A lovely bright and sunny day here at Compass Towers , so naturally that leads me to
thoughts of despondent depressing music – yep, that’s right, I must be talking
about those miserable Mancunians, The
Smiths. Sorry, sorry, of
course I meant to say the most important alternative rock band to emerge from
the British independent music scene of the 1980s. But how irritating must it be
to be a member of such an iconic group only to be booted out just before they
become properly famous (aka the Pete Best syndrome)? In September, we bring
you Boy Interrupted, Memoir of a Former
Smith by Dale Hibbert. Dale
was a member of The Smiths during their formative years, so was privy to the
hopes and dreams and bizarre ideas of young Morrissey and Johnny Marr. He is a
fund of hitherto untold stories – how The Smiths were to be launched as a 'gay'
band, each of them bearing the stage name of a serial killer. There was also a
plan to wear stage clothes based on American baseball teams. Dale helped shape
the band's sound at his recording studio. He produced their first demo tape. He
even gave Morrissey a lift to sessions on the back of his motorcycle. On the
cusp of The Smiths’ breakthrough, Hibbert
was replaced on bass by Andy Rourke. For the first time, he reveals the full
details of his sacking. And, The Smiths aside, Dale has lived an incredible
life, often tragic but always dogged and hopeful. It is also a comprehensive
look at Manchester and its fascinating music scene both
before and just after the advent of punk rock. The imminent publication of
Boy Interrupted has already got Smiths
fans all het up – I give you a sample of some of the online comments:
“That is actually so sad. Why ... oh why do people
do it?”
“I always
thought that dale handled the situation great.”
“Yes it was right to replace dale with andy. andy
suited the smiths perfectly. dale understood that, anyone would have but i am
amazed that he controlled himself. if i was replaced by andy i would have gone
but not before i had broken both morrisseys and marrs nose.”
“Think how terrible it is to be thrown out of the
smiths......... I mean its the smiths for godsake.”
“Kudos to
you Dale you are a great guy”,
“Why the
negative attitude here? We have someone who has a genuine insight into a pivotal
period in the story. I, for one, am very interested in what Dale has to
say.”
“Genuine
insight? He was the bass player for about 6 months. He could have titled his
autobiography differently, without the word "smiths" in it since this life
period was rather small compared to his whole life.”
“The Smiths
were a gay band. Anyone who disagrees is either straight or stupid – The Smiths
were the gayest band ever.”
“What does that even mean
lol...”
“Am I the
only person sceptical of these claims?”
Ooh – we at Compass Points do love a bit of
informed, intelligent online comment – and all this controversy can only be good
for sales of the book Boy,
Interrupted (£9.99, pb, 978 1904590309 )which is out from
Pomona Books in September!
And here they are at their
brilliant best – sorry Dale, I don’t think they’re missing
you!
The BBC is rarely out of the news at the moment.
Whether it’s sacking Clarkson, justifying its licence fee or loosing the Olympic
coverage; everyone in the country has an opinion on “auntie”. But what is it
actually like to work there? Getting Out
Alive by Roger Mosey is the
memoir of one of the most respected figures from the broadcasting industry and
provides a fascinating account of what it's like to be at the very top of the
BBC; the pressure of handling big broadcasting events, the personalities, the
day-to-day politics – and the pain for some individuals. Roger Mosey was in senior roles at the BBC for
more than twenty years, from being editor of Radio 4's Today programme
and head of television news to leading the coverage of the London 2012 Olympics,
and finally becoming the BBC’s editorial director. He was at the centre of
BBC Sport, too, responsible for abolishing Grandstand and then
building the BBC’s acclaimed role in the Olympics. Getting Out Alive is a unique and candid insider
account of the BBC, how it works and where it falls down. John Humphrys has
called it “Perceptive, revealing and honest, Getting Out Alive reveals what
makes the BBC tick. It’s funny, too. A delight” and as you would expect, the
media are all over this book like a rash.
Roger Mosey has been interviewed
in the last week on LBC, BBC Radio 5 live, BBC Radio Ulster , BBC Radio Leeds, Talk Radio Europe, BBC
Radio Cambridge and BBC Radio Lincolnshire . There
have been articles in the Express, the Times diary column and the
Sunday Telegraph and there was a big article on it in the Spectator which you can read here. Getting Out Alive by Roger Mosey (hb, £20.00, 9781849548311) has just
been published by Robson Press and you can find out more and order it
here.
Of course we all know that if you really want
to know what goes on at the BBC, you just watch the highly entertaining W1A - here's
one of its many hilarious moments!
Street Culture: 5o Years of Sub Culture
Style by Gavin Baddeley is getting some great publicity and
you can see lots of the brilliant pictures from it on a Guardian gallery here – the Guardian describes
the book as taking the reader from hippies to hip-hop heads: 50 years of style
tribes in pictures; which is an excellent summary of its contents! Street Culture explores the family tree of youth
movements, examining the lines that tie beatniks to bikers, punks to emos, goths
to metalheads and is illustrated throughout with over 125 fab black and white
images. Beatniks, Rockers, Hip-Hop, Hippies, Punks, Grunge, New Romantics,
Metalheads, Goths, Teddy Boys, Mods, Hipsters, Psychobillies, Skinheads – they
are all in here, and Street Culture takes
us from sharp-suited mods and acid-dropping hippies to leather-clad metalheads
and straight-edge hardcore punks; piecing together a vibrant history of
countercultural rebellion. Street Culture: 5o Years
of Sub Culture Style by Gavin
Baddeley (978 0859654753£14.99, pb) is published by Plexus and
you can find out more and order it here
There is also an excellent ten minute interview with
the Street Culture author Gavin Baddeley; and you can watch that
here.
When it come to affairs of the heart; I daresay,
like many of us here at Compass, you spend some time wishing that the men in
real life were half as dashing as those between the pages of romantic novels.
But are you yearning after Mr Darcy – or are you more of a Christian Grey fan?
Take this BuzzFeed quiz to find out which literary hero is the
right man for you!
And if you’re having a bit of a BuzzFeed Friday –
then how about finding out if your sex style is determined by your taste in
books? It brings a whole new meaning to the term hardcover that’s for sure– and
you can take that quiz here!
We like a celebrity endorsement for a book, and they
don’t get much more “slebby” that Elton John. This week he said “Paul
has been my friend for over forty years. He is a brilliant and honest individual
who suffered demoralising and unnecessary anguish. This book more than puts the
record straight. Read it and get very angry!” The Paul he is referring to is
of course Gambaccini, whose account Love, Paul
Gambaccini: My Year Under the Yewtree (hb, £17.99, 978 1849549110)
will be published by Robson Press in September. Paul Gambaccini was arrested in October 2013.
Forced awake in the middle of the night, he had many of his possessions
confiscated for more than a year. He was disgraced in the press and made
unemployable, despite having to pay tens of thousands of pounds in legal fees
during a year in which he had no income. Finally, and inevitably, he became the
latest celebrity to be exonerated over allegations of historic sexual abuse.
This book is a full, no-holds-barred story of Paul
Gambaccini’s twelve months of horror and trauma. This is the inside
story that looks set to trigger a change in how we prosecute allegations of
abuse in the UK, and there will be a major press campaign with a guaranteed
serial in a major national newspaper. Helena Kennedy QC said of it
“Paul Gambaccini was tested almost beyond endurance by false allegations, and
his account exposes the cruelty that is inflicted when the legal system is
captured by populist sentiment. His account is a timely reminder that past
wrongs are not made right by creating witch hunts.” And Stephen Fry
has called it “An important and ultimately inspiring book that forces us to
imagine how we might have responded in the face of such a
nightmare”
Is there a way to write a guaranteed bestseller?
Well Waterstone’s think they’ve cracked the magic formula – find out how on their blog post here!
Copies of 60 Degrees
North by Malachy Tallack will be arriving in your shops
this week, if they haven’t already; so fingers crossed that this beautiful book
captures the imagination of the public in the same way that it has charmed the
media. Just to remind you, it’s going to be a BBC Radio 4 Book of the
Week from 13th July and there will be reviews in the Guardian, the
Daily Telegraph, the Scotsman, and the Times Literary
Supplement. The Radio Times will highlight the book in their 11th
July issue and Love Reading are running an online promotion for it to
over 200,000 members in July and again in August, when it has been selected as a
Non-Fiction Book of the Month.
With all the publicity surrounding the film Amy, and
BBC documentary about Amy Winehouse;
don’t forget to stock Amy Winehouse: A Losing
Game by Mick O'Shea (pb, 978
085965482 1) from Plexus, which is a fully illustrated (40 photos)
biography telling her story in full, from childhood through to the pleasures and
pains of superstardom, her blazing talent, the years she lost to her addictions,
and the legacy of her raw and heartfelt music.
Compass is on
Twitter! Follow us @CompassIPS. Here are some of our favourite tweets from last
week...
I'm #SingleBecause I prefer book characters to
anyone in the real world.
"I
cannot stay faithful to just one book. I'm always reading another. I am a book
bigamist."
"And
we are all there / together" - vibrant & rousing poetry at our #EdDorn
launch last night. Thanks for coming!
Did
you see Sagan, Paris 1954 in today's @StylistMagazine ? Yup, part of The Style
List
My
Magical Oasis spotted by @CompassIPS's Martin in @JarroldBooks @JarroldsNorwich #exciting
#plexusbooks
Ready
to head to the beach? We reveal Britain ’s most beautiful secret
sea-side spots: http://bit.ly/1FtLjvF
Get
ready to go to war. DIEGO COSTA - The Art of War. New biog out soon. More here.
#Chelsea
That’s all for now
folks, more next week!
This blog is taken from a newsletter which is sent weekly to over 700 booksellers as well as publishers and publicists. If you would like to order any of the titles mentioned, then please click here to go to the Compass New Titles Website or talk to your Compass Sales representative.
This blog is taken from a newsletter which is sent weekly to over 700 booksellers as well as publishers and publicists. If you would like to order any of the titles mentioned, then please click here to go to the Compass New Titles Website or talk to your Compass Sales representative.
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