men such as UK producer Joe Meek who created seminal classics from a bed-sit above a cleaners on the Holloway Road, and the New York DJ who originally coined the phrase ‘rock 'n’roll’ and died in alcoholic poverty. Not to mention the stories behind the stars: when Debbie Harry was a 'Playboy' Bunny, Paul Simon wrote ‘Homeward Bound’ on Widnes railway station in Lancashire, and the Gallagher brothers (so they claim) were petty thieves.

It was the twang heard 'round the world: Rockabilly was born out of country, bluegrass, jazz, and the blues in the 1950s, becoming rock ’n’ roll and ruling the world. Here’s the story of Elvis Presley’s first Sun records that inspired all. And here’s Carl Perkins, Gene Vincent, Eddie Cochran, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, and many more rockabillies from the golden years of 1955–1959, in a book chock full of photos, collectible memorabilia, movie posters, rare records, fashion, and rebel lifestyle. Includes contributions from noted music journalists Greil Marcus, Peter Guralnick, Luc Sante, Robert Gordon, and more. The story continues today, with a rockabilly revival that began with stars, such as the Stray Cats and Robert Gordon, spreading around the globe from Europe to Japan. Today, rockabilly is better than ever, with bands like Rev. Horton Heat and others playing the music and living the life from Memphis to Helsinki to Tokyo. There’s still good rockin’ tonight!