Decades – serie

The 1980s saw Alice Cooper release arguably his most diverse collection of albums, ranging from new wave to metal to full-on radio-friendly rock. They weren't all commercially successful, but all are worth listening to and some are excellent.This book (which follows on from the author's acclaimed Alice Cooper In The '70s) features all new interview material by the author with 45 musicians and performers who worked with Alice over the decade. Many have never been interviewed before and they offer fascinating insight into working with Alice and each other. Key interviewees include Mike Pinera, Jan Uvena, John Nitzinger, Graham Shaw, Ken Mary, Kip Winger, Kane Roberts, John McCurry and Al Pitrelli. Consequently, the book includes a lot of new facts and information that should please fans. The author adds commentary and opinions on all of the songs from the era, Alice's film work and the five live tours. There is also an appendix on the album that could have been but never was. Alice 'contributes' from the contemporary press of the time are referenced, which became more loquacious as the decade goes on. Alice in the '80s, what a thrill ride that was!

For better or worse, The Bee Gees' music and image has long been synonymous with the 1970s, and the career trajectory of brothers Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb in that ten-year span meanders between dizzying highs and devastating lows. The Bee Gees began 1970 as non-existent - bitterly split after succumbing to the pressures and excesses of their first wave of international fame in the latter part of the 1960s. By 1979, they were one of the most successful music acts on the planet. In between, the brothers crafted timeless works that defied genre, transcended societal boundaries, and permeated generations of listeners. The Bee Gees would go on to sell over 200 million records, making them among the best-selling music artists of all time; they would be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Australian Recording Industry's Hall of Fame, and the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and receive lifetime achievement awards from the British Phonographic Industry, the American Music Awards, World Music Awards and the Grammys. According to Billboard magazine the Bee Gees are one of top three most successful bands in their charts' history.

Beat Instrumental summed it up in 1971: 'In a few short months Curved Air have emerged from the unknown depths to become one of the most talked-about bands around. By a combination of record company promotion (ranging from ads to that pretty patterned album) and a word-of-mouth reputation gained from their gigs, the group became a name before they had really done that much. Such a situation can be worrying for a band but Curved Air have the confidence to carry on unaffected.' Propelled into stardom at an exhilarating speed due to clever marketing and virtuosity in their musicianship, particularly violinist Darryl Way, the story of Curved Air in the 1970s is of a band that burned brightly before collapsing well ahead of their time. Fronted by the exotic Sonja Kristina, they supported Jethro Tull, Deep Purple, Johnny Winter, Edgar Winter and B.B. King in huge stadiums, and several famous names passed through their ranks. These included Stewart Copeland who went on to form the Police with Sting. Every line up of Curved Air presented a stellar range of talent across a musically fascinating contribution throughout the decade. This book documents it all - from the groundbreaking albums like Air Conditioning and Phantasmagoria to the line up changes and traumas which caused the band to disband for the first time in 1976.

America was booming during the second decade of the century, and these volumes cover it all. Entries discuss America’s love affair with the automobile, a “longer” day for urban dwellers made possible by electricity, changes in jobs and earnings due to the millions of immigrants who entered the country at the beginning of the decade, a rise in divorce, and, of course, the Great World War. Every entry focuses on a topic or person during the 1910s that made the decade unique.

Derided as seventies throwbacks upon their arrival and misremembered by the wider population as one-hit wonders, Marillion rode the 1980s as one of the most successful bands in Britain. Delivering the musical and conceptual density of early progressive rock with the caustic energy of punk, the Aylesbury heroes both spearheaded the neo-prog revival and produced its crown jewel in their number one album Misplaced Childhood and its Top 5 singles 'Kayleigh' and 'Lavender.' Musically, their influence reaches from prog legends Dream Theater and Steven Wilson to household names like Radiohead and Muse. The 1980s encapsulated Marillion's birth, commercial apex, and near-implosion. This book combines meticulous history with careful musical analysis to chronicle their most turbulent decade from their first gig, through the dizzying success and destructive decadence of their time with frontman Fish, to his bitter departure and replacement by Steve Hogarth. It turns an experienced critical eye not only on their five albums of the decade - from the seminal Script For A Jester's Tear to Season's End - Hogarth's debut - and a line-up that remains as active as ever. The book also discusses demos, singles, and Fish's solo debut to dissect a band which critics still love to hate, even as today's music industry stands upon their shoulders as pioneers of self-promotion and internet-based crowd funding

Music fans tend to divide into two camps at the mention of Fleetwood Mac. There are those who think of the multi-million-selling five-piece that formed in the mid-1970s and released Rumours, the biggest selling album of all time. But there are those who adopt a self-appointed 'cooler' stance, preferring the late-sixties blues band fronted by the virtuosic guitarist Peter Green. But that's not the whole story. Between May 1970, when Green left his own band to be replaced by the bass player's wife, to the beginning of 1975, when Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks joined Fleetwood Mac, there were five years of what can only be described as turmoil. One by one, talented musicians such as Jeremy Spencer, Danny Kirwan, Bob Weston and Bob Welch joined and left the band. While it's impossible to ignore the skill and longevity such classic songs as 'Rhiannon' and 'Don't Stop' and albums Fleetwood Mac, Rumours and Tusk, there are an equal number of half-forgotten classic songs from the first half of the 1970s and many deep album cuts that have been overlooked. Here is the story of Fleetwood Mac in the 1970s - the music, the people, the tours, the rumours, the failures and the successes.

When Yes ran into problems recording their tenth album in Paris at the end of 1979, it was almost the end. Yet in the 80s, the band rallied, firstly as part of an unlikely collaboration with new wave duo The Buggles, then with 90125, the most successful album of their career, which spawned a number one hit in the USA with 'Owner Of A Lonely Heart'. The band failed to capitalise on this success, however, lingering too long over its successor Big Generator and by the end of the decade, Yes had effectively split into two versions of the same group.With most authors concentrating on the group's 1970s career, Yes in the 1980s looks in forensic detail at this relatively underexamined era of the band's history, featuring rarely seen photos researched by author David Watkinson. The book follows the careers of all nine significant members of the group during a turbulent decade which saw huge highs but also many lows. Not only does it consider the three albums the band itself made across the decade, but also the solo careers and other groups - including Asia, XYZ, The Buggles, Jon and Vangelis and GTR - formed by those musicians as the decade wound towards a reunion of sorts in the early 1990s

Few, if any bands, have been as prolific or consistently creative as Genesis were in the 1970s, both together and apart. Across that decade, the mothership released eight studio and two live albums, played a thousand concerts and launched the solo careers of four of its members. Through it all, they weathered the departures of Anthony Phillips, Peter Gabriel and Steve Hackett, ending the decade as a self-contained trio of Tony Banks, Phil Collins and Mike Rutherford, one that was about to become the biggest band in the world.For many though, the 1970s represents their artistic peak as a hothouse for incredible songwriters. It made for a combustible, heady brew when those talents were all harnessed in the service of the band, helping create the progressive rock genre, pioneering the multimedia concert experience, as well as making a rakishly worn daffodil the headgear of choice for the cognoscenti. Genesis began the decade by playing before an audience of one and asking if he had 'any requests?' and ended it by headlining the Knebworth Festival in front of 80,000 fans. This book tells the whole story of that tumultuous decade, on record and on stage, together and apart.

No period of Bob Dylan's six-decade career confounds fans more than the 1980s. The singer began the decade with Saved, the second in a trio of explicitly religious records, and a tour in which he declined to play his older songs because of concern they were anti-god. Dylan's ambivalence about the songs that made him an icon was mirrored by fans, many of whom found his post-conversion messages strident and judgmental. This made Saved his worst selling album in years and set a pattern for the next several years. Despite being a prolific time, in which the singer released seven studio albums, the decade was defined by inconsistency. Throughout the 1980s, some of his most profound work alternated with lackluster compositions and indifferent performances - sometimes on the same album. However, even as Dylan struggled artistically, all of his albums contained reminders of why he continued to be celebrated. By the end of the decade, his perseverance - both on stage and in the studio - and a spontaneous collaboration with some of his peers coalesced into his best received releases since the 1970s. Rather than closing a book, the combination of Oh Mercy and the first Traveling Wilburys record pointed to new chapters. The 1990s began a remarkable run of success that few popular artists have managed at any stage of their careers.

Long, unfurling tracks; huge stacks of gear; music like that of no other group; trailblazing live gigs based on improvisation. This is the legacy of Tangerine Dream, the legendary German group piloted by Edgar Froese, whose impact on music, and electronic music in particular, has been profound. Formed in the Summer of Love, and at the beginning a group of rock musicians who liked to improvise, they went on to record and release a series of ground-breaking synthesiser albums with their native Ohr Records and with Richard Branson's fledgling Virgin Records. With the support of underground DJ titan John Peel, their star ascended through the seventies. This book covers that glorious, extraordinary decade, focusing on the music but also telling the group's tale. Albums recording by the band included the classic Phaedra, it's hugely popular follow up Rubycon and they ended the decade with the powerful Force Majeure. The book includes new interviews with Steve Jolliffe and also with early member Steve Schroyder, who was there alongside Froese in those very early days.

When Hereford group Silence teamed up with songwriter Ian Hunter in 1969 to form a group that aimed to be a cross between Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones and Procol Harum, they rapidly became one of Britain's most popular live acts, but a major hit single and album initially proved elusive.In 1972, disillusioned and exhausted, they split before being encouraged to reform by David Bowie and finding immediate chart success with a song he gave them, 'All the Young Dudes'. After two years of hits and internal conflicts Ian left and enjoyed a chequered solo career that has lasted to this day, initially in partnership with guitarist Mick Ronson until his death in 1993. The rest of the group subsequently shortened their name to Mott and then British Lions, the latter a collaboration with former Medicine Head front man John Fiddler, although they failed to re-establish themselves despite several solid months of touring on both sides of the Atlantic. As Ian wrote, 'Rock'n'roll's a loser's game'. They won, they lost, but during the 1970s released some inspired, highly individual music, that went on to inspire and be championed by several other acts, notably Queen, the Clash and Def Leppard.

Britpop Decades covers the ten-years that witnessed the birth, boom and bust of Britpop - a period in which home-grown indie guitar music from across the UK went mainstream, pop stars were cut from the most unlikely of cloth, and British culture made its voice heard with some incredibly bombastic choruses. Delving deep into the 75 key albums that defined a decade, the book includes full band biographies, detailed track-by-track discussion, recommendations for further listening and some personal reminiscences by the authors who together came of age during the 90s. Also featuring a year-by-year review of the era, highlighting all the key historical, cultural and pop-cultural changes that took place, this is your guide to one of the most exciting, vibrant and sensational periods British music had witnessed since the 1960s. Part of Sonicbond's acclaimed Decades series, the book offers a window into the 90s for those that want to understand the time and a memory box for those that were there, but had too much fun to remember it.

Free were formed in 1968 towards the end of the British blues boom. After two critically acclaimed albums, the release of ‘All Right Now’ and the album Fire and Water in 1970 brought them major success. Musical and personal differences took their toll and they split after the comparative failure of their next album and single. After starting new bands that never took off they reformed, but following further dissension and guitarist Paul Kossoff’s drug problems they disbanded for good in 1973. Vocalist Paul Rodgers and drummer Simon Kirke then formed Bad Company, who became one of the hottest bands on both sides of the Atlantic, maintaining a stable line-up with ex-Mott The Hoople guitarist Mick Ralphs and ex-King Crimson bassist Boz Burrell for the rest of the decade. Each member later pursued outside ventures, although they regrouped at intervals, recruiting new members after Ralphs’ retirement and Burrell’s death. This book examines both bands’ work and career from 1968 to 1980, plus the Kossoff, Kirke, Tetsu, Rabbit album, Kossoff’s solo work and Back Street Crawler, with a chapter on their later history, notably Rodgers’ three years with Queen.

Between 1972 and their first break-up in 1976 (and then again following their 1979 reunion), Roxy Music were arguably the most exciting, ambitious and vivacious bans in the land - a core four piece of vocalist Bryan Ferry, guitarist Phil Manzanera, horn player Andy Mackay and drummer Phil Thompson (but also featuring, at different times, Brian Eno and Eddie Jobson) who emerged during 1972's long, hot summer of glam rock, but who could never be readily pigeonholed.The greatest records they made became, in turn, some of the greatest records of the age. 'Virginia Plain,' 'Pyjamarama,' 'Street Life,' 'All I Want Is You,' 'Love is the Drug,' 'Trash' and 'Dance Away' were the hits, but even the deepest cuts on the band's first five albums became anthems for a generation. Roxy were no ordinary band in other ways, too, as Ferry, Manzanera, Mackay and Eno all embarked upon solo careers - which, between them, were responsible for a complex catalogue of songs that stretches from the ballads of the 1930s to the electronica of the distant future, from Wagner's Valkyries to David Bowie's Low.This book encompasses all of that, documenting the histories of both band and band members, while analysing and detailing every album and single released by the Roxy family throughout the decade.

Phil Collins was everywhere in the 1980s. He had more top forty singles in the US than any other artist during the 1980s: fourteen as a solo artist and eleven with Genesis, along with two number one albums. Add to this, twenty-five solo / group hit singles and eight number one albums in the UK. He also recorded with artists as diverse as Peter Gabriel, John Martyn, Frida, Robert Plant, Mike Oldfield, Marti Webb, Al Di Meola, Adam Ant, Eric Clapton, Phil Bailey, Band Aid, Marilyn Martin, Paul McCartney, Tina Turner, Chaka Khan and Tears For Fears - another thirty-five albums or standalone singles, some of which were massive global hits. He also found time, somehow, to tour with Plant and Clapton in addition to his extensive in-concert duties with Genesis and as a solo artist. And perform at Live Aid. At both concerts. That’s around six hundred live concerts in total between 1980 and 1989. There’s no doubt that the guy was busy in that period!Amidst the overwhelming commercial success and ahead of any other career plan Phil Collins was and is a musician. His ubiquity between 1980 and 1989 hides ten years of magnificent music and this book examines Phil Collins’ musical output through these ten tumultuous years.

Donovan is one of the musicians who defined the 1960s. From his humble, working-class roots as a teenager with big dreams, he rose to become an icon of the times, the troubadour of the flower power generation. His story is one filled with tales of romance, legendary friendships, and screaming fans. But it's also the story of a spiritual journey and of a personal mission to bring his message of love to the world. Most of all, though, it's about the music. Defying the press who dubbed him a mere Dylan imitator, Donovan found his own unique voice and produced some of the most creative and enduring music of the '60s; songs that captured the imagination with memorable melodies and poetic, thought-provoking lyrics. He transcended his folk roots to blend in rock, pop, jazz, classical and world music elements like no one had done before. The mythical, magical decade of the 1960s was the time that Donovan made his mark on the world. This book tells his story through a deep dive into the music he created in those times, including new insights from John Cameron, who arranged and played on many of Donovan's classic songs of the era.

‘If you talk about the ‘70s, I was a hardworking artist. I did nothing but tour - recording, touring, TV, you know. I had constant jetlag. Constant black shadows under my eyes but, oh, what a ride! What a wonderful ride. And I’m still doing it now.’ Suzi QuatroWith a succession of hit singles, including eight UK top twenty hits and two number ones, sell-out tours and six studio albums, Suzi Quatro was an enduring presence throughout the 1970s, the decade that saw her move away from being part of an all-girl band in Detroit and relocate to England for a solo career that challenged old stereotypes and helped redefine the image of the female rock icon.Taking each year in turn this book takes a detailed look at Suzi Quatro’s career throughout the decade where she enjoyed her greatest successes, including a comprehensive overview of each album and single released during that period, her touring schedule and her frequent media appearances, including that famous guest role in Happy Days. As well as making extensive use of press archives from the era, Suzi Quatro In The 1970s also includes personal reflections from an exclusive interview with Suzi herself.

Brian Eno is arguably one of the most influential musicians working in rock music. Starting out as synthesizer peacock of the early glam rock era Roxy Music, Eno not only changed his look but his musical style throughout the seventies and moved from foot-stomping proto-punk anthems to the quiet introspection and inventor of ambient music. Along the way, he became a much in demand producer working with Ultravox! and Talking Heads and also collaborated with David Bowie on three of the most important albums of his career. He also managed to blur the boundaries between rock music and modern avant-garde classical music with the founding of his 'Obscure Records' label. Eno began this decade strutting his stuff onstage to Bryan Ferry's songs and finished it with the serene melodies of Music For Airports and, along the way, managed to squeeze in a couple of albums with King Crimson's Robert Fripp as well as being part of the krautrock scene. This is Eno’s journey through the highs and lows of the seventies.

After the singularity of Astral Weeks in 1968, the 1970s were the formative years for the solo career of one of the acknowledged giants of modern music. Van Morrison was one of the music legends who defined the decade, with every album bringing out different aspects to Morrison's vast musical spectrum. His story in the 1970s is a chronicle of a Belfast artist coming to terms with the voice, the call, the dream of America. The decade saw Morrison work through the promise of the land of the blues and jazz, westerns and railroads, big cities and backwoods. It also saw his own spiritual quest and the reimagining of a nordic North European heritage and Caledonian Irish roots alongside the realisation of emigration and exile. Morrison forged a rich and complex artistic catalogue that continues down the years to the present day. Beginning with smash hit Moondance in 1970, his output in the decade continued through Tupelo Honey via Hard Nose the Highway to 1979's Into the Music. By the end of the 1970s, he was again using Europe to recast his music and imagination for another half century in the business, but throughout most of the decade his songs centred on America as he created the foundation of an unparalleled legacy

Having moved from jazz, Blues and R'n'B to out-and-out pop in his various 1960s bands, keyboard player Manfred Mann went back to the drawing board in 1971 with a new quartet, Manfred Mann's Earth Band, and the intention of focusing on progressive rock. With a repertoire that leant partly on radical rearrangements of songs by Bob Dylan and then Bruce Springsteen, largely instrumental epics that borrowed from Gustav Holst's The Planets suite, and improvisations based around the interplay between Manfred's newly-acquired moog synthesiser and the lead guitar of Mick Rogers, who left in 1975 but later returned, they soon built up a formidable live reputation throughout much of Europe (particularly in Germany) and America. Apart from the Holst-inspired 'Joybringer', a top ten hit in 1973, British success was slow in coming, until a cover version of Springsteen's 'Blinded by the Light' and its parent album The Roaring Silence three years later took their status to a new level on both sides of the Atlantic. This book examines the nine albums, fluctuating fortunes and various line-up changes from what was to be their best and most prolific decade.

Status Quo are a British institution - a multi-million selling band of epic proportions and while their career was in it's hey day during the 1970s, the hits kept coming through the 1980s along with breakups, lawsuits, line-up changes, substance abuse and a high-profile, highly successful comeback after calling it a day in 1984.While much has been written about the 'glory years', Quo's difficult but triumphant struggle through the 1980s is a much more exciting story with twists, turns and a sense of peril that feels like it could go either way.This is a celebration of Quo's music at its most vulnerable and experimental, at a time when the band lost old fans, gained new ones and made some of the most varied and creative recordings of their career. No stone has been left unturned with several members of the band contributing stories and anecdotes from their own perspectives that should leave even the most knowledgeable of fans feeling like they've learned something.

There were a lot of very different bands peddling their wares in the progressive rock 'golden age' of the 1970s - some tending toward symphonic grandeur, other towards jazz fusion, and others still ploughing the more immediate end of the spectrum. There were the left-field eccentrics and the tricky 'difficult' bands. Apart from it all, however, there were Van Der Graaf Generator. In a decade stuffed with a wild array of influences, styles and instrumental line-ups, there can be few tending quite so near to the definition 'unique' as the four musicians who made up the 'classic' line-up of Van Der Graaf.For a start, there was the astonishing songwriting and vocals of generally accepted 'leader' Peter Hammill, but there was much more behind that to set these men apart. Their unparalleled instrumental make-up saw little or no guitar and no bass guitar, while organist Hugh Banton handled the bass parts on pedals, David Jackson pioneered an astonishing saxophone style, playing two instruments at once, electric rather than miked up, and using a full effects pedalboard. Drummer Guy Evans filled in - well, everything else. It was and remains a sound quite like no other.This book documents their incredibly influential first decade as prog's ultimate 'outsiders'. It's quite a ride.

They pulled on their platform boots and slapped on the makeup when everybody else was discarding theirs. Their albums were subject to poor production, scathing reviews, and commercial indifference. Other bands refused to have them as their opening act. Their record company was up against the wall. By all reasoning, they should have become one of the 'lost' bands of the 1970s, like the Harlots of 42nd Street or the Hollywood Stars. Yet in 1975 Kiss unexpectedly came Alive! and by the following year, they were the biggest rock and roll band - and brand - in America.This is a journey through Kiss's first and most storied decade. It is the story of the four men behind the masks, and the music they made, the studio albums, the legendary live albums, and of one of the greatest rock follies in music history, the four simultaneously released solo album. Along the way, it tells of the costumes and the concerts, the merchandise and the Marvel comic books, the television appearances and the disastrous 1978 movie, Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park. And having bestrode the 1970s like an unstoppable colossus, it ends with Kiss under siege, beset by changing public taste without, and combustible personalities within.

It may have taken them a few years to achieve a stable line-up, but Faith No More did just that with the arrival of enigmatic frontman, Mike Patton in 1988. By 1990, the San Francisco quintet were flying high on the back of their third album, The Real Thing, and the influential anthem for a generation, 'Epic'. Becoming a household name and mainstream chart botherers with colourful and diverse songs ranging in style from heavy metal to jazz, and rap rock to lounge music, Faith No More refused to follow trends and instead pushed forward with a gung-ho attitude and a talent for songwriting built around sonic experimentation. The band released the critically acclaimed Angel Dust, as well as King for a Day...Fool for a Lifetime and the ironically titled Album of the Year records, before stunning fans by parting ways in 1998. Faith No More in the 1990s is the story of a largely rewarding but tension-filled decade for rock music's greatest underdogs. Providing a detailed timeline of events, frenetic touring schedules, and most importantly- the songs, this book documents the rise and progression of one of the most distinctive bands of all time

Yes are widely recognised as pioneers of progressive rock through their defining work in the 1970s, including classic records such as Fragile and Close to the Edge. The band then went on to completely re-invent themselves in the 1980s. They achieved huge commercial success with the album 90125 and global hit 'Owner of a Lonely Heart'. But there has been little acknowledgement of their achievements in the ten years that followed, paving the way for three more decades in an extraordinary 50 plus-year-long career.Examining six more albums, the arrival of multi-instrumentalist Billy Sherwood, successful tours, solo and film projects, a move into the digital age, and consolidation of a worldwide fanbase, Yes in the 1990s adds a fresh twist to the story of this revered band. Simon Barrow followed Yes closely in the '90s, seeing them dozens of times on both sides of the Atlantic. He charts an underestimated era of development in the Yes sound, encompassing multiple personnel changes. Bookended by notable tours for Union and The Ladder, the '90s is a tale of Yes-intransition, as the search for new musical horizons sees their influence mutate across everything from art pop to global fusion.

Out of the dozen different line-ups since Fleetwood Mac formed in 1967, there's only one incarnation that truly matters for most listeners. During their time together, Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Christine McVie, Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham created some of popular music's most enduring records, including 1977's Rumours. Written and recorded as multiple relationships within the band were collapsing, the landmark album became a worldwide hit that still attracts new fans. Disbanding might have been the rational response to the turmoil surrounding the making of that album, but they continued touring and recording even as tensions within the group continued to accumulate. Although Fleetwood Mac only recorded two albums together in the 1980s, four of the five members released solo albums that brought their individual contributions to the band into focus. After the group splintered in the late-1980s, it took a request from a US President to fix it, if only temporarily. The underlying tension between the band members' individual and group efforts - the truth that they worked best together but could only do so for limited periods - continues to the present day and reflects that even more so than the 1970s, the 1980s were the pivotal decade for Fleetwood Mac.

Keyboard wizard Rick Wakeman is one of the most talented and influential musicians and composers to have graced the world of popular music. He is also one of the most prolific, with more than a 100 albums to his credit. The 1970s, however, was Rick's most important decade one in which he regularly topped magazine polls, staged extravagant concerts and released several highly successful albums, including a UK number one in Journey To The Centre of The Earth. Rick's professional career began as a highly respected session musician where he played on hundreds of recordings, including many hit singles and songs by David Bowie, Elton John, Cat Stevens and Lou Reed, amongst many others. He was also a member of the folk rock band Strawbs and played a key role in the International success of progressive rock pioneers Yes. In addition to tracing Rick's career trajectory throughout the 1970s, this book examines in detail his recorded output during the period, including nine solo albums, six albums with Yes and two with Strawbs. As such, this is the most comprehensive guide yet to the music of Rick Wakeman during this most pivotal decade in the history of rock

When Freddie Bulsara arrived in England in 1964, fleeing with his family from a bloody revolution on the streets of his homeland Zanzibar, he already knew that he wanted to be a rock'n'roll star. But before that dream could become a reality, there were three specific people he needed to meet. Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon were the other three components in what became Queen, a band whose name is now writ large in rock legend, but whose members spent their early career mired in legal troubles, critical hostility and financial hardship.In the early 1970s, with their preening singer and arch conceptualiser now renamed Freddie Mercury, the group projected an image that was at once regal, mystical and exotic. Yet behind the black eyeliner and billows of dry ice, Queen were four sharply contrasting individuals whose dogged struggle to win success was every bit as dramatic as the ogre battles and fairy king fantasias that populated their music.Queen in the Seventies is an up-close examination of the band's now critically adored first ten years, the decade when they forged their unique vision, beat off the critics and became, after many epic tantrums and much violent throwing of crockery, champions of the world.