Rock Legends

'From the beginning to not quite the end... just yet'. From piano-playing child prodigy, through to classically trained keyboardist and onto his rise with Yes and as a solo artist, Rick Wakeman's life so far has been one of very dramatic spirals, spectacular comebacks and legendary rock ‘n’...

Leaving school and starting his career at Decca Records in 1958 at the age of sixteen, Tony King would soon find himself becoming close friends with Elton John, rekindling John Lennon and Yoko Ono's relationship, mediating a quarrelsome Mick Jagger and Keith Richards and spending time with Freddie Mercury in his final days - a far cry from his childhood days in Eastbourne. Living in an era of seismic social, technological and cultural transformation, King experienced these defining moments as a stalwart in London and New York's gay scenes.

Ron Fawcett is a natural-born climber. In 1969, while still at school in his native Yorkshire, he tied into a climbing rope for the first time and was instantly hooked. From that moment on, it seemed nothing else in his life mattered nearly as much as his next vertical fix... Fawcett found the pressures of the limelight too much to bear, and at the end of the 1980s he faded from view. Now, for the first time, he tells his extraordinary story, of how his love of nature and the outdoors developed into a passion for climbing that took him to the top - and almost consumed him.

There have been innumerable 'rock star' biographies and music histories before, but there is no book that presents the deepest, innermost thoughts from some of the industry's most legendary musicians on not only how they create, but what drives their creative process. Have you ever wondered how...

In 1985, Mark Cohen was twenty-one years old and searching for his purpose in life. When the women of Coven asked him to come on the road with their band, no one could have imagined how profoundly they would change one another—or how their journey would shape the future of heavy metal music. Coven: The Complete Girl Band Harem Series, takes the listener on a nostalgic ride through the early days of Coven, a heavy metal group celebrated for their genre-defying lyrics and face-melting guitar riffs.

John Glatt tells the story of the Fillmores through the lives of Bill Graham, Janis Joplin, Grace Slick, Carlos Santana, and an all-star supporting cast. Chronicling the East and West Coast cultures of the late 1960s and early 1970s-New York City with its speed, heroin, and the Velvet Underground versus San Francisco with the LSD-drenched Summer of Love - Glatt reveals how Graham made it all possible. But why did Graham shutter both Fillmores within weeks of each other in 1971, during the height of their popularity?

Darkness falls on the beautiful trails of Castle Rock, and death strikes without warning. After the first body was found with its throat ripped out, Detective Wade and Dr. Kayla Niccoles seek answers. The coroner reveals the body was riddled with rabies, probably an attack by a rogue bear or wolf.

Take a Walk on the Dark Side is the ultimate book for today's rock and roll fan: a fascinating compendium of facts, fictions, prophecies, premonitions, coincidences, hoaxes, doomsday scenarios, and other urban legends about some of the world's most beloved and mysterious pop icons. Updating, revising, and expanding on material from his cult classic Hellhounds on Their Trail, Patterson offers up a delectable feast of strange and occasionally frightening rock and roll tales.

In the middle of the 20th century, there was perhaps no leading man as famous and popular as Rock Hudson, who would remain a star over the course of four decades. Today, however, Rock Hudson might be better known for his personal life. Acting in a more conservative era, Hudson struggled to keep his homosexuality out of the news, for fear it would destroy his career, even though many of his Hollywood contemporaries were aware of it.

Kings of Rock and Roll is the story of Billy and Eddy King, one white, one black, and both musical prodigies. When joined by brothers Danny and Mickey Prince and drummer Phil Jester, they became Kings Court and became teenage music legends in the Deep South in the 1960s and '70s. Their collective stories weave a tantalizingly accurate picture of life in hundreds of textile towns across the Southeast during the era of civil rights and the Vietnam War.

"Years later," Donald Davis remember of his childhood," I came to realize that when you come from a long-dammed-up Scots-Irish gene pool it is an OK thing to wish for something, but it is not an OK thing to get it."