(Limelight). A Hard Day's Night: Music on Film Series is the story of the making of the greatest rock-and-roll movie of all time. Beginning with introductions to the film's stars chronicling their rise from a raggedy teenage skiffle band to the biggest pop act in the world the book goes on to tell how the American film company United Artists wanted to make a quick, low-budget movie starring the Fab Four so its record division could put out a motion picture soundtrack album full of new Beatles songs, in order to allow the studio to cash in on the incredible wave of Beatlemania then sweeping the planet. Director Richard Lester, producer Walter Shenson, and screenwriter Alun Owen were hired to churn out just another cheap exploitation film, but instead used the opportunity to create a startlingly fresh and original movie that broke new ground both in subject matter (instead of simply following genre tradition and sticking the band in some corny made-up plot, they had the Beatles play themselves in a narrative based on their own incredible real-life experiences) and in form (Lester's inspired, surrealist approach to the film's musical numbers kicked off the entire music video revolution). Covered is the film's frantic six-week shoot, the lively recording sessions that resulted in seven great new Beatles songs, and how both the film and the album met with great critical and popular success.

In March of 1964 director Richard Lester began shooting A Hard Day's Night, a black-and-white feature film starring the Beatles. With slapstick humor and a fantastic soundtrack, the movie imagines the excitement and chaos of thirty-six hours in the life of the Fab Four, and stars John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, with Wilfrid Brambell portraying McCartney's grandfather. The Making of A Hard Day's Night is a collection of photographs and rare ephemera that documents the band on set and behind the scenes. This private archive captures the infectious energy and anarchic spirit of this groundbreaking film. An authoritative essay and lively captions by Beatles’ historian Mark Lewisohn provide context and explores its impact and enduring legacy.

"London s music is as important as its landmarks. It is the city of immigrant music, West End musicals, Ronnie Scott's jazz club, Abbey Road, mod culture, the Kinks, the Who and the Rolling Stones, all of whom transformed the city and were in turn transformed by it. In this fascinating history of the city's popular music, Paul Du Noyer, critically-acclaimed music writer and founding editor of Mojo, explores London's native talent, from No l Coward and David Bowie to the Sex Pistols and Amy Winehouse. He covers too the London visits of international artists such as Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix, who also felt the city's influence. From Elizabethan traders and public execution songs, to The Beggar's Opera and East End music halls, right up to modern-day troubadours such as Dizzee Rascal and Lily Allen, he charts the rich musical inheritance of London and the many styles and characters that have helped to define the city's music over the years. This captivating book will appeal to residents, visitors and exiles alike, as well as lovers of popular culture, social history and music. Above all, it is a celebration of the city packed with stories of the people and places that have made L

Tune In is the first volume of All These Years—a highly-anticipated, groundbreaking biographical trilogy by the world's leading Beatles historian. Mark Lewisohn uses his unprecedented archival access and hundreds of new interviews to construct the full story of the lives and work of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr. Ten years in the making, Tune In takes the Beatles from before their childhoods through the final hour of 1962—when, with breakthrough success just days away, they stand on the cusp of a whole new kind of fame and celebrity. They’ve one hit record ("Love Me Do") behind them and the next ("Please Please Me") primed for release, their first album session is booked, and America is clear on the horizon. This is the lesser-known Beatles story—the pre-Fab years of Liverpool and Hamburg—and in many respects the most absorbing and incredible period of them all. Here is the complete and true account of their family lives, childhoods, teenage years and their infatuation with American music, here is the riveting narrative of their unforgettable days and nights in the Cavern Club, their laughs, larks and adventures when they could move about freely, before fame closed in. For those who’ve never read a Beatles book before, this is the place to discover the young men behind the icons. For those who think they know John, Paul, George, and Ringo, it’s time to press the Reset button and tune into the real story, the lasting word.

In eighteen thematically linked stories, Colin Fleming explores the ways in which relationships end, with a focus on the void a loved one leaves behind. In Fire with Legs,” the inhabitants of a noise machine discuss the end of a previous relationship, and the life that went with it. In Playing in Room B,” an amateur videographer searches for his vanished wife in his movies, wondering when she started slipping out of the frame. In Green Wood,” a man examines the death of his wife and the certainty of reality in a world where the TV program never changes. In The Char Paper Blues Band,” a tiny group of professional musicians provides the background track to a couple's life, from blissful harmony to the gradual souring of the song. Through magical realism and extended metaphor, Fleming explores the epiphenomena of failed relationships, the flotsam left behind in the wreckage of life as it was.

An all-access, firsthand account of the life and music of one of history's most beloved bands--from an original mastering engineer at Abbey Road Geoff Emerick became an assistant engineer at the legendary Abbey Road Studios in 1962 at age fifteen, and was present as a new band called the Beatles recorded their first songs. He later worked with the Beatles as they recorded their singles “She Loves You” and “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” the songs that would propel them to international superstardom. In 1964 he would witness the transformation of this young and playful group from Liverpool into professional, polished musicians as they put to tape classic songs such as “Eight Days A Week” and “I Feel Fine.” Then, in 1966, at age nineteen, Geoff Emerick became the Beatles’ chief engineer, the man responsible for their distinctive sound as they recorded the classic album Revolver, in which they pioneered innovative recording techniques that changed the course of rock history. Emerick would also engineer the monumental Sgt. Pepper and Abbey Road albums, considered by many the greatest rock recordings of all time. In Here, There and Everywhere he reveals the creative process of the band in the studio, and describes how he achieved the sounds on their most famous songs. Emerick also brings to light the personal dynamics of the band, from the relentless (and increasingly mean-spirited) competition between Lennon and McCartney to the infighting and frustration that eventually brought a bitter end to the greatest rock band the world has ever known.