The Blackpool Rock


Book Description

To the police he was Public Enemy Number One. To drunken gangs of yobs intent on trouble, he was a nightmare come true. Steve Sinclair was the toughest doorman in the wildest resort in Britain - and if you crossed him, payback was swift and certain. Blackpool, once a byword for cheeky family fun, was by the 1980s a violent town plagued by lager louts, drug dealers and villains intent on muscling in on the lucrative club trade. Sinclair worked the biggest clubs and the roughest doors. He and his associates fought hundreds of battles against football hooligans, gang members and rival hardmen. They were also branded gangsters and were blamed by the police for serious unsolved crimes. Described by On The Doors magazine as 'a compelling, gripping and fascinating tale', THE BLACKPOOL ROCK is a candid insight into the dangerous world of the modern doorman and of the extreme methods he sometimes employs to defend himself and his customers and uphold his hard-won reputation.




Wild Tales


Book Description

A founding member of the bands Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and the Hollies shares the story of his life from his youth in post-war England through his creative relationship with Joni Mitchell and his career as a solo musician and political activist




The Fabulous Baker Brothers


Book Description

Tom and Henry Herbert - The Fabulous Baker Brothers - are fifth generation bakers with a passion for food in all its forms. Tom is a talented master baker whose famous Hobbs House Bakery sits just next door to his younger brother Henry's butchery. Together our young brothers work side by side making the amazing bread and delicious meaty accompaniments and fillings that have made their businesses so successful. Here, in this brand new cook book to accompany the hit Channel 4 show, The Fabulous Baker Brothers share with us mouthwatering oven-based recipes that unlock a world of gorgeous homemade breads, pastries, pies, cakes and confectionary. With carefully chosen ingredients and some easily-mastered techniques - this is healthy, wholesome, beautiful food that doesn't cost the earth to make. Fully illustrated throughout with photographs of the boys, their shops and Cotswold surrounds, and of course their stunning produce, this cook book gets to the fundamental heart of British good food as two of the country's most respected and successful artisans teach us how to bake like professionals in our own homes.




Blackpool in Film and Popular Music


Book Description

This collection examines Blackpool, Britain’s first and largest working-class seaside resort as a location for the production and consumption of British film and popular music, and the meaning of ‘Blackpool’ in films and songs. It examines representation of Blackpool in films such as Hindle Wakes, A Taste of Honey, Bhaji on the Beach, Away, Bob’s Weekend, The Harry Hill Movie and Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, linking it to the concepts of heterotopia, purgatory, fantasy, simulacra and the carnivalesque. It also presents music in Blackpool through the history of its venues and examines development of punk and grime music in this seaside town. The authors argue that Blackpool in filmic and musical texts often stands for British culture, but increasingly for culture which is remembered or imagined rather than present and real.




Punk Rock


Book Description

With its own fashion, culture, and chaotic energy, punk rock boasted a do-it-yourself ethos that allowed anyone to take part. Vibrant and volatile, the punk scene left an extraordinary legacy of music and cultural change. John Robb talks to many of those who cultivated the movement, such as John Lydon, Lemmy, Siouxsie Sioux, Mick Jones, Chrissie Hynde, Malcolm McLaren, Henry Rollins, and Glen Matlock, weaving together their accounts to create a raw and unprecedented oral history of UK punk. All the main players are here: from The Clash to Crass, from The Sex Pistols to the Stranglers, from the UK Subs to Buzzcocks—over 150 interviews capture the excitement of the most thrilling wave of rock ’n’ roll pop culture ever. Ranging from its widely debated roots in the late 1960s to its enduring influence on the bands, fashion, and culture of today, this history brings to life the energy and the anarchy as no other book has done.




The Wonder Brothers


Book Description

'A writer of comic genius - he has something of Roald Dahl's magic, but more heart' - Sunday Telegraph Budding magicians everywhere, prepare to be dazzled and astounded by the laugh-out-loud adventure – The Wonder Brothers! Written by multi-award-winning author Frank Cottrell-Boyce, illustrated throughout by Steven Lenton. It's . . . SHOW TIME! Drum roll please for Nathan (that's me) and Middy (that's her). We are . . . The Wonder Brothers! Cousins Middy and Nathan love magic, the on-stage, cape-swirling, bunny-out-of-a-hat kind. So, when the famous Blackpool Tower dramatically vanishes the night of the Big Switch-On, showman Nathan announces live on TV that they will magic it back home. With a stick of rock, a spangly cape, and a bit of misdirection, they end up lost in Las Vegas, home to the grand master of illusion, and magic legend, Perplexion. But, with a great illusionist, comes great mystery – and , in Las Vegas, nothing is as it seems . . .




Gene Vincent & Eddie Cochran


Book Description

The United Kingdom had never seen anything like it, as two rock'n'roll legends rampaged around the country on Britain's first-ever rock tour. Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran lived the rock'n'roll lifestyle to the full, bringing to an end the monochrome 1950s and ushering in the swinging 60s. John Collis has traced the story of the UK tour that was a defining moment in British popular culture to its tragic climax with the death of Eddie Cochran. He looks back on the contrasting backgrounds of the two stars, follows the tale onwards to Gene Vincent's death from alcohol and drug abuse, and examines the lasting legacy of their music.




Stags, Hens and Bunnies


Book Description

Blackpool has an unenviable reputation for its stag and hen parties. Every weekend marauding packs of brides and grooms, close friends and family, overflow its streets on a mission to consume dangerous, liver-crushing levels of alcohol. This, their rite of passage acted out on the last night of freedom, before the conventions and responsibilities of marital life, mortgage, children. Dougie Wallace presents an unflinching depiction of these nights in this unforgettable series of images.




Worktowners at Blackpool


Book Description

Gary Cross publishes the findings of this largely forgotten study by the Mass-Observers who followed the annual pilgrimage of labourers to Blackpool, hoping to discover what attracted workers to this centre of Victorian culture.




Sweets


Book Description

In Sweets, Tim Richardson takes us on a magical confectionery tour, letting his personal passion fuel the narrative of candy's rich and unusual history. Beginning with a description of the biology of sweetness itself, Richardson navigates the ancient history of sweets, the incredible range and diversity of candies worldwide, the bizarre figures and practices of the confectionery industry, and the connection between food and sex. He goes on to explore the role of sweets in myth and folklore and, finally, offers a personal philosophy of continual sweet-eating based on the writings of Epicurus. "For anyone with a sweet tooth, Sweets is manna...This history of candy is full of delights."-New York Times Book Review "Sweets is an informative, entertaining grab-bag of personal opinion, anecdote and culinary history." -Los Angeles Times