MAY 2025: Decade of Dissent: How 1960s Bob Dylan Changed the World (Jawbone). Role: author. An exploration of Bob Dylan’s seismic influence on Sixties music and culture, featuring original interview material with several collaborators.
SEP 2024: Long Agos and Worlds Apart: The Definitive Small Faces Biography (Equinox). Role: author. An examination of the short but eventful career of the Sixties London quartet who moved seamlessly from innocent soul-pop to high concept psychedelia. Draws on lengthy original interviews with band members, managers, agents, publicists, songwriters, auxiliary musicians, fan-club personnel, recording engineers, journalists, friends and wives. Note: nominated for an Award for Excellence in Historical Recorded Sound Research by the Association for Recorded Sound Collections.
AUG 2023: Rod Stewart: The Classic Years (Backbeat). Role: author. A focus on Stewart at his artistic peak in and around the 1970s, when his gravel-throated romanticism enraptured public and critics alike. Features recollections from many of Rod's colleagues, collaborators and cohabitees from the period.
DEC 2021: Can You Dig It: The Phenomenon of The Warriors (BearManor). Role: author. A detailed exploration of the making of and reception to the celebrated 1979 Walter Hill motion picture, featuring new interviews with cast and crew.
DEC 2021: Planet of the Apes: The Complete History (Applause). Role: author. A comprehensive history of the simian franchise taking in books, films, TV series, comics and more, with contributions from producers, directors, writers, actors, and makeup artists.
NOV 2019: New Waves, Old Hands and Unknown Pleasures: The Music of 1979 (Backbeat). Role: author. An analysis of a seismic year in popular music, told with the help of new and exclusive interviews with artists and producers.
APR 2018: Love With a Passion Called Hate: The Inside Story of The Jam (Askill Publishing). Role: author. The story of a remarkable band told via access to recording producers, music label staff and all three members of the Jam.
NOV 2017: The Clash on the Clash (Chicago Review Press). Role: editor. A collection of interviews conclusively charting the tumultuous career of the 'Only Band That Mattered'.
SEP 2017: The Who on the Who (Chicago Review Press). Role: editor. A compendium of interviews from across five decades that provides the full, fractious story of a fascinating band.
JULY 2016: Fleetwood Mac on Fleetwood Mac (Chicago Review Press). Role: editor. A definitive collection of interviews with both a great band and rock's greatest soap opera.
FEB 2016: James Bond: The Secret History (Blake). Role: author. A comprehensive analysis of 007 across all media featuring new interviews with Bond scholars, Ian Fleming intimates and Bond-film cast and crew.
MAY 2015: Bowie on Bowie (Chicago Review Press). Role: editor. A definitive collection of interviews granted down the decades by rock's enigmatic chameleon.
OCT 2014: The Clash: The Only Band That Mattered (Rowman & Littlefield). Role: author. An examination of the career and art of The Clash through the prism of the fractious UK politics of the 1970s and 1980s.
JULY 2014: William Goldman: The Reluctant Storyteller (BearManor Media). Role: author. A critical analysis of the works of the novelist and screenwriter responsible for A Bridge Too Far, All The President’s Men, Boys And Girls Together, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Marathon Man, The Princess Bride, etc. Goldman assisted with the book by granting me a series of interviews.
NOVEMBER 2013: Pink Floyd: Glorious Torment (Flame Tree). Role: author. A large-format, heavily illustrated introduction to the kings of progressive rock.
NOVEMBER 2013: David Bowie: Ever Changing Hero (Flame Tree). Role: author. A large-format, heavily illustrated introduction to rock’s chameleon genius.
SEPTEMBER 2013: Keith Richards on Keith Richards (Chicago Review Press). Role: editor. A collection of the best interviews over five decades given by the Rolling Stones guitarist considered the living embodiment of rock ‘n’ roll.
JUNE 2013: The Mammoth Book of The Rolling Stones (Constable & Robinson). Role: editor and contributor. An anthology of writing - old and new - on the 'greatest rock ‘n’ roll band in the world'.
AUGUST 2012: Ape-Man: The Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to 100 Years of Tarzan (Telos). Role: author. An examination – with the assistance of interviews with writers, filmmakers and experts – of one of the most famous icons of the last century.
DECEMBER 2011: Ponies & Rainbows: The Life of James Kirkwood (BearManor Media). Role: author. A biography of the late author and playwright James Kirkwood (There Must Be a Pony!, Good Times/Bad Times, P.S. Your Cat is Dead!, A Chorus Line) featuring the recollections of more than sixty of Kirkwood’s family, lovers, colleagues, friends and enemies.
MAY 2011: The Mammoth Book of Bob Dylan (Constable & Robinson). Role: editor and contributor. A selection of writing - old and new - on rock’s greatest poet. 180,000 words.
NOVEMBER 2010: The Doc's Devils (Cherry Red). Role: author. An exploration of the period in the history of Manchester United in which Tommy Docherty was the club’s manager, containing new interviews with many of the players of the period. 275,000 words. Note: foreword by Michael Crick (BBC and biographer of Alex Ferguson).
SEPTEMBER 2010: 50 Years of Coronation Street (JR Books). Role: author. A comprehensive history of the long-running gritty UK soap featuring new interviews with the programme’s directors, producers, writers and actors. 120,000 words.
APRIL 2009: The Mammoth Book of The Beatles (Constable & Robinson). Role: editor and contributor. A selection of writing - old and new - on the Fab Four. 195,000 words.
JUNE 2008: Don't Mess with the Best (Askill). Role: author. A collection of my short stories with cover endorsements from two former Booker Prize winners, David Storey and Stanley Middleton. Melvyn Bragg has provided an endorsement for the paperback.
SEPTEMBER 2007: The Little Black Book of Music (Cassell). Role: general editor (team of 40 contributors) and contributor. 250,000 words. The entire 20th century in popular music analysed and discussed in 1000 250-word entries.
NOVEMBER 2006: 100 Albums That Changed Music (Constable & Robinson). Role: general editor (team of six contributors) and contributor. An analysis of influential albums.
AUGUST 2006: Rough Guide to the Rolling Stones (Penguin). Role: author. An overview on the titular band in the popular Penguin series.
MARCH 2006: The Rolling Stones and the Making of "Let It Bleed", (Unanimous/MQ). Role: author. 200-page analysis of the recording of the classic Rolling Stones album featuring interviews with the engineers and producers who worked on it.
SEPTEMBER 2004 The Guys Who Wrote ’em (Askill), a book on non-performing songwriters. Role: author. Running at 125,000 words, it contains exclusive interviews with composing legends like Leiber & Stoller, Mann & Weil, Greenwich & Barry, Holland-Dozier-Holland, Chip Taylor and Tony Macaulay.
JUNE 2004: Our Music is Red with Purple Flashes: The Story of The Creation (Cherry Red). Role: author. Biography of a cult but highly influential band. Note: foreword by Alan McGee (Creation Records).
SEPTEMBER 2003: Sick of Being Me, a 95,000-word novel (Askill). Role: author. The book concerns a heroin addict guitarist. I secured cover endorsements based on the manuscript from, amongst others, former Blondie member Gary Valentine and Charles R. Cross, author of 'Heavier Than Heaven: A Biography of Kurt Cobain'.
NOVEMBER 2002: Not Necessarily Stoned but Beautiful: The Making of “Are You Experienced” (MQ/Unanimous). Role: author. 200-page book about the recording of the Jimi Hendrix Experience's classic debut album. Note: nominated for an Award for Excellence in Historical Recorded Sound Research by the Association for Recorded Sound Collections.
DECEMBER 2000: Animal Tracks - The Story of The Animals (Helter Skelter). Role: author. 200-page biography of the legendary ’Sixties R&B group containing new and exclusive interviews with band members.
OCTOBER 1998: The Verve: Star Sail (Omnibus). Role: author. 200-page biography of the rock band.
APRIL 1998: Leonardo DiCaprio (Anabas). Role: author. Short CD-sized book on the screen idol.