Simon Goddard – författare

Book by book, year by year, the ultimate literary trip through Bowie's greatest decade.1976, and in England the heat is rising. Immigration protests, racist murders, the rise of the National Front and the return of David Bowie, now the Thin White Duke, crowing to the papers how Britain "could benefit from a fascist leader".But with his incorrigible best buddy Iggy Pop in tow, as he gravitates towards the divided city of Berlin, his wake-up call is coming - and with it a brave new musical direction that will cement Bowie's place as the most innovative artist of the decade.The seventh volume of Simon Goddard's critically acclaimed Bowie Odyssey series is a stark and brutal black-and-white tale of art, anger, discord and salvation.

Book by book, year by year, the ultimate literary trip through Bowie's greatest decade.Darkness looms in 1974. It could be the winter energy crisis. It could be The Exorcist. Or it could be the shock that Britain's biggest pop star, David Bowie, is about to leave its shores for good.Bidding the corpse of glam, Ziggy's haircut and loyal 'Bowietania' farewell, the plan is to storm America with his highly theatrical Diamond Dogs tour. But by opening night he's already wishing he was Barry White instead. Then there's that nasty sniff he can't get rid of. And that fly in his milk. And the suspicion that, much like every other teen idol named David, fame is driving him completely out of his mind ...Simon Goddard's electric ride through Bowie's greatest decade reaches the halfway mark with this fifth instalment. Wickedly funny and shockingly tragic, Bowie Odyssey 74 is the story of one man trying to find his soul in a world that's gone to the devil.

Reveals the stories behind every track (including unreleased out-takes), catalogues all the group's UK television, radio and concert appearances and features interviews with original band members, producers and associates.Formed in 1982, The Smiths' brief but brilliant career lasted just five years - but the music they left behind distinguished them as one of the greatest British guitar groups of all time.'Songs That Saved Your Life - The Art of The Smiths 1982-87' reveals the stories behind every track (including unreleased out-takes), catalogues all the group's UK television, radio and concert appearances and features interviews with original band members, producers and associates.

He starts the decade a teenage pop idol. But the one-hit wonder who sang 'Space Oddity' is still very far from becoming the star who will one day define the 1970s. Not when he still has a band to find, a manager to sack, a mentally ill brother to save, a wife to marry and a rival called Marc Bolan to beat. Not when David Bowie still has no idea who or what David Bowie is.Starting at the beginning of Bowie's incredible ten-year odyssey changing the course of pop music, Simon Goddard's bold and expressionistic biography weaves time, space, rock'n'roll and social history to relive Bowie's 1970 - moment by vivid moment.

Book by book, year by year, the ultimate literary trip through Bowie's greatest decade.It is 1973. David Bowie is finally a superstar. All he has to do to remain there is to keep pretending he's Ziggy Stardust, keep playing to thousands, keep selling to millions and keep on staying relatively sane ...As glam rock crashes and burns in a sleazy scandal-ridden Britain, a world tour convinces David to make radical changes with devastating consequences for Ziggy, his fans and his band. However, his planned 'retirement' is anything but quiet - now a friend of the Jaggers, with more lovers than he can count on one hand, more appetites than he can satisfy with one nose and still more success. But at what cost?Continuing his vivid real-time journey through the decade David changed pop forever, the fourth volume of the Bowie Odyssey series sees Simon Goddard mainline to the dark heart of Seventies sex, drugs and debauched rock'n'roll - a gripping, unsentimental portrait of inspiration, insanity and the thin line that divides.PRAISE FOR THE BOWIE ODYSSEY SERIES'My god, it's brilliant. A delicious romp.' MIKE SCOTT, THE WATERBOYS'The best book written about its subject... Stupendous.' CLASSIC ROCK'The wonderful Bowie Odyssey series ... Goddard's prose is like an all-seeing eye.' RECORD COLLECTOR'A full-on sensory immersion in Bowie's universe.' SUNDAY TIMES'It's as if we were there.' 4**** MOJO'Goddard's scintillating series... with its meticulous fact-checking and almost poetic prose, paints a beautifully written portrait that's almost as otherworldly as its subject... [it] strikes the perfect balance... granting us an all-access-areas pass to accompany Bowie to every gig, every engagement and to some of the most important moments in rock' CLASSIC POP'The project's ambition is matched only by the sumptuousness of Goddard's writing... At times as I read Bowie Odyssey 73 I felt like his shadow.' CHRIS CHARLESWORTH

Britain, 1971. Strange land of hot pants, moral outrage, anarchist bombs and sexual revolution. As Marc Bolan is hailed as the nation's teenage saviour, the forgotten hope called David Bowie searches for the spark to relight his fire. He finds it in London's gay clubland and the stoned fields of Glastonbury, the speedy streets of New York City and his new rock'n'roll allies Lou Reed and Iggy Pop. The ignition for songs about life on Mars and cosmic messiahs, starry alter-egos and bold fashions fit for the ultimate Seventies superstar...In the sequel to Bowie Odyssey 70, Simon Goddard continues his groundbreaking immersive narrative of the world around Bowie, through the second year of the decade he changed pop forever.

A new year for David Bowie means new clothes, new boots, new hair and a new name: Ziggy Stardust. To the gloomy blacked-out Britain of powercuts and three-day weeks he may as well be from outer space - if that's what it takes to make him famous, far be it from him to tell anyone he isn't. Bowie's success as the bisexual Starman soon rubs off on his new friends Mott The Hoople and his hero Lou Reed as 1972 becomes Annus Glamrockus. Music, fashion and the old codes of gender will never be the same again. But as his runaway fame quickly blurs all lines between fantasy and reality, neither will David.The third volume of the Bowie Odyssey series offers a wild and revelatory snapshot of the year of Ziggy as Simon Goddard continues his vivid real-time journey through the decade Bowie changed pop forever.

Steven Patrick Morrissey is one of the most original and controversial voices in the history of popular music. With The Smiths, he led the most influential British guitar group of the 1980s, his enigmatic wit and style defining a generation. As a solo artist, he has continued to broach subjects no other singer would dare.Worshipped by some, vilified by others, Morrissey is a unique rock and roll creation. The 300,000 words of Mozipedia make this the most intimate and in-depth biographical portrait of the man and his music yet. Bringing together every song, album, collaborator, key location, every hero, book, film and record to have influenced his art, it is the summation of years of meticulous research. Morrissey authority Simon Goddard has interviewed almost everybody of any importance, making Mozipedia the last word on Morrissey and The Smiths.

He came from Outer Space...It was the greatest invention in the history of pop music – the rock god who came from the stars – which struck a young David Bowie like a lightning bolt from the heavens. When Ziggy the glam alien messiah fell to Earth, he transformed Bowie from a prodigy to a superstar who changed the face of music forever. But who was Ziggy Stardust? And where did he really come from?In a work of supreme pop archaeology, Simon Goddard unearths every influence that brought Ziggy to life – from HG Wells to Holst, Kabuki to Kubrick, and Elvis to Iggy. Ziggyology documents the epic drama of the Starman’s short but eventful time on Planet Earth… and why Bowie eventually had to kill him.

They had just a few hundred pounds, one band missing a drummer, a sock drawer for an office, more dreams than sense and not a clue between them how to run a record company. But when Alan Horne and Edwyn Collins decided to start their own label from a shabby Glasgow flat in 1979, nobody was going to stand in their way.Postcard Records was the mad, makeshift and quite preposterous result. Launching the careers of Orange Juice, Aztec Camera and cult heroes Josef K, the self-styled ‘Sound of Young Scotland’ stuck it to the London music biz and, quite by accident, kickstarted the 1980s indie music revolution.Simon Goddard has interviewed everyone involved in the making of the Postcard legend to tell this thrilling rock’n’roll story of punk audacity, knickerbocker glories, broken windscreens, raccoon-fur hats, comedy, violence and creating something beautiful from nothing, against all the odds.

Steven Patrick Morrissey is one of the most original and controversial voices in the history of popular music. With The Smiths, he led the most influential British guitar group of the 1980s, his enigmatic wit and style defining a generation. As a solo artist, he has continued to broach subjects no other singer would dare.Worshipped by some, vilified by others, Morrissey is a unique rock and roll creation. The 300,000 words of Mozipedia make this the most intimate and in-depth biographical portrait of the man and his music yet. Bringing together every song, album, collaborator, key location, every hero, book, film and record to have influenced his art, it is the summation of years of meticulous research. Morrissey authority Simon Goddard has interviewed almost everybody of any importance, making Mozipedia the last word on Morrissey and The Smiths.

He came from Outer Space...It was the greatest invention in the history of pop music – the rock god who came from the stars – which struck a young David Bowie like a lightning bolt from the heavens. When Ziggy the glam alien messiah fell to Earth, he transformed Bowie from a prodigy to a superstar who changed the face of music forever. But who was Ziggy Stardust? And where did he really come from?In a work of supreme pop archaeology, Simon Goddard unearths every influence that brought Ziggy to life – from HG Wells to Holst, Kabuki to Kubrick, and Elvis to Iggy. Ziggyology documents the epic drama of the Starman’s short but eventful time on Planet Earth… and why Bowie eventually had to kill him.

They had just a few hundred pounds, one band missing a drummer, a sock drawer for an office, more dreams than sense and not a clue between them how to run a record company. But when Alan Horne and Edwyn Collins decided to start their own label from a shabby Glasgow flat in 1979, nobody was going to stand in their way.Postcard Records was the mad, makeshift and quite preposterous result. Launching the careers of Orange Juice, Aztec Camera and cult heroes Josef K, the self-styled ‘Sound of Young Scotland’ stuck it to the London music biz and, quite by accident, kickstarted the 1980s indie music revolution.Simon Goddard has interviewed everyone involved in the making of the Postcard legend to tell this thrilling rock’n’roll story of punk audacity, knickerbocker glories, broken windscreens, raccoon-fur hats, comedy, violence and creating something beautiful from nothing, against all the odds.

London 1962. Five young hooligans have formed a band and are on a collision course with the austere and intolerant values of post-war Britain. From their beginning in a scummy flat off the Kings Road to the notorious Redlands scandal, this is the anarchic rollercoaster ride of the Stones’ first five years.We follow our heroes in a rags-to-riches romp of sex, scandal, mischief and uproarious behaviour as they challenge the establishment, invent the archetype of the rebellious, parent-scaring rock star lothario and, eventually, receive their comeuppance from the powers that be. Presented with the audacious wit and bawdy humour of a vintage novel, complete with Dickensian illustrations, Rollaresque celebrates the young Stones in the grand English literary tradition of lovable rogues. This is the music biography reinvented as a ripping yarn.

‘He wasn’t dead and gone to heaven. He was alive and still in Graceland. Cursed to live another year on god’s earth as Elvis Presley. The man from yesterday trapped in a today of tomorrows…’As 1968 dawns, the once King of Rock ’n’ Roll faces cultural oblivion. While elsewhere the Sixties are swinging, for Elvis they’re sinking – in terrible films, drug addiction, paranoia, religious mania and the mercenary wiles of his psychopathic manager. At 33 the legend who once had it all is lost, lonely and slowly going insane. Until thrown a last lifeline. His own one-hour TV special: a do-or-die final chance to remind the world who, and what, Elvis Presley really is.The Comeback plots the incredible true story of Elvis’ fall and rise from Army discharge to iconic black leather resurrection. Simon Goddard takes the reader inside the life, music and mind of Elvis: a 24/7 delirium of women, pills, midnight movies and holy mumbo jumbo, isolated from an America unravelling in its own Sixties chaos of war, racism, riots and assassinations, until his world and theirs collide in the greatest performance of his life.A genre-busting modernist rock ’n’ roll fable unlike any music biography you’ve ever read, The Comeback is the definitive account of how it took Elvis eight years on the big screen to lose his crown – but just one magical hour on a small one to win it back.

'An irresistible biography' Evening StandardIt remains the greatest comeback in music history. The Lazarus-like saga of Elvis Presley’s fall and rise, from Army discharge through Sixties Hollywood hell to divine black-leather resurrection.As 1968 dawns, the once ‘King’ of rock’n’roll faces cultural oblivion, a fading star lost in a 24/7 delirium of women, pills and holy mumbo-jumbo, isolated from an America unravelling in its own chaos of war, racism, riots and assassinations. Until, against all odds, his world and theirs collide in the performance of his life.First published four years before Baz Luhrmann’s dramatisation of events in the Oscar-nominated 2022 biopic Elvis, Simon Goddard’s The Comeback is no less a vividly cinematic, pelvic-thrusting blockbuster. This Remastered edition includes a foreword from musician and journalist Bob Stanley.

David Bowies Weg zum Erfolg: fesselnd wie ein RomanWir schreiben das Jahr 1970, und David Bowie steht kurz vor seinem großen Durchbruch. Nach mäßig erfolgreichen Lehrjahren mit Beatbands und Songs über lachende Gnome, dem kreativen Ausprobieren von Rock, Folk, Avantgarde und Pantomime ist er bereit für das erste Album, das sein künstlerisches Genie angemessen inszeniert - das versponnene und kontroverse "The Man Who Sold The World".Vor allem aber haben sich in diesem Schicksalsjahr alle Akteure eingefunden, die für Bowies unglaubliche Karriere eine entscheidende Rolle spielen sollen. Angie Bowie, Ehefrau, Muse und unermüdliche Energielieferantin. Tony Visconti, genialer Soundtüftler und Produzent. Marc Bolan, Freund, Konkurrent sowie Katalysator. Und Tony de Fries, der als skrupelloser Manager versuchen wird, alle Steine aus Bowies Karriereweg zu räumen - zu einem hohen Preis. Es ist eine beeindruckende Besetzung, die jedem großen Roman zur Ehre gereichen würde - und Simon Goddard macht aus dieser Szenerie in der Tat ein packendes Buch.Er nimmt den Leser mit zu Bowie nach Hause, ins Hippie-Paradies von Haddon Hall, ins verrufene Soho und ins graue Nordengland, wo Bowie mit Mick Ronson den ersten Mitstreiter der später legendären Spiders From Mars kennenlernt. Meisterlich kontrastiert er die Tristesse der englischen Vorstädte mit dem Geist des Aufbruchs jener Zeit, und sein fesselnder Stil lässt Szenen und Begegnungen vor dem inneren Auge des Lesers entstehen, die sich überraschend authentisch anfühlen: Ja, so könnte es gewesen sein! Ein faszinierendes Bowie-Abenteuer und zugleich Auftakt einer Serie, die mit einem Buch pro Jahr Bowies Karriere in den entscheidenden Siebzigerjahren nachzeichnet.

David Bowie 1971:schicksalhafte BewegungenMit Bowie Odyssee 71 erscheint jetzt Band 2 der aufregenden neuen Reihe über David Bowies Leben und Werk in den schillernden Siebzigern. In Bowie Odyssee 70 hatte Autor Simon Goddard bereits einige der Protagonisten etabliert, die für Bowies Karriere von entscheidender Bedeutung werden sollten - darunter Gattin Angie, den zwielichtigen Manager Tony Defries, den genialen Produzenten Tony Visconti und die Band, mit der Bowie den großen Durchbruch schaffen sollte, die Spiders From Mars.1971, in dem Jahr, das er in diesem Band darstellt, scheint dieser große Durchbruch noch immer weit entfernt. Trotz des Skandals um The Man Who Sold The World, auf dessen Cover Bowie im Kleid zu sehen ist, tritt der Sänger auf der Stelle. Und die britische Musikszene verändert sich allmählich: Ausgerechnet Bowies Freund Marc Bolan erobert mit einem ersten Hauch von Glam und Glitter die Teenagerherzen. Bowie erkennt, dass die Zeiten der Akustik-Troubadoure vorbei sind, und sieht sich nach neuen Inspirationen um: Vor allem seine Begegnungen mit Lou Reed und Iggy Pop werden zu einem schicksalhaften Wendepunkt. "Changes" stehen an, und ganz allmählich wird es auch für Bowie kosmisch ...Erneut lässt Simon Goddard die Grenzen zwischen Dokumentationen und Roman meisterlich verschwimmen. Dieses Mal führt er die Leser in die Schwulenclubs von London, in denen Bowie ebenso nach frischen Ideen sucht wie auf einem winzigen Festival im ländlichen Glastonbury - und der Autor folgt Bowie nach New York, auf dessen rauen Straßen ein anderer Ton herrscht als im vor kurzem noch swingenden London. Wieder fangen viele kleine Szenen den Geist jener entscheidenden Jahre ein und machen Bowie Odyssee 71 zu einer packenden, lebendigen Zeitreise, an der nicht nur Bowie-Fans Spaß haben werden.

1972 – David Bowies künstlerischer Höhepunkt:Extrem, wegweisend, grenzüberschreitend1972 verbreitete sich der Glamrock wie ein Lauffeuer und strahlte bis in die letzten Winkel der Musikwelt. Die Rolle des Macho-Frontmanns gehörte der Vergangenheit an, war einem androgynen Image gewichen – und wie kein anderer stand David Bowie mit seinem damals aktuellen Kunstwerk The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars für diesen Jugendkult. Hier vereinten sich Themen wie Science Fiction, Religion, kultische Verehrung und eine frei ausgelebte, ausschweifende Sexualität, die bei der 72er-Tournee durch eine Bühnenshow mit dramatischen Theaterelementen noch intensiviert wurden.Dank Simon Goddards fesselndem Schreibstil, bei dem er exzellent recherchierte Fakten durch überzeugende fiktionale Ausflüge belebt, entsteht ein plastisches Bild, das Bowie und sein Werk fassbar macht. Im Gegensatz zu bisherigen Publikationen stellt er eine unvergleichliche Nähe zum Künstler und seinen kreativen Experimenten her, die den Leser zum Zeitzeugen des stilprägenden Jahres macht.

"He wasn't dead and gone to Heaven. He was alive and still in Graceland. Cursed to live another year on God's earth as Elvis Presley. The man from yesterday trapped in a today of tomorrows..."As 1968 dawns, the once King of Rock 'n' Roll faces cultural oblivion. While elsewhere the Sixties are swinging, for Elvis they're sinking - in terrible films, drug addiction, paranoia, religious mania and the mercenary wiles of his psychopathic manager. At 33 the legend who once had it all is lost, lonely and slowly going insane. Until thrown a last lifeline. His own one-hour TV special: a do-or-die final chance to remind the world who, and what, Elvis Presley really is.The Comeback plots the incredible true story of Elvis' fall and rise from Army discharge to iconic black leather resurrection. Simon Goddard takes the reader inside the life, music and mind of Elvis: a 24/7 delirium of women, pills, midnight movies and holy mumbo jumbo, isolated from an America unravelling in its own Sixties chaos of war, racism, riots and assassinations, until his world and theirs collide in the greatest performance of his life.A genre-busting modernist rock 'n' roll fable unlike any music biography you've ever read, The Comeback is the definitive account of how it took Elvis eight years on the big screen to lose his crown - but just one magical hour on a small one to win it back.

Book by book, year by year, the ultimate literary trip through Bowie's greatest decade. This limited edition, published in hardback, features an alternative cover design.Simon Goddard's electric ride through Bowie's greatest decade reaches the halfway mark with this fifth instalment. Wickedly funny and shockingly tragic, Bowie Odyssey 74 is the story of one man trying to find his soul in a world that's gone to the devil.Darkness looms in 1974. It could be the winter energy crisis. It could be The Exorcist. Or it could be the shock that Britain's biggest pop star, David Bowie, is about to leave its shores for good.Bidding the corpse of glam, Ziggy's haircut, and loyal 'Bowietania' farewell, the plan is to storm North America with his highly theatrical Diamond Dogs tour. But by opening night he's already wishing he was Barry White instead. Then there's that nasty sniff he can't get rid of. And that fly in his milk. And the suspicion that, much like every other teen idol named David, fame is driving him completely out of his mind ...