Live Aid Anniversary

A lively, entertaining, wide-ranging oral history of the golden age of the rock concert based on over ninety interviews with musicians, promoters, stagehands, and others who contributed to the huge cultural phenomenon that is live rock. Between 1950 and 1985, the rock concert developed its allure and power as a unifying experience-and became an influential multi-billion-dollar industry. In Rock Concert, acclaimed interviewer Marc Myers sets out to uncover the history of this compelling phenomenon, weaving together groundbreaking accounts from the people who were there. Myers combines the tales of icons like Bob Weir, Todd Rundgren, Tina Weymouth, Ian Anderson, Alice Cooper, Steve Miller, Roger Waters, and Angus Young with figures such as the disc jockeys who first began playing rock on the radio, like Alan Freed in Cleveland and New York; music journalists, like Rolling Stone's Cameron Crowe; and the promoters who organized it all, like Michael Lang, cofounder of Woodstock. The result is a rounded and vivid account of live rock's stratospheric rise. Rock Concert provides a fascinating, immediate look at the evolution of live rock performances-spanning from the rise of R&B in the late 1940s and emergence of rock 'n' roll in the '50s, through the hippie gatherings of the '60s, to the arena and stadium tours of the '70s and '80s. Featuring dozens of key players and filled with colorful anecdotes, Rock Concert will speak to anyone who has experienced the transcendence of live rock.

Freddie Mercury was one of rock's most dazzling front men. When he died in 1991, the music world lost one of its most flamboyant characters, as well as a supremely talented writer and vocalist. Best known as the lead singer of Queen, his amazing four-octave voice was a distinctive element in the band's unique sound, which resulted in more than a dozen million-selling albums through the 1970s, '80s, and early '90s. Freddie Mercury: A Kind of Magic charts his extraordinary career in the context of the life he led in the glare of rock stardom. With expert understanding, Mark Blake traces Freddie's astonishing achievements from his childhood in Zanzibar and India to his world-conquering performance at Live Aid in 1985 and beyond. Published just ahead of what would have been Freddie's 70th birthday, this special book features a retrospective commentary on his studio and live albums, a complete discography, photographs, and memorabilia throughout. Freddie Mercury: A Kind of Magic is an essential tribute to a truly innovative recording artist and an irreplaceable performer who rocked the world.

This rock biography is a revealing, intimate look at the man who would be Queen. The lead vocalist for the iconic rock band Queen, Freddie Mercury's unmatched skills as a songwriter and his flamboyant showmanship made him a superstar and Queen a household name. But despite his worldwide fame, few people ever really glimpsed the man behind the glittering facade. Now, more than twenty years after his death, those closest to Mercury are finally opening up about this pivotal figure in rock 'n roll. Based on more than a hundred interviews with key figures in his life, the author, a rock journalist offers the definitive account of one man's legendary life in the spotlight and behind the scenes. She gained unprecedented access to Mercury's tribe, and she details Queen's slow but steady rise to fame and Mercury's descent into dangerous, pleasure-seeking excesses. This was, after all, a man who once declared, "Darling, I'm doing everything with everyone." In her journey to understand Mercury, she traveled to London, Zanzibar, and India, talking with everyone from Mercury's closest friends to the sound engineer at Band Aid (who was responsible for making Queen even louder than the other bands) to second cousins halfway around the world. In the process, an intimate and complicated portrait emerges. It offers an unvarnished look at the extreme highs and lows of life in the fast lane. At the heart of this story is a man and the music he loved.

The special edition version includes a second disc featuring the full Queen Live Aid performance, never before seen full performance footage of Queen rehearsing for Live Aid: Bohemian Rhapsody + Radio Gaga + Hammer To Fall and previously unreleased Live Aid interview with the whole band. Rock Montreal recorded and filmed live at the Forum in Montreal, Nov. 1981 ; Live Aid concert recorded and filmed at Wembley Stadium, London, July 13, 1985. Live Aid: footage licensed courtesy of the Band Aid Trust ; director, John G. Smith ; produced by Michael Appleton, Phil Chilvers ; original audio recording, Mike Robinson, Jeff Griffin ; 5.1 audio production, Will Shapland, Jeff Griffin.

A deeply personal account of Elton John's life during the era of AIDS and an inspiring call to action.

In the 1980s, Elton John saw friend after friend, loved one after loved one, perish needlessly from AIDS. He befriended Ryan White, a young Indiana boy ostracized because of his HIV infection. Ryan's inspiring life and devastating death led Elton to two realizations: His own life was a mess. And he had to do something to help stop the AIDS crisis.

Since then, Elton has dedicated himself to overcoming the plague and the stigma of AIDS. The Elton John AIDS Foundation has raised and donated $275 million to date to fighting the disease worldwide. Love Is the Cure includes stories of Elton's close friendships with Ryan White, Freddie Mercury, Princess Diana, Elizabeth Taylor, and others, and the story of the Elton John AIDS Foundation.

One of the most successful music acts of all time, Dire Straits filled stadiums around the world. Their albums sold hundreds of millions of copies and their music—classics like “Sultans of Swing,” “Romeo and Juliet,” “Money for Nothing,” and “Brothers in Arms”—is still played on every continent today. There was, quite simply, no bigger band on the planet throughout the eighties.

In this powerful and entertaining memoir, founding member John Illsley gives the inside track on the most successful rock band of their time. From playing gigs in the spit-and-sawdust pubs of south London, to hanging out with Bob Dylan in LA, Illsley tells the story of the band with searching honesty, soulful reflection, and wry humor. Starting with his own unlikely beginnings in Middle England, he recounts the band’s rise from humble origins to the best-known venues in the world, the working man’s clubs to Madison Square Garden, sharing gigs with wild punk bands to rocking the Live Aid stage at Wembley. And woven throughout is an intimate portrait and tribute to his great friend Mark Knopfler, the band's lead singer, songwriter, and remarkable guitarist.

Tracing an idea that created a phenomenal musical legacy, an extraordinary journey of joy and pain, companionship and surprises, this is John Illsley’s life in Dire Straits.

Bono, artist, activist, and the lead singer of Irish rock band U2, has written a memoir: honest and irreverent, intimate and profound, Surrender is the story of the remarkable life he's lived, the challenges he's faced, and the friends and family who have shaped and sustained him. 'When I started to write this book, I was hoping to draw in detail what I'd previously only sketched in songs. The people, places, and possibilities in my life. Surrender is a word freighted with meaning for me. Growing up in Ireland in the seventies with my fists up (musically speaking), it was not a natural concept. A word I only circled until I gathered my thoughts for the book. I am still grappling with this most humbling of commands. In the band, in my marriage, in my faith, in my life as an activist. Surrender is the story of one pilgrim's lack of progress... with a fair amount of fun along the way." - Bono. As one of the music world's most iconic artists and the cofounder of the organizations ONE and (RED), Bono's career has been written about extensively. But in Surrender, it's Bono who picks up the pen, writing for the first time about his remarkable life and those he has shared it with. In his unique voice, Bono takes us from his early days growing up in Dublin, including the sudden loss of his mother when he was fourteen, to U2's unlikely journey to become one of the world's most influential rock bands, to his more than twenty years of activism dedicated to the fight against AIDS and extreme poverty. Writing with candor, self-reflection, and humor, Bono opens the aperture on his life, and the family, friends, and faith that have sustained, challenged, and shaped him.

Dylan Jones’s engrossing, magisterial biography of David Bowie is unlike any Bowie story ever written. Drawn from over 180 interviews with friends, rivals, lovers, and collaborators, some of whom have never before spoken about their relationship with Bowie, this oral history weaves a hypnotic spell as it unfolds the story of a remarkable rise to stardom and an unparalleled artistic path.

Tracing Bowie’s life from the English suburbs to London to New York to Los Angeles, Berlin, and beyond, its collective voices describe a man profoundly shaped by his relationship with his schizophrenic half-brother Terry; an intuitive artist who could absorb influences through intense relationships and yet drop people cold when they were no longer of use; and a social creature equally comfortable partying with John Lennon and dining with Frank Sinatra.

By turns insightful and deliciously gossipy, David Bowie is as intimate a portrait as may ever be drawn. It sparks with admiration and grievances, lust and envy, as the speakers bring you into studios and bedrooms they shared with Bowie, and onto stages and film sets, opening corners of his mind and experience that transform our understanding of both artist and art. Including illuminating, never-before-seen material from Bowie himself, drawn from a series of Jones’s interviews with him across two decades, David Bowie is an epic, unforgettable cocktail-party conversation about a man whose enigmatic shapeshifting and irrepressible creativity produced one of the most sprawling, fascinating lives of our time

Born Declan Patrick MacManus, Elvis Costello was raised in London and Liverpool, grandson of a trumpet player on the White Star Line and son of a jazz musician who became a successful radio dance band vocalist. Costello went into the family business and had taken the popular music world by storm before he was twenty-four. "Unfaithful Music" describes how Costello's career has endured for almost four decades through a combination of dumb luck and animal cunning, even managing the occasional absurd episode of pop stardom. The memoir, written entirely by Costello himself, offers his unique view of his unlikely and sometimes comical rise to international success, with diversions through the previously undocumented emotional foundations of some of his best known songs and the hits of tomorrow. It contains many stories and observations about his renowned co-writers and co-conspirators, although Costello also pauses along the way for considerations on the less appealing side of infamy.

In his much-awaited memoir, Not Dead Yet, Phil Collins tells the story of his epic career, with an auspicious debut at age 11 in a crowd shot from the Beatles’ legendary film A Hard Day’s Night. A drummer since almost before he could walk, Collins received on the job training in the seedy, thrilling bars and clubs of 1960s swinging London before finally landing the drum seat in Genesis.

Soon, he would step into the spotlight on vocals after the departure of Peter Gabriel and begin to stockpile the songs that would rocket him to international fame with the release of Face Value and “In the Air Tonight.” Whether he’s recalling jamming with Eric Clapton and Robert Plant, pulling together a big band fronted by Tony Bennett, or writing the music for Disney’s smash-hit animated Tarzan, Collins’s storytelling chops never waver. And of course he answers the pressing question on everyone’s mind: just what does “Sussudio” mean?
 
Not Dead Yet is Phil Collins’s candid, witty, unvarnished story of the songs and shows, the hits and pans, his marriages and divorces, the ascents to the top of the charts and into the tabloid headlines. As one of only three musicians to sell 100 million records both in a group and as a solo artist, Collins breathes rare air, but has never lost his touch at crafting songs from the heart that touch listeners around the globe. That same touch is on magnificent display here, especially as he unfolds his harrowing descent into darkness after his “official” retirement in 2007, and the profound, enduring love that helped save him.