Simon Spence Boeken

From his child star beginnings to his battles with drug addiction and untimely death in a housefire, All or Nothing is a visceral and unflinching account of Steve Marriott's extraordinary and often troubling life.

From the Manchester backwaters to the worldwide 2012 tour, this title lays bare the irresistible tale of the last of the great bands. It traces the band's genesis, studded with violent gigs and abandoned recordings, and shaped by their infamous manager Gareth Evans.

Nobody who saw Depeche Mode in 1980 could have predicted that those four fresh-faced, synth-pop innocents would transform themselves into stadium- filling rock gods within a few years. Part musical odyssey, part cultural history, this title draws on dozens of interviews to give us an inside view of one of the most unlikely stories in pop and rock.

A joyful reappraisal of the Bee Gees at the peak of their powers, at the time of their wildly successful but unfairly maligned soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever, the album that turned them from has-beens to the musical phenomenon of the 70s.

"Peter Doherty is the last of the great rock 'n' roll stories - maybe even the best ever rock 'n' roll story. Since his band The Libertines rose to international fame, he has proved endlessly fascinating, the subject of numerous books, documentaries, magazine articles, front-page newspaper headlines and TV news reports. This, for the first time, is his version of his story. As an icon Doherty is on a par with the early Rolling Stones and Sid Vicious as a bad boy and public enemy. To his hundreds of thousands of devoted fans he is a cult hero, a modern-day rebel Rimbaud. He divides critics - for every award and accolade (Greatest Hero of Rock or No 1 on the Cool List) there is a scathing review, an objection almost to his very being. Musically, there is no doubt he has defined the past twenty years of British rock 'n' roll with his sound, words, attitude, lifestyle, aesthetic and early buccaneering use of the internet to communicate with fans directly. It is also true that too often his talents as a songwriter and performer have been over-looked amid the whirlwind of controversy and scandal that has tailed him since his first spell in prison in 2003. Hard drugs, deaths, tiny gigs on the hoof, huge stadium shows, collaborations, obliterations, gangsters and groupies - Doherty has led a life of huge highs and incredible lows. It is all here: the music; the friendships; the distractions (exhibitions of blood paintings, modelling for famous fashion designers, lead roles in esoteric French films); deaths and self-destruction (he admits working as a rent boy). We are inside mansions, decadent parties, the jailhouse, the studio, in crack dens, at home (Doherty has two children) and, of course, in bed. With his trademark wit and humour, Doherty reflects on his era-defining relationship with supermodel Kate Moss and the other significant women (and men) in his life. Doherty also talks poetry, Paris (where he spends much time), philosophy, books, politics, football (QPR), cars, managers, the music business and his key influences (from Hancock to Baudelaire). There is humour, warmth, insight, baleful reflection and a defiant sense of triumph. There is harrowing detail and acknowledgement of the damage hard drugs have done - the endless litany of misdemeanours such as drink-driving, car theft, possession of heroin, crack and ketamine, robbery, hit-and-run and blackmail. Doherty's description of multiple stretches in jail, attempts at rehab, painful relapses, gruesome hospital emergencies, and estrangement from his family are eye-wateringly candid and free from self-pity. In a remarkable section, Doherty ruminates on his recent rapprochement with his father, a former Major in the British Army, after a decades-long wall"--Publisher's description

"Persephone is the daughter of the goddess of nature who grows up in the forests of Greece only to be whisked away by Hades, the love-struck god of the Underworld. Persephone's mother, Demeter, roams across the lands in search of her daughter and a solution must be found. Should Persephone return to her old life or can there be a balance between her role as goddess of nature above and her new responsibilities below?"-- Amazon.com

The book meticulously explores the myth of the Greek hero Jason by analyzing a wide range of literary and iconographical evidence available until the end of the fifth century B.C. It aims to create a comprehensive portrait of Jason, delving into his narrative, significance, and representation in ancient culture. Through this examination, readers gain insight into the evolution of Jason's character and the broader themes of heroism in Greek mythology.

"Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham was the enfant terrible of Swinging Sixties London, the man who had crafted The Beatles' antithesis. By 1965 he was a millionaire notorious for working every publicity angle for his rising stars but he still felt frustrated by the men in grey suits who controlled the music industry. His solution to that problem was Immediate Records--the UK's first independent label--with a mission statement to wash away those grey men. What followed was five years of scams, chicanery, sex, drugs, violence and sensational music. Immediate's 'in-house' polymath producers: Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Oldham himself, Jimmy Page and Steve Marriott, attracted a crowd of daring, young British talent, forging the hippest scene in the world. Yet, following his ousting as Stones manager in 1967, the label itself began to fray at the seams as the drugs and booze clouded Oldham's creative genius and the grey suits quietly took their revenge"--

The only book to consider Oi! as a distinct genre within punk rock, What Have We Got? is the story of a musical movement that became a national concern in the eighties and still divides opinion today.

Newly published in paperback, All or Nothing is drawn from over 125 interviews with those who knew Marriott intimately: his wives, children, bandmates and closest friends, managers, record producers, record label bosses and his fellow musicians. Included are scores of people who have never told their story before.