Harry Shapiro – författare

When Cream broke up in 1968 it was by no means a foregone conclusion that it would be Eric Clapton who would enjoy continued commercial success. After all, it was Jack Bruce who had the looks, and who co-wrote and sang all the band’s major hits, including ‘Sunshine Of Your Love’, ‘I Feel Free’ and ‘White Room’. But he was a singular talent who wanted to be a pioneer, not just a pop star, and he was never happy resting on his reputation.

Bruce’s formative years set the tone for a musical journey that has twisted and turned through the decades, moving through and combining many genres and styles. His background is in classical music and jazz; at 10 he was winning classical song contests, at 12 composing string quartets and improvising on piano. Then he fell in love with Thelonious Monk and Charlie Mingus and left home at 18 to find his fortune as a jazz bass player. He found his way into the London blues scene and played with luminaries such as John Mayall and Graham Bond before first tasting chart success with Manfred Mann. Then there was Cream, one of the most influential rock bands of their time, who sold 35 million albums during their two-year existence. Cream split in their prime but their influence endured, and when they reformed in 2005 tickets were selling for nearly £2,000 on eBay.

In the 40 years since Cream split Bruce has continued his musical adventures with the likes of John McLaughlin, Billy Cobham, Carla Bley and Mick Taylor, never quite achieving the success and recognition he deserves. It has been an often troubled life — heroin addiction, management rip-offs, family tragedy, and a failed liver transplant, all of which he speaks about frankly in this book, telling a story that is sometimes funny, sometimes bleak, and always honest.

"Gary Moore is definitely in my list of top five guitar influences, right up there with Jimi Hendrix, Eddie Van Halen, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Michael Schenker. He just blew me away from the first time I heard him." Kirk Hammett

"The most powerful, genuine, authentic blues-rock guitarist of his day." Jack Bruce

"Gary opened the door for me and a lot of other blues-rock guitarists. He was a legend, a musical titan and a very nice man." Joe Bonamassa

Gary Moore delighted entire generations with his passionate guitar playing, from the driving rock of Thin Lizzy in the 1970s to his explorations in subsequent decades of jazz fusion, heavy metal, hard rock, blues rock, and more. Throughout that time, he could be seen on the world’s biggest stages, yet the real Gary Moore was always hidden in plain sight, giving little away. Now, however, through extensive and revealing interviews with family members, friends, and fellow musicians, acclaimed rock biographer Harry Shapiro is able to take readers right to the heart of Gary’s life and career.

Despite his early death in 2011, Moore still has legions of devoted fans across the world who will be enthralled by this unique insight into the life of a guitar genius who did it his way and whose music lives on. Beginning with Gary as a teenage guitar prodigy in war-torn Ireland and continuing through the many highs and lows of more than forty years in rock, Shapiro paints an intimate portrait of a musician widely hailed as one of the greatest Irish bluesmen of all time.