Poised on the brink of success, the dizzying heights of the unknown lying ahead, Ian Curtis had taken his own life. Grieving yet determined, Stephen Morris emerged from the wreckage of Joy Division to the dawn of something new: a new band, a new tour, a new beginning. Under the name New Order, Morris and his bandmates set their sights on America, only to encounter new disasters. Yet, in true northern spirit, not even this sudden tragedy could dissuade them from following their haphazard path to greatness. 

Before he was responsible for some of the most iconic drumming in popular music, Stephen Morris grew up in 1960s and '70s industrial Macclesfield, on a quiet road that led seemingly to nowhere. Far removed from the bright lights and manic energy of nearby Manchester, he felt stifled by suburbia and feared he might never escape. Then he joined Joy Division - while they were still known as Warsaw - a pioneer of the rousing post-punk sound that would revolutionise 20th-century rock.

Over a prolific 40-year career, The Fall created a world that was influential, idiosyncratic and fiercely original - and defied simple categorisation. Their front man and lyricist, Mark E Smith, spun opaque tales that resisted conventional understanding; The Fall's worldview was an education in its own right. Who wouldn't want to be armed with a working knowledge of M R James, shipping-dock procedures, contemporary dance, Manchester City and Can? The group inspired and shaped the lives of those who listened to and tried to make sense of their work.

Inspired by the attitude and energy of punk, Peter Hook and school friend Bernard Sumner joined lead-singer and lyricist Ian Curtis and drummer Stephen Morris, and with some cobbled-together instruments, they created their own unique sound. In 1980 they had released two albums and were on the cusp of touring America when Ian Curtis committed suicide. In this no-holds-barred account, Peter Hook gives us the inside story of life with Joy Division. He talks with candour and reflection about Curtis's suicide and covers the band's friendships and fall-outs....

Peter Hook, as co-founder of Joy Division and New Order, has been shaping the course of popular music for 30 years. He provided the propulsive bass guitar melodies of 'Love Will Tear Us Apart' and the bestselling 12-inch single ever, 'Blue Monday' among many other songs.

No Slade = No Oasis. It’s as devastating and as simple as that. Noel Gallagher Slade’s music and style dominated and defined the 1970s. With six consecutive number one singles, they were the UK’s number one group and sold millions of records all over the world. At their peak, Slade enjoyed success and adulation not seen since The Beatles.

Alan McGee's role in shaping British musical culture over the past 30 years is hard to overstate. As the founder of Creation Records, he brought us the bands that defined an era. A charismatic Glaswegian, who partied just as hard as any of the acts on his notoriously hedonistic label, he became an infamous character in the world of music.

John Cooper Clarke is a phenomenon: Poet Laureate of Punk, rock star, fashion icon, TV and radio presenter, social and cultural commentator, reluctant national treasure. At 5 feet 11 inches (116lb, 32in chest, 27in waist), in trademark suit jacket, skin-tight drainpipes and dark glasses, with jet-black back-combed hair and mouth full of gold teeth, he is instantly recognisable. As a writer his voice is equally unmistakable and his inimitable dry Salford drawl shines through the prose.

Jon Savage's oral history of Joy Division is the last word on the band that ended with the suicide of Ian Curtis in Macclesfield on May 18, 1980. It weaves together interviews conducted by the author, but never used in the making of the film Joy Division, which told the story of the band in their own words, as well as those of their peers, collaborators, and contemporaries.  

Chris Frantz met David Byrne at the Rhode Island School of Art & Design in the early 1970s. Together - and soon with Frantz's future wife, Tina Weymouth - they formed Talking Heads and took up residence in the grimy environs of Manhattan's Lower East Side, where their neighbours were Patti Smith, William Burroughs and a host of proto-punk artists who now have legendary status. 

"Hey Hi Hello" is a greeting we have all become familiar with, as Annie Nightingale cues up another show on Radio One. Always in tune with the nation's taste, yet effortlessly one step ahead for more than five decades, in this book Annie digs deep into her crate of memories, experiences and encounters to deliver an account of a life lived on the frontiers of pop cultural innovation.

Art Sex Music is the autobiography of a musician who, as a founding member of the avant-garde group Throbbing Gristle and electronic pioneers Chris & Cosey, has consistently challenged the boundaries of music over the past four decades. It is the account of an artist who, as part of COUM Transmissions, represented Britain at the IXth Biennale de Paris, whose Prostitution show at the ICA in 1976 caused the Conservative MP Nicholas Fairbairn to declare her, COUM and Throbbing Gristle "Wreckers of Civilisation".

Charles Bronson knows more about life in prison than anyone else in Britain - on either side of the bars. Jailed originally in 1974, his life since then has been one unbroken stretch of over 45 years, much of it in solitary confinement, moved again and again as prison after prison failed to contain his explosive temper. It would be enough to break an ordinary man - but Bronson is no ordinary man, and this is no ordinary prison diary.  

Ignoring nearly all rock traditions, experimenting in near-total secrecy in their Düsseldorf studio, Kraftwerk fused sound and technology, graphic design and performance, modernist Bauhaus aesthetics and Rhineland industrialisation - even human and machine - to change the course of modern music. This is the story of Kraftwerk as a cultural phenomenon, who turned electronic music into avant-garde concept art and created the soundtrack to our digital age.

Known for his brilliant songwriting, his extraordinary guitar playing, and his haunting and lovely songs, Richard Thompson has garnered a longtime cult following and is considered one of the top 20 guitarists of all time by Rolling Stone. Now, in his first memoir, he lyrically chronicles the start of his legendary career. Thompson packed more than a lifetime of experiences into his late teens and 20s. From the pivotal years of 1967 to 1975, he matured into a major musician, establishing the genre of British folk rock with the era-defining band Fairport Convention....