Bøker av Sean Egan

Planet of the Apes was a concept that started life in 1963 as a quirky work by French literary novelist Pierre (The Bridge on the River Kwai) Boulle. His concept of a world where humans are ruled over by apes proceeded to become one of the biggest multi-media sensations in history. The 1968 Charlton Heston motion-picture adaptation of Boulle's book was celebrated and successful but was just the beginning. By 1973, said picture had spawned four sequels. It then spun off a live-action TV series, which in turn spun off the animated TV show Return to the Planet of the Apes. What with this, comic books, novelizations, and a tsunami of merchandising, the late sixties and first half of the seventies had a distinctly simian flavor. A new generation was introduced to the concept when, in 2001, Tim Burton's updating of the series appeared in cinemas. This itself was rebooted a decade later in the form of Rise of the Planet of the Apes and its two sequels. Despite all the fantasy (and money-chasing), however, the series has always been marked by thoughtfulness, exploring serious themes alien to most franchises. Planet of the Apes explores every aspect of this media phenomenon---from books to films to comic books to television shows to video games to merchandise---to provide an overview of Planet of the Apes that is truly definitive. With the help of new and exclusive interviews, it examines the contributions of producers, directors, writers, actors, and makeup artists in an attempt to gain an understanding of how this media property has changed the world.

The Small Faces epitomised the maxim, "Never mind the width, feel the quality." In their brief original lifespan, they released just three official albums and a dozen-and-a-half authorised non-album singles and B-sides. Yet more than five decades after the London quartet's split the phenomenal quality of that compact body of work has ensured a continuing and unassailable musical esteem bordering on legend. Gut-bucket vocalist Steve Marriott brought a bluesy grit to both compositions of gravitas and effervescent pop numbers. Bassist Ronnie Lane collaborated with him to form one of the most formidable songwriting partnerships of the era. Ian McLagan was an exhilaratingly blurred-fingered keyboardist. Kenney Jones brought up the rear with blistering drum patterns, with his rolls often used to provide an explosive fanfare to Small Faces singles. Such a talent-oozing line-up was virtually predestined to conjure excellence. 'Tin Soldier', their exquisitely sophisticated psychedelic-soul release of 1967, regularly appears in polls to decide history's greatest singles. However, the band are just as much loved for rip-roaring power-pop like 'Sha-La-La La-Lee' and 'All or Nothing' and storming instrumental B-sides such as 'Grow Your Own' and 'Almost Grown'. Their acknowledged masterpiece is Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake (1968), an album that was not only artistically superb but groundbreaking in boasting a narrative song suite. The breadth of their talents helps explain why their catalogue is endlessly recycled and why their corpus has been disproportionately inspirational: the Small Faces were clear or acknowledged influences on David Bowie, Paul Weller, Quiet Riot, Blur, Oasis, Ocean Colour Scene and even Led Zeppelin. Long Agos and Worlds Apart covers the Small Faces' full, tumultuous story. It explores the group's 1965 formation, their Sixties glory years, the redistribution of the band members at the turn of the Seventies into Humble Pie and the Faces, the ill-fated but grimly fascinating Small Faces reunion of the late Seventies, and the little-known but worthy 1981 Small-Faces-in-all-but-name project the Majik Mijits. A closing section brings the story up to date. The book draws on lengthy new interviews, including ones with Kenney Jones, Lane's close friend Pete Townshend and original Small Faces member Jimmy Winston. It features contributions from many associates and intimates, including managers, agents, publicists, songwriters, auxiliary musicians, fan-club personnel, recording engineers, journalists, friends and wives. It also draws on numerous interviews the author conducted down the years with both Jones and McLagan, much of which material is previously unpublished. A revealing, impartial, exhaustive and definitive account, Longs Agos and Worlds Apart lays to rest several myths about the Small Faces while at the same time seeking to redress the lack of credit accorded a truly great band

Biography of the author of the musical, A Chorus Line.

An precedented, in-depth look at a crucial stage in Rod Stewart's career, recording for the Mercury label from 1969 to 1975.

David Bowie needs no introduction. An immense star whose music and writing has transcended generations and remains one of the most articulate influencers of modern music. This fantastic new, unofficial biography covers his life, music, art and movies, with a sweep of incredible photographs.

The year 1979 was a seminal watershed moment in rock music. The year saw the release of Pink Floyd's The Wall, David Bowie's Lodger, Led Zeppelin's In Through the Out Door, Bob Dylan's Slow Train Coming, Fleetwood Mac's Tusk, Elvis Costello and the Attractions' Armed Forces, Joe Jackson's Look Sharp! and I'm the Man, Stiff Little Fingers' Inflammable Material, Gary Numan/Tubeway Army's Replicas and the Pleasure Principle, Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures, the Jam's Setting Sons, the Clash's London Calling, and the UK 2-Tone phenomenon. It also saw a slump in album sales, a resurgence in single sales, and the peak and bloody death of disco. Now, with the help of new and exclusive interviews with artists and producers, New Waves, Old Hands, and Unknown Pleasures tells the varied, vibrant, and often unexamined story of popular music in 1979. It reveals the stories behind key recordings, traces the trajectories of commercial and artistic successes, and explains the musical and socio-political context behind the sounds of the day.

Sick of Being Me is the alternately exhilarating and harrowing story of guitarist Paul Hazelwood, from his childhood on a London council estate, where he nurtures his dreams of stardom, to his agonising realisation on the cusp of his thirties that talent doesn't necessarily bring success. Egan spurns sensationalism to portray the reality of the life of a struggling musician. Similar authenticity informs the drug scenes, which reveal the touching pain that can be hidden beneath an unpleasant junkie exterior. Vulnerable, truthful, moving and beautiful, Sick of Being Me is one of the great coming-of-age novels of our time.

Leiber & Stoller. Mann & Weil. Greenwich & Barry. Bobby Hart. Chip Taylor. Holland-Dozier-Holland. Tony Macaulay. Stock, Aitken & Waterman. Few would recognise them in the street but their melodies and lyrics are embedded in the minds of music lovers worldwide. With the aid of lengthy and exclusive interviews with some of the biggest names in the history of rock and pop songwriting, Sean Egan's The Guys Who Wrote 'em seeks to put right the lack of recognition for compositional geniuses who have chosen to use their musical skills to help not themselves but others achieve stardom. The result is a recounting of the story of post-Elvis popular music from an intriguing and delightful lateral angle. Amongst those to whom respected music journalist Egan has been granted access are Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller, Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil, Ellie Greenwich, Jeff Barry, Eddie and Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier, Bobby Hart, Joey Levine, Graham Gouldman, Chip Taylor, Tony Macaulay, Nicky Chinn, Mike Stock and Matt Aitken. Their anecdotes feature Elvis Presley, Phil Spector, Eric Clapton, The Shangri-Las, Diana Ross, Jimi Hendrix and a host of other iconic figures. The Guys Who Wrote 'em is both the most comprehensive book ever written about the 'bespoke songwriter' and the fascinating, untold story of popular music.

The iconic life and career of the famed guitarist of the Rolling Stones is detailed in this compilation of interviews that spans the last 50 years.

A bumper commemoration of the 50th anniversary of The Rolling Stones' signing in 1963.

The fullest ever anthology of writing about rock's greatest poet.

In The Clash: The Only Band That Matters, respected music critic Sean Egan examines The Clash's career and art through the prism of the uniquely interesting and fractious UK politics of the Seventies and Eighties, without which they simply would not have existed. Tackling subjects such as The Clash's self-conscious tussles with their record label, the accusations of sell-out that dogged their footsteps, their rivalry with the similarly leaning but less purist Jam, the paradoxical quality of their achieving multi-platinum success and even whether their denunciations of Thatcherism were proven wrong, Egan has come up with new insights into a much discussed group.

A bumper anthology of interviews, accounts and recollections of the Beatles.