New Modern – serie

5/5 - Mojo‘A beautiful thing’ Tim Burgess'Unapologetically eccentric - a perfect fit for Prefab Sprout' Uncut'A charming, compassionate and utterly entertaining book' The Mirror'This is a book as playful, quirky and engaging as the band themselves' Stuart MaconieA celebration of a much-cherished pop group and a long-overdue companion to their unique musical output.Rolling Stone called him ‘the last pop genius’, while Richard Osman claimed he is ‘the most unfairly overlooked lyricist of his generation’.Paddy McAloon is undoubtedly one of the great songwriters of the last half-century. As the leader of Prefab Sprout, he’s overseen ten heavily praised albums, including the classic Steve McQueen, along with a trail of hit singles, among them ‘When Love Breaks Down’ and ‘The King of Rock ’n’ Roll’. His songs have been sung by Kylie and Cher. Others were written for Madonna, Sinatra and Streisand.But despite the commercial success and abundant critical acclaim, McAloon remains an enigmatic figure within the bright, brash world of pop. The semi-reclusive Prefab Sprout have seldom followed paths trod by others. They rarely toured. They took their time to make records. They always danced to their own drum.A lifelong fan of the band, acclaimed writer Nige Tassell attempts to illuminate the mystery, to uncloak the enigma. Truly Gifted Kids is the deepest dive ever made into McAloon’s craft, exploring the motivations and methods of a man who, 13 years since the band’s last album, still obsessively marries melody to words on a daily basis, in the process building up an enormous stockpile of songs that no one will hear.Occasionally esoteric and freeform, and always original, Truly Gifted Kids pulls together stories, interviews, analysis, history and travelogue to fashion a fulsome portrait of the band, with its chief creative force at the very centre. During his investigations, Tassell both acts as an ad-hoc roadie for solo Sprout Martin McAloon and goes undercover in search of pop music’s most famous motorbike.At its beating, romantic heart, Truly Gifted Kids is a celebration of a much-cherished pop group, a long-overdue companion to their wonderful music.

‘An intimate and obsessive book, but one not only for the fans: this is a story about fresh starts and second chances and how to navigate them as an adult’ Mariana Enriquez'Rodge has been absolutely brilliant. He's a big fan but not too close. He was very much a fly on the wall' Brett Anderson'The candid biography of Suede we've all been waiting for' Steve LamacqThe official, intimate and candid biography charting the second act of Suede during their remarkable second act.This year will mark thirty-three years since Suede released their debut eponymous album and sixteen since their glorious and unexpected comeback in 2010.Their two most recent albums -  Autofiction in 2022 and Antidepressants in 2025 - both reached number two in the UK charts.Based on exclusive and extensive interviews with the band, their family and friends, As One is an intimate and candid biography of one of the UK’s biggest band’s during the unlikely second act of a career that spans four decades. It is a book that studies the band from close up and afar, written by award-winning author Rodge Glass, who has been granted unprecedented access to the members at home, on stage, backstage, in the studio, rehearsing and promoting over the past three years.It is an honest, long-term interrogation of what it is really like to be in Suede. The book asks difficult questions about how great bands survive and thrive over time, many years after their first flush of success. How do you build back up from nothing? How do you reconnect with your audience, while avoiding simply rehashing old ideas? How do relationships in a band change with time? How do you remake Suede?

A Best Pop Music Book of 2026 - The Herald‘[A] fascinating and stirring tribute to one of the most inscrutable bands of the ’80s’ Classic Pop‘Thomson vividly fills the gaps with his forensic detail, deep listening and jigsaw anecdotes piecing together a picture of an inscrutable artist 4/5’ Mojo‘With a thoroughness which would do Hollis proud, Thomson paints a passionate, informed picture. (An) excellent musical investigation 4/5’ Record CollectorThe definitive biography of one of the most critically acclaimed and enigmatic groups of all time.When Mark Hollis died suddenly in 2019 aged 64, he left behind a slim but perfectly formed collection of Talk Talk albums, one solo album in twenty-three years and an ever-burgeoning mystique which only continues to grow with each passing year.The band’s reputation is formed on the imperious run of three albums released between 1986 and 1991, yet Hollis and the band remain a carefully shrouded mystery.For the first time, Graeme Thomson seeks to unpick this knottiest of musical locks and understand the other world of Talk Talk.

‘Particularly poignant ... tasteful and compassionate’ ShindigCapturing all the pain and glory of this incredible family saga, Surf’s Up is the definitive tribute to a remarkable band - and the genius who made it all possible.If any man in pop history deserved the tag of genius, it was Brian Wilson. As leader, producer and chief composer of the Beach Boys, he displayed an instinctive command of melody, harmony and arranging skills. The result was a run of hits that included many of the most sparkling and creative records of the 1960s.But there was a dark side to this seemingly effortless success, rooted in his tortured family background. No sooner had Brian masterminded such gems as the Pet Sounds album and Good Vibrations than his psychological demons began to derail his life.The Beach Boys were left struggling for survival, grasping for salvation from such bizarre figures as TM guru the Maharishi and cult leader Charles Manson. Their story could have ended there, but somehow the band survived. Ahead lay decades of trauma, triumph and tragedy, as the band members all developed as songwriters but also found themselves increasingly at odds with each other. Through it all the music survived, as Brian’s younger brother Dennis Wilson emerged as an equally creative but troubled presence.Surf’s Up sees lifelong Beach Boys fan Peter Doggett capture all the glory and pain of this complex family saga. He celebrates the band’s array of musical gems, and also explores many of their passionate obsessions , from surfing and cars to politics and food.Filled with drama and pathos, Surf’s Up is the ultimate tribute to a remarkable band - and the genius who made it all possible.

A TOP 5 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERA Best Pop Music Book of 2026 - The Herald'Perceptive analysis (and) also a fundamentally human story... this superb book rues Adamson's absence while celebrating his music’s still audibly beating heart.'5/5 MOJOThe official biography of former Big Country frontman chronicling his career highs and tragic death.This is the story of Stuart Adamson, co-founder of not one but two seminal Scottish post-punk groups, The Skids and Big Country. But this is a book that is about much more than music. Stay Alive is about alcoholism, abuse, family, fame, addiction, depression and working-class pride. And along the way there are stories of drug busts, debauchery, flag burning, fist-fights, prison escapes and riots, with a revolving cast of characters from The Clash to the Rolling Stones. For the first time, both of Stuart Adamson’s wives, children and bandmates tell their side of the story: unflinching, funny and brutally honest.

A Times, Resident and Rough Trade Book of the YearLonglisted for the Penderyn Music Book Prize 2026‘A warm and engaging memoir’ Guardian‘A beautifully told odyssey’ Daily Express‘A brilliant book’ Mark Ellen, Word in Your EarThe long overdue reflection of life in The Smiths from their legendary drummer.As a band, the Smiths need no introduction. Formed in 1982 and disbanded in 1987, all four of their studio albums reached the top five in the UK charts. They are widely lauded as one of the most influential groups of all time.Mike is the last member of the band to release their autobiography and this is his no-holds-barred story of what it was like to play the drums in the Smiths. Throughout his honest and witty reflections, Mike answers the question he and bassist Andy Rourke used to often ask each other: ‘Where did it all go right?’A lot of the Smiths’ past is already canonised. Rather than retelling those well-documented iconic moments, in The Drums, Mike conveys ‘the feeling’ of his time in the band. His off-piste, frank and witty perspective allows him to re-contextualise fan favourite moments through a beautifully vulnerable, human insight into his life.The written history of the Smiths is not missing an encyclopedic account of everything that happened over the years; but Mike’s honest, entertaining and deeply human memoir is what Smiths fans have been waiting for. This book truly conveys what it felt like to be a member of the Smiths.In The Drums, Mike Joyce finally gives us the perspective of the self-confessed biggest Smiths fan in the world who from the start was just some lad from the suburbs of Fallowfield who played the drums.

A TOP 5 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERShortlisted for the Penderyn Music Book Prize 2026The Herald Music Book of the YearA Guardian Top 5 Music Book of the YearA Classic Pop Music Book of the YearA Mojo Top 5 Book of the Year 2025An Uncut Top 3 Book of the Year 2025‘A Latter-day Lear. A truly remarkable book’ John Niven, The Spectator‘Might just be the finest music memoir of recent years’ Independent‘A minor masterpiece’ Classic Pop‘Full of life and joy and copious swearing’The HeraldDel Amitri frontman Justin Currie reflects on life as a touring musician in the shadow of his life changing Parkinson’s diagnosis.It’s 2022 and we join Justin at the doctor’s office, looking down the barrel of a Parkinson’s diagnosis. After concerned fans noticed a tremor in his hand, Currie sought the medical advice which led him to the discovery that would throw his future into uncertainty. The immediate fallout of his diagnosis is laid bare in Currie’s candid, stream of consciousness voice. A voice that is also by turns poetic, self-deprecating and darkly humorous across a series of diary entries that capture Justin’s innermost feelings — part travelogue, part confessional. Following a coming to terms with the situation whilst on tour in the U.S, the second half of the story joins Currie in 2024, supporting Simple Minds on tour with Del Amitri. Anger, heartbreak and a looming sense of finality concoct a terse relationship between what once was and what may never be. Yet, page after page, what prevails is the achingly perfect timing of his acerbic wit.The Tremolo Diaries is a beautiful and unique meditation on illness and aging. It is a twilight years reflection on band life in the 21st Century. It’s a travelogue around the world’s art galleries, parks, bars and sites of natural beauty. And most importantly, it is about love and friendship, adversity and courage, life and loss.In a first-of-its-kind exploration of Parkinson’s by a multi-platinum selling musician, The Tremolo Diaries looks the dramatic irony of Currie’s affliction in the eye, puts down the guitar, and returns the needle to the start of the song.

A Mojo Book of the Year 2025“A must for any discerning Fab shelf” Record Collector“A charming biography. Resolutely fab” Mojo“A beautiful read” Samira Ahmed, BBC Front Row“The definitive biography” i Ringo Starr’s eventful and remarkable life laid bare in a first-of-its-kind mosaic biography of one of the greatest musicians of all time.Often overshadowed by his former bandmates, Starr’s remarkable story is no less compelling. ‘Ringo: A Fab Life’ highlights a life so jaw-droppingly eventful that one is left wondering how he also had time to become one of the best musicians on the planet.Through an episodic, mosaic format critically acclaimed author Tom Doyle takes readers through the ride of a lifetime, from Starr’s brushes with death as a child bought up in poverty, through to dizzying heights of fame and success with The Beatles and beyond. By examining pivotal moments, anecdotes and cautionary tales, we see Starr soar as part of the biggest band in the world - and then try and cope with life outside of it: a film career, misadventures with friends, children’s TV narrator, furniture designer, marriage to a Bond girl, before eventually finding peace and sobriety as one of the elder statesmen of rock.So much more than another Beatles related biography, we follow Starr’s career far beyond the rose-tinted sixties, through the various addictions and career left turns in the seventies and eighties, before reaching the 1990’s, his legacy and reputation intact.The life of Richard Starkey is long overdue a proper inspection and this book - with exclusive new interviews conducted by Doyle with, amongst others, Starr himself - provides a never-before-seen level of detail that will delight hardcore fans and curious readers alike.Ringo: A Fab Life - hilarious, moving, insightful and constantly surprising - is the definitive account of one of the greatest living musicians and the uncontested best drummer in The Beatles.

Ringo Starr’s eventful and remarkable life laid bare in a first-of-its-kind mosaic biography of one of the greatest musicians of all time.Often overshadowed by his former bandmates, Starr’s remarkable story is no less compelling. ‘Ringo: A Fab Life’ highlights a life so jaw-droppingly eventful that one is left wondering how he also had time to become one of the best musicians on the planet.Through an episodic, mosaic format critically acclaimed author Tom Doyle takes readers through the ride of a lifetime, from Starr’s brushes with death as a child bought up in poverty, through to dizzying heights of fame and success with The Beatles and beyond. By examining pivotal moments, anecdotes and cautionary tales, we see Starr soar as part of the biggest band in the world - and then try and cope with life outside of it: a film career, misadventures with friends, children’s TV narrator, furniture designer, marriage to a Bond girl, before eventually finding peace and sobriety as one of the elder statesmen of rock.So much more than another Beatles related biography, we follow Starr’s career far beyond the rose-tinted sixties, through the various addictions and career left turns in the seventies and eighties, before reaching the 1990’s, his legacy and reputation intact.The life of Richard Starkey is long overdue a proper inspection and this book - with exclusive new interviews conducted by Doyle with, amongst others, Starr himself - provides a never-before-seen level of detail that will delight hardcore fans and curious readers alike.Ringo: A Fab Life - hilarious, moving, insightful and constantly surprising - is the definitive account of one of the greatest living musicians and the uncontested best drummer in The Beatles.

A Classic Pop Music Book of the YearFEATURING A FOREWORD BY BOB GELDOFThe authoritative, official inside story of 40 years of Live Aid, from Band Aid to today.In 1985, with £100+ million in his back pocket from Live Aid – the greatest rock concert the world had ever seen – Bob Geldof took a trip across Africa to decide how to spend the money he had raised for the Ethiopian famine. He asked Paul Vallely to go with him. Over the next four decades Vallely became one of Geldof’s closest advisers – travelling with him to meet the world’s top rock stars and politicians. Here, for the first time, Vallely gives his full eye-witness account of those 40 years. The book, which has a foreword by Bob Geldof, is crammed with stories of how pop, poverty, politics and power are interwoven in the Live Aid story. Geldof encounters presidents, prime ministers and popes as well as the pop heroes who adorned his bedroom wall as a boy. Bob drinks late-night whisky with Margaret Thatcher, is forced to write a grovelling apology to Bill Clinton and meets Vladimir Putin on a boat in the Mediterranean. He pressurises The Who, sweet talks Pink Floyd, and is awestruck by Bowie. Is Bob Geldof a bully or a charmer, saint or ‘white saviour’, or simply a force of nature?   But there is more to this than music. The journey from Live Aid to Live 8 was one from giving money to calling for action, from charity to justice – and an entire generation went on it with him. Live 8 in 2005 was the largest gathering in human history. Its eight simultaneous concerts created a seismic event which the leaders of the world’s most powerful nations could not ignore. It made a whole generation feel they could make a difference. In more ways than one, Live Aid rocked the world.

The long overdue autobiography from the renowned and much-loved Adam and the Ants songwriter and guitarist.In the mid 1970's, Marco Pirroni was a shy Kings Road punk kid. He played guitar with a nascent Siouxsie and the Banshees at their debut 100 Club gig in 1976. Future Sex Pistol Sid Vicious could  often be found round at Marco's parents with a bag of laundry and a cup of tea. But as the early promise of punk rock's cultural liberation quickly soured, Marco's dreams of proper pop stardom only grew.In a few short years, alongside an ambitious fellow punk survivor called Adam who was also looking to break out of the musical ghetto and onto Top of the Pops, Marco became the musical architect of the global Antmusic phenomenon. By the time he was 21, Marco was the co-writer of the two classic number one singles  - ‘Prince Charming’ and the Ivor Novello-winning ‘Stand and Deliver’  - alongside the million selling, idiosyncratic new pop masterpiece 'Kings of the Wild Frontier' and its follow up album 'Prince Charming'. Your Money or Your Life is Marco’s long-overdue and much-anticipated account of his time amidst the maelstrom of Antmania. It chronicles the breakneck period in Pirroni’s life which ends in March 1982, when Adam and the Ants split up amongst heartbreak and acrimony. Revelatory, caustically hilarious and with a cast of the biggest names in entertainment including Liberace, Liza Minelli and David Bowie, Your Money or Your Life is one of the unforgettable music stories of the 1970s and 1980s.

The long overdue autobiography from singer-songwriter and '80s pop sensation Nick Heyward.In 1981, Nick Heyward and school friends Graham Jones and Les Nemes signed their band Haircut One Hundred to Arista records. Less than two years later, frontman and principal songwriter Heyward had left. But within that short period, they scored four Top 10 singles, a number two platinum album with Pelican West and countless magazine covers for Heyward who had become both a pin-up and a star. Forty-four years later and the original reunited Haircut One Hundred  have finally released their second  album. The intervening years saw Nick carve out a critically acclaimed solo career, one that saw him at home on the eighties nostalgia circuit whilst being feted by the cream of nineties britpop aristocracy when he signed to Alan McGee’s Creation in 1998. Since 1983 he has released nine solo albums. This is Nick’s story. It is a book about childhood dreams and jealousy, about international fame and being a commercial outcast, about depression and enlightenment and about the longest overdue comeback in pop music history. In Fantastic Days, singer-songwriter and ’80s pop sensation Nick Heyward tells the story of his time as frontman and songwriter for Haircut One Hundred, his depression and breakdown following the band’s split, time spent on Creation Records in the mid-’90s, his (non-denominational) spiritual reawakening and the subsequent reformation of the band he left in 1982. Fantastic Days is a funny, self-deprecating and soul-searching read.

A TOP 5 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERShortlisted for the Penderyn Music Book Prize 2026The Herald Music Book of the YearA Guardian Top 5 Music Book of the YearA Classic Pop Music Book of the YearA Mojo Top 5 Book of the Year 2025An Uncut Top 3 Book of the Year 2025‘A Latter-day Lear. A truly remarkable book’ John Niven, The Spectator‘Might just be the finest music memoir of recent years’ Independent‘A minor masterpiece’ Classic Pop‘Full of life and joy and copious swearing’The HeraldDel Amitri frontman Justin Currie reflects on life as a touring musician in the shadow of his life changing Parkinson’s diagnosis.It’s 2022 and we join Justin at the doctor’s office, looking down the barrel of a Parkinson’s diagnosis. After concerned fans noticed a tremor in his hand, Currie sought the medical advice which led him to the discovery that would throw his future into uncertainty. The immediate fallout of his diagnosis is laid bare in Currie’s candid, stream of consciousness voice. A voice that is also by turns poetic, self-deprecating and darkly humorous across a series of diary entries that capture Justin’s innermost feelings — part travelogue, part confessional. Following a coming to terms with the situation whilst on tour in the U.S, the second half of the story joins Currie in 2024, supporting Simple Minds on tour with Del Amitri. Anger, heartbreak and a looming sense of finality concoct a terse relationship between what once was and what may never be. Yet, page after page, what prevails is the achingly perfect timing of his acerbic wit.The Tremolo Diaries is a beautiful and unique meditation on illness and aging. It is a twilight years reflection on band life in the 21st Century. It’s a travelogue around the world’s art galleries, parks, bars and sites of natural beauty. And most importantly, it is about love and friendship, adversity and courage, life and loss.In a first-of-its-kind exploration of Parkinson’s by a multi-platinum selling musician, The Tremolo Diaries looks the dramatic irony of Currie’s affliction in the eye, puts down the guitar, and returns the needle to the start of the song.

A Times Book of the Year 2025The Shindig Book of the Year‘The godmothers of indie-pop’ Mojo‘A tale of pop life well lived’ Shindig‘Winningly captures the devil-may-care optimism of adolescence’ GuardianAn evocative coming of age story from one of the UK’s first ever female post-punk musicians.Debsey Wykes was the bass playing singer in the first all girl punk group Dolly Mixture. Thrown into the musky, misogynistic, male dominated world of the UK music industry in the late 1970s, they enjoyed unlikely #1 success alongside Captain Sensible of The Damned on1982’s even unlikelier cover version of ‘Happy Talk’, whilst fame and success on their own individual terms alluded them.Debsey went onto greater prominence with Saint Etienne with who she has performed since 1992, whilst in 2025, desirable Dolly Mixture reissues sell out around the world as quickly as they are printed.Featuring a cast of contemporary post-punk heroes – rom Paul Weller and the Jam (their first record label boss) to Madness and the Pogues – Teenage Daydream is a unique coming of age story of youthful ambition, enterprising DIY musical ethics and how an unlikely bunch of school-girl friends ended up on Top of the Pops in home made hula skirts.

‘Particularly poignant ... tasteful and compassionate’ ShindigCapturing all the pain and glory of this incredible family saga, Surf’s Up is the definitive tribute to a remarkable band - and the genius who made it all possible.If any man in pop history deserved the tag of genius, it was Brian Wilson. As leader, producer and chief composer of the Beach Boys, he displayed an instinctive command of melody, harmony and arranging skills. The result was a run of hits that included many of the most sparkling and creative records of the 1960s.But there was a dark side to this seemingly effortless success, rooted in his tortured family background. No sooner had Brian masterminded such gems as the Pet Sounds album and Good Vibrations than his psychological demons began to derail his life.The Beach Boys were left struggling for survival, grasping for salvation from such bizarre figures as TM guru the Maharishi and cult leader Charles Manson. Their story could have ended there, but somehow the band survived. Ahead lay decades of trauma, triumph and tragedy, as the band members all developed as songwriters but also found themselves increasingly at odds with each other. Through it all the music survived, as Brian’s younger brother Dennis Wilson emerged as an equally creative but troubled presence.Surf’s Up sees lifelong Beach Boys fan Peter Doggett capture all the glory and pain of this complex family saga. He celebrates the band’s array of musical gems, and also explores many of their passionate obsessions , from surfing and cars to politics and food.Filled with drama and pathos, Surf’s Up is the ultimate tribute to a remarkable band - and the genius who made it all possible.