Market Square Heroes

SOUND OF THE CROWD: A DISCOGRAPHY OF THE '80s is the ultimate record collector's guide to the 1980s. In the era of multi-formatting, picture discs, coloured vinyl, multiple remixes, funny shaped records and tiny CDs you could lose down the back of the sofa, this book lists every format of every single, EP and album released in the UK in the 1980s by over 140 of the decade's biggest acts, from ABBA to Paul Young. This fourth edition has been fully revised and expanded to include even more acts than ever before, with additional sections to cover Band Aid-style charity congregations and compilation albums from the early '80s K-Tel efforts through to the Now That's What I Call Music series and its competitors. Compiled by Steve Binnie, editor of the '80s music website Sound of the Crowd and writer, producer and co-host of the unconventional '80s chart show Off The Chart, broadcast weekly on Mad Wasp Radio.

Derided as seventies throwbacks upon their arrival and misremembered by the wider population as one-hit wonders, Marillion rode the 1980s as one of the most successful bands in Britain. Delivering the musical and conceptual density of early progressive rock with the caustic energy of punk, the Aylesbury heroes both spearheaded the neo-prog revival and produced its crown jewel in their number one album Misplaced Childhood and its Top 5 singles 'Kayleigh' and 'Lavender.' Musically, their influence reaches from prog legends Dream Theater and Steven Wilson to household names like Radiohead and Muse. The 1980s encapsulated Marillion’s birth, commercial apex, and near-implosion. This book combines meticulous history with careful musical analysis to chronicle their most turbulent decade from their first gig, through the dizzying success and destructive decadence of their time with frontman Fish, to his bitter departure and replacement by Steve Hogarth. It turns an experienced critical eye not only on their five albums of the decade - from the seminal Script For A Jester's Tear to Season's End - Hogarth's debut - and a line up that remains as active as ever. The book also discusses demos, singles, and Fish’s solo debut to dissect a band which critics still love to hate, even as today’s music industry stands upon their shoulders as pioneers of self-promotion and internet-based crowd funding. Nathaniel Webb is an American author, musician, and game designer. As a lead guitarist, he has toured and recorded for numerous acts including Grammy-nominated singers Beth Hart and Jana Mashonee, Colombian pop star Marre, and Talking to Walls. His writing includes the novels Expedition: Summerlands, The Days of Guns and Roses, and Arcadia Mon Amour. A graduate of Phillips Exeter Academy and Wesleyan University, Nathaniel lives in Portland, Maine with his wife and son under a big pile of cats. He can be found on Facebook and Twitter @nat20w.

'Unsung Heroes of Rock Guitar' is a collection of in-depth Q&A interviews with fifteen of rock music's greatest, most under-rated guitarists. Many of these musicians have achieved worldwide success in the music business as members of famous bands, yet their individual names and faces often go unrecognized. 'Unsung Heroes of Rock Guitar' goes behind the scenes of some of the greatest classic rock music of all time to tell the true stories of bands like Kiss, Bachman Turner Overdrive, Jethro Tull, Kansas, Heart and Yes, from the perspective of the people who lived to tell it all.

WHEN BUSINESSMAN John Timpson started his retailing career in 1960, there were no supermarkets, no out-of-town shopping centres and not even a hint of internet shopping. The British high street was full of made-to-measure tailors and traditional grocers. Among the household names were Mac Fisheries, Dewhurst, John Collier and Timothy Whites & Taylors. In this enjoyable new book, Timpson shows how successive generations of forward-thinking shopkeepers and inspirational entrepreneurs have led the major retailers through a period of rapid change – people such as Ken Morrison, Ralph Halpern, Terence Conran and Anita Roddick, without whom our high streets would have looked very different. This unique survey – from a man who knows a few things about success in retail – paints a compelling, personal and vivid picture of how shops have changed over the last 100 years and reveals who Timpson thinks has had the biggest influence on the shape of shopping in the 'retail revolution' that we have witnessed since the 1970s.

Pop music would be a different beast without the B-Side. Music history is riven with songs deemed throwaway that revolted against their lowly status and refused to be denied. Be it rock'n'roll’s national anthem (‘Rock Around The Clock’), disco’s enduring game-changer (‘I Feel Love’) or hip-hop’s most notorious dis track (‘Hit ’Em Up’), all three started life as the so-called ‘lesser’ track on releases primed for maximum chart impact. But the B-side has done much more than make stars of Bill Haley, Donna Summer and 2Pac. Whether it was the Beatles, the Kinks and the Yardbirds in the 60s, Elton John, the Who and Queen in the 70s, Depeche Mode, the Cure and Prince in the 80s, or Oasis, Pulp and Radiohead in the 90s, the B-side allowed many of the world’s greatest artists freedom to experiment with no commercial constraints in an age where physical product ruled the roost. A quickfire A-Z of 500+ flips, B-SIDE is the first serious examination of the format’s covert role in pushing the musical envelope. Best read with one eye on YouTube and one ear on a streaming service, its revelations will prick up the ears of music fans of all persuasions.

MOUNTAINS COME OUT OF THE SKY -THE ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PROG ROCK

Is extrasensory perception – E.S.P – real? Can certain individuals tap into a running stream of cranial activity from the very future itself? Can such a person engage in such tremendously overwhelming action and not be known to the world as yet? Read on to discover hidden truths, not only about the rock music of 70s and 80s, but most assuredly about your own inner being and mankind itself.