No Sleep Till Canvey Island

No Sleep Till Canvey Island
Author: Will Birch
Publisher: Virgin Books Limited
Total Pages: 336
Release: 2003
Genre: Rock music
ISBN: 9780753507407

It began with an outrageous press trip to New York to launch unknown rock band Brinsley Schwarz, which went disastrously wrong, and it went on to launch the careers of Ian Dury, Elvis Costello and Joe Strummer. The pub rock scene of the early 1970s was one of the most eventful and important in British music history.

A Howlin' Wind

A Howlin' Wind
Author: John Blaney
Publisher: Soundcheck Books Llp
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2011
Genre: New wave music
ISBN: 9780956642042

A fascinating study of how pub rock started, thrived and ultimately evolved into the New Wave. Blaney starts during the 1960s with the hippie roots of the movement, and then covers the main bands (Eggs Over Easy, Brinsley Schwarz, Ducks Deluxe et al). He explains how many of the Pub Rock bands re-invented themselves as New Wave acts (Kilburn and the High Roads becoming Ian Dury and the Blockheads, for example), often as a result of universities being awash with money and being able to pay over the odds for acts, thus putting the landlords of live music pubs out of business.

Ian Dury

Ian Dury
Author: Will Birch
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
Total Pages: 404
Release: 2010
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780283071218

Widely described as 'punk's poet laureate', Ian Dury is a cultural icon. With his band The Blockheads, he exploded onto the television screen in 1978, appearing on "Top of the Pops" with his hit single 'What a Waste', followed later that year by 'Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick'. By now Ian was thirty-six and had worked hard for many years to reach this moment, struggling all the while to find acceptance inspite of the disability he suffered as a result of childhood polio. And yet fame, when it came, almost destroyed him. This groundbreaking and authoritative book gives the first in-depth and compelling account of the life of this charismatic yet complex artist. Author Will Birch interviewed Dury several times during his lifetime, and has also spoken to more than sixty people who were extremely close to Ian, including family members, fellow musicians, friends, lovers and business associates.

Unconditional Surrender

Unconditional Surrender
Author: Evelyn Waugh
Publisher: DigiCat
Total Pages: 229
Release: 2022-08-10
Genre: Fiction
ISBN:

'Unconditional Surrender' is a satire on the English class system. The writer takes a dig at the way the ruling class and their sense of entitlement, even when the country is in a global conflict, can plan through the bureaucracy to make their way into the far less dangerous and more comfortable theatres of war.

The Unwilling Adventurer

The Unwilling Adventurer
Author: R. Austin Freeman
Publisher: House of Stratus
Total Pages: 381
Release: 2001-06-14
Genre:
ISBN: 0755103815

A sworn enemy of Hawke has been shot dead and the murder weapon belongs to him. He protests his innocence and goes on the run until evidence is found to clear him. Thus, an unwilling adventure where he sets sail with a vibrant cast of men, casting off for unknown waters and strange islands. And enemies abound in the most unlikely of places.

Junior

Junior
Author: Jason Allday
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Total Pages: 505
Release: 2014-07-22
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1496926870

Society played a part in the death of my baby brother. The demand for perfection and what was deemed acceptable by our everyday standards helped mold a fragile frame in a young man's mind. The security and resolution I needed was never to be found within the realms of the everyday working world. I learned to reconcile with what you may unfairly call the "ills of society". I found not only resolve, but also harmony within the world, a world that all members of our populace are exposed to in their lives and is part of a culture, even if you chose to ignore it, is one we all live in. I'm not only lucky enough, but also privileged to have been welcomed and accepted in this world, and here their stories will show that this syndicate are of the same making of us all. For me and my brothers none of our heroes wore capes.

A Detective's Triumphs

A Detective's Triumphs
Author: Dick Donovan
Publisher: Wildside Press LLC
Total Pages: 278
Release: 2021-03-12
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1479458341

“Dick Donovan” was the pseudonym of James Edward Preston Murdock (1843–1934), an author of mysteries, thrillers, and horror stories. For a time, his popularity rivaled that of Arthur Conan Doyle—and he was certainly more prolific than Doyle. Between 1889 and 1922, he published nearly 300 mystery stories (many in series that were collected as books, such as this one.) Many of Muddock’s mystery stories feature the character Dick Donovan, a Glasgow Detective, named for one of the 18th Century Bow Street Runners. The character was so popular that later stories were published under this pen name. Muddock also wrote true crime stories, horror, and 37 novels, most as “Dick Donovan.” His non-fiction included four history books, seven guidebooks for areas in the Alps and his autobiography. His stories were used by The Strand magazine in months when there were no Sherlock Holmes stories available.

The Birthday Party

The Birthday Party
Author: Harold Pinter
Publisher:
Total Pages: 87
Release: 1991
Genre: Drama
ISBN: 9780571160785

Stanley Webber is visited in his boarding house by strangers, Goldberg and McCann. An innocent-seeming birthday party for Stanley turns into a nightmare.The Birthday Party was first performed in 1958 and is now a modern classic, produced and studied throughout the world.

Cruel to Be Kind

Cruel to Be Kind
Author: Will Birch
Publisher: Da Capo Press
Total Pages: 400
Release: 2019-08-20
Genre: Music
ISBN: 0306921979

The definitive biography of singer-songwriter Nick Lowe, best-known for "Cruel to Be Kind" and "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding" Described as "Britain's greatest living songwriter," Nick Lowe has made his mark as a pioneer of pub rock, power-pop, and punk rock and as a producer of Elvis Costello, Graham Parker, the Damned, and the Pretenders. He has been a pop star with his bands Brinsley Schwarz and Rockpile, a stepson-in-law to Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash, and is the writer behind hits including "Cruel to Be Kind" and "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding." In the past decades, however, he has distinguished himself as an artist who is equally acclaimed for the second act of his career as a tender yet sharp-tongued acoustic balladeer. Biographer Will Birch, who in addition to being a music writer was a drummer and songwriter with The Records, has known Lowe for over forty years and melds Lowe's gift as a witty raconteur with his own authoritative analysis of Lowe's background and the cultural scenes he exemplifies. Lowe's parallel fame as one of the best interviews in the business will contribute to this first look into his life and work--and likely the closest thing fans will get to an autobiography by this notoriously charming cult figure. This is not an authorized biography, but Lowe has given it his spiritual blessing and his management and label are fully on board. Cruel to Be Kind will be the colorful yet serious account of one of the world's most talented and admired musicians.