Books published by OMNIBUS PRESS

Listening to the Music the Machines Make is the enthralling, explosive story of electronic pop between 1978 and 1983-a true golden age of British music. This definitive book explores how krautrock, disco, glam rock, and punk inspired an electronic pop revolution and how that revolution went on to establish the foundations for hip-hop, house, and EDM. Drawing on years of research and with exclusive input from key figures-including Vince Clarke (Depeche Mode, Yazoo, Erasure), Martyn Ware (The Human League, Heaven 17), Dave Ball (Soft Cell), John Foxx (Ultravox), Daniel Miller (The Normal, Mute Records) and Rusty Egan (Visage)-Richard Evans tells the stories of the movement's underground pioneers and its superstars: from Devo, The Normal, Telex, and Cabaret Voltaire to Gary Numan, OMD, Duran Duran, and Depeche Mode.

Richard and Fred Fairbrass, better known as Right Said Fred, scored a global Number 1 hit in 1991 with their debut single ‘I'm Too Sexy', selling 30 million albums, being showered with industry awards, and earning plaudits from admirers such as Madonna and Prince. Before that breakthrough, though, the brothers spent over a decade in London and New York, trying to make it in the music industry. Fred played guitar with Bob Dylan and Richard played bass in several David Bowie videos, with the brothers appearing on stage with Joy Division and Suicide, and on film with Mick Jagger. Once fame hit, the good times rolled, the substances mounted up and the groupies formed an orderly queue, but it wasn't long before the brothers realised that fame and fortune is not for everyone. Still Too Sexy is their story, with a foreword by the legendary stunt motorcyclist Eddie Kidd, OBE.

Swimming with the Blowfish is the definitive account of the rise, fall and rebirth of the band that offered an irresistible alternative to the grunge music of the early '90s.

The Beatles - 1963 draws on hundreds of new eyewitness accounts and provides numerous unseen photographs. Meticulously researched, this is the definitive account of the momentous year that sent John, Paul, George and Ringo to stratospheric heights.

The long-awaited memoir of Booker T. Jones, leader of the famed Stax Records house band, architect of the Memphis soul sound, and one of the most legendary figures in music.

Deals with The Beatles and their contemporaries. Focusing on one of the most exciting periods in British rock history, this title provides comprehensive family trees for the quintessential groups of the Liverpool and London scenes.

A new year for David Bowie means new clothes, new boots, new hair and a new name: Ziggy Stardust. To the gloomy blacked-out Britain of powercuts and three-day weeks he may as well be from outer space - if that's what it takes to make him famous, far be it from him to tell anyone he isn't. Bowie's success as the bisexual Starman soon rubs off on his new friends Mott The Hoople and his hero Lou Reed as 1972 becomes Annus Glamrockus. Music, fashion and the old codes of gender will never be the same again. But as his runaway fame quickly blurs all lines between fantasy and reality, neither will David. The third volume of the Bowie Odyssey series offers a wild and revelatory snapshot of the year of Ziggy as Simon Goddard continues his vivid real-time journey through the decade Bowie changed pop forever.

Pride, Pop and Politics charts the development of gay culture and the rise of LGBTQ politics in the UK, from the formation of the Gay Liberation Front to the present day, through the music that provided the soundtrack.Fifty years on from Britain's first Pride march, the long road to LGBT equality continues. Through protest songs and gay club nights, street theatre activism and fundraising concerts, the performing arts have played an influential role in each great stride made.With new interviews with musicians and DJs, performers and activists, including Andy Bell, Jayne County, John Grant, Horse McDonald and Peter Tachell, Pride, Pop and Politics hears from those whose art has been influenced by the campaign for LGBT rights – and helped push it forward.This informative, eye-opening book is the first to focus on the relationship between gay nightlife and political activism in Britain.Darryl W. Bullock won the prestigious Penderyn Music Book Prize in 2022 with The Velvet Mafia, a thrilling account of the gay men who ran the swinging sixties.

Celebrating a remarkable 40 years in the music business, Tony Hadley looks back on all aspects of his spectacular career, from Spandau Ballet to Chicago, to his successful solo work and tours with The Fabulous TH Band. This deluxe photobook includes a wealth of unseen images and extended captions from Tony.

In the sequel to Bowie Odyssey 70 (a Sunday Times Book Of The Year), Simon Goddard continues his groundbreaking VR narrative into the world inside and around Bowie, year by year, through the decade he changed pop forever.

Covering the years 1977-1986 and the brief reincarnation in 2007-2008, acclaimed biographers Caroline and David Stafford chronicle the rise and fall of the Police.

When a musician dies, it is rarely the end of their story. While death can propel megastars to even further success, artists overlooked in their lifetime might also find a new type of fame. But a badly timed move or the wrong deal can see the artist die all over again. Colonel Tom Parker, the former carnival huckster, understood this high-wire act implicitly and the posthumous career of Elvis Presley has provided a template for everyone else. Estates have two jobs: keeping the artist's name alive and ensuring they continue to make money. These can sometimes be compatible goals, but often they spark a tension that is unique in the music business. Drawing on interviews with those running music estates as well as music lawyers, record companies and archivists, Leaving the Building reveals how the music industry is constantly striving to perfect the business of death.

I Just Can't Stop It is the honest and compelling autobiography from British Music Legend, Ranking Roger.

Featuring honest and open first-hand accounts, Come and Get These Memories is more than just a behind-the-scenes look at Motown Records at its peak: Eddie and Brian set the record straight on both their personal and professional lives and offer a revealing slice of pop-music history.

Sylvain Sylvain was there from the start, and this is his story. Taking in his early life in New York, the rise, fall and rise again of the New York Dolls, and all his misadventures between, There's No Bones in Ice Cream is the true story of one of rock's greatest, told in his own authentic voice.

This hugely influential book from 1975, on how traditional folk music influenced and shaped rock, is now brought completely up to date, by original contributor and respected journalist Robin Denselow.

For most people in Britain in the 1970s and 1980s, Radio 1 provided the soundtrack to their lives. Commanding up to 24 million listeners a week, it was the most popular radio station in the world. An iconic institution and one of the UK's most famous brands, its history and socio-cultural impact is explored in full here for the first time. Robert Sellers draws on archive material and first-hand interviews with DJs and key personnel to capture the extraordinary story of Radio 1, from its beginnings in 1967 through to its controversial reorganisation in the early nineties.

Whether flying across a screen or lighting up the stage, Madness' wild, energetic sax player has always been hard to miss. For Lee ‘KIX' Thompson, life is for having as much fun as possible. Growing Out Of It is the tale of one ‘nutty boy' not really growing out of it at all. From getting up to no good as a teenager to his many musical (mis)adventures in the 1970s, Lee's memoir of his formative years captures his enduring love for his north London stomping ground, where he first met the other members of Madness.This is a story of growing up in a certain time and place when anything felt possible, even a bunch of north London lads forming a ska revival band – and becoming one of Britain's best-loved groups.

Based on interviews with the group themselves, Music is the Drug is the official biography of one of the best-loved folk-rock bands around.