Norman Philip

In 2012 the Rolling Stones celebrate their 50th anniversary. Their story - the band's meteoric rise to fame, the Marianne Faithfull, Brian Jones and Altamont scandals, the groundbreaking hits - is the stuff of twentieth century legend, and core to popular culture. But it is Norman's skills as a researcher and biographer which bring a whole new dimension to such a story. Written with the personal knowledge, trust and co-operation of the participants, this fully updated version is indisputably the best book on The Stones ever written. Norman spares no detail, covering the Jerry Hall/Mick Jagger split and the Stones' lives as tax exiles, the recording of Exile on Main St. as well as the iconic stage performances, Mick's control of the band's affairs and his contractual disputes with managers and promoters. This a story of fame, money, drugs, booze, sex, hedonism and the greatest rock band of all time.

A miracle of still-plentiful hair, raw sex-appeal, and strutting talent . The frontman of one of the most influential and controversial groups of all time. A musical genius with a career spanning over four decades. He is a testament to British glamour, the ultimate architect and demi-god of rock. Bestselling biographer Philip Norman offers an unparalleled account of the life of a living legend, Mick Jagger. From Home Counties schoolboy, to rebel without a cause to Sixties rock sensation and global idol, Norman unravels with astonishing intimacy the myth of the inimitable frontman of The Rolling Stones. MICK JAGGER charts his extraordinary journey through scandal-ridden conspiracy, infamous prison spell, hordes of female admirers and a knighthood while stripping away the colossal fame, wealth and idolatry to reveal a story of talent and promise unfulfilled. Understated yet ostentatious; the ultimate incarnation of modern man's favourite fantasy: 'sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll', yet blessed with taste and intelligence; a social chameleon who couldn't blend in if he tried; always moving with the Jagger swagger yet modest enough to be self-deprecating, Mick was a paradoxical energy that reconfigured the musical landscape. This revelatory tour de force is ample tribute to a flawed genius, a Casanova, an Antichrist and a god who, with characteristic nonchalance realised the dreams of thousands of current contenders and rocker pretenders, longevity, while coasting on a sea of fur rugs.

Po celých pět desetiletí, kdy stojí v čele Rolling Stones, je Mick Jagger vnímán jako nanejvýš arogantní, narcistická superstar, jejíž sexuální apetit a povýšené zacházení s ženami si v ničem nezadá s Casanovou a jejíž údajné bezhlavé užívání drog odstartovalo jeden z nejslavnějších skandálů v historii rocku. I když je nyní dědečkem se sedmi křížky na krku a rytířem britské monarchie, zůstává i nadále vzorem pro každého mladého rockového zpěváka, který vystoupí na pódium. Mistrovská biografie Philipa Normana ukazuje, že tato nejznámější a přitom stále tajemná rocková ikona není jen pouhým mýtickým arcisvůdcem, ale je mnohem složitější osobností. Konečně zde máme skutečný příběh o tom, jak král popových manipulátorů Andrew Oldham proměnil plachého studenta ekonomie jménem Mike Jagger v moderního Antikrista… „Velmi ambiciózní a komplexní biografie Micka Jaggera, nejlepší ze všech.“ Rolling Stone. Přeložil Petr Ferenc

An entertaining and illuminating celebration of televisual history by cultural historian Phil Norman For decades, television occupied a unique position in the national imagination. By today's standards the 'box' was tiny, but it dominated the living room in a way its technically superior descendants never quite manage. Has the television lost its power in the internet age? Cultural historian Phil Norman goes in search of such questions as he tells the history of TV through 100 ground-breaking programmes. He celebrates the joy of the TV schedule which, in the days of just a few channels, threw up dizzy juxtapositions on a daily basis: an earnest play might be followed by a variety spectacular; a horror anthology that drove children behind furniture followed a sketch show that chewed the carpet. This riotous mix, now slowly disappearing as themed channels and on-demand services take over, gave television a sense of community that no other media could compete with. The wonderful variety of programmes in the book includes overlooked gems and justly wiped follies, overcooked spectaculars and underfunded experiments - just as much a part of TV history as the national treasures and stone-cold classics. A History of Television in 100 Programmes revels in the days when television was at the most exciting, creative stage of any medium: a cottage industry with the world at its feet.

The first biography written with Paul McCartney's approval and with access to family members and friends closest to him. Superbly evoking half a century of popular music and culture, Paul McCartney is the definitive life of a long-misunderstood genius. In this masterly biography, history's most successful songwriter, a man of seemingly effortless talent, beauty and charm, is revealed as a complex, insecure workaholic who still feels as great a need to prove himself in his seventies as when he was a teenager. We learn how his boyhood was blighted by the death of his mother, Mary - later the inspiration for 'Let It Be' - but redeemed by his remarkable father, Jim, a Liverpool cotton-salesman who was his only music-teacher and whose influence has permeated his career. We understand as never before the creative symbiosis between John Lennon and himself that unlocked the extraordinary treasury of their songs for the Beatles when they were barely into their twenties, and the fierce rivalry which lasted beyond the band's break-up to the end of John's life - and still haunts and inspires Paul to this day.Here for the first time is the full story of Paul post-Beatles: his trauma after being brutally sidelined by John, George and Ringo over the appointment of their last manager, Allen Klein; his near-breakdown on his remote Scottish farm and dogged determination to build a new band, Wings, into as big a name in the 1970s as the Beatles had been in the 1960s. Here too is the first inside story of his marriage to Linda Eastman, much criticised at the outset but destined to become the longest and strongest in rock until her death from cancer. Here are the traumatic post-Linda years when his charmed life seemed temporarily to crack up: his whirlwind romance with Heather Mills ending after four years' marriage in one of the most expensive and rancorous divorces in British legal history. As richly fascinating and dramatic as its subject, Paul McCartney: The Biography is the last word on a man whose music has lit up the world.

Jediná oficiálna biografia hudobníka, speváka, skladateľa a bývalého člena kapely The Beatles! Aký je historicky najúspešnejší skladateľ Paul McCartney? Dostaňte sa do hlavy geniálneho hudobníka a spoznajte detaily z jeho života. Philip Norman spracoval aj rozhovory s rodinnými príslušníkmi a blízkymi priateľmi, ktorí nikdy predtým na záznam nehovorili. Odkrýva priebeh zložitého vzťahu McCartneyho s Johnom Lennonom, zachytáva jeho osobnú traumu z rozpadu Beatles a následný boj o návrat na vrchol s kapelou Wings, popisuje manželstvo s Lindou (vrátane jej veľmi kritizovanej hudobnej spolupráce) aj vzťahy s ďalšími osudovými ženami. To a omnoho viac nájdete v prvej a jedinej biografii schválenej Paulom McCartneym. Philip Norman Medzinárodne najpredávanejší autor biografií Johna Lennona, Buddyho Hollyho, Eltona Johna, Rolling Stones a Micka Jaggera, autor klasickej beatlovskej biografie Shout! Niekoľko ocenení získal aj ako novinár, scenárista a autor románov.

Jaký je historicky nejúspěšnější skladatel Paul McCartney? Nejuznávanější autor biografií hudebních legend ho vykresluje jako složitého, nejistého workoholika, který má potřebu stále si něco dokazovat. Autor se nevyhýbá ani tématům, jako je složitý vztah s Johnem Lennonem, deprese po rozpadu Beatles nebo dojemná smrt jeho ženy Lindy. To a mnohem více najdete v první a jediné biografii schválené Paul McCartneym a jeho nejbližšími.

Eric Clapton is acknowledged to be rock's greatest virtuoso, the unrivalled master of its most essential tool, the solid-body electric guitar. Clapton transfigured three of the 1960s' most iconic bands, the Yardbirds, Cream and Blind Faith, walking away from each when it failed to measure up to his exacting standards. He was the only outsider be an honorary member of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, and the studio musician of choice for solo superstars from Bob Dylan to Aretha Franklin. Yet even as a rock god in excelsis, his true passion was always the blues. Even his own blues heroes, the likes of Muddy Waters, B. B. King and Buddy Guy, would recognise the supremacy of this wispy white boy from the English county of Surrey. No life has been more rock 'n' roll than Clapton's in his epic consumption of drugs and alcohol, his insatiable appetite for expensive cars, clothes, and women - most famously revealed when he fell in love with Pattie Boyd, the wife of his best friend, George Harrison, and the inspiration for 'Layla'. With the benefit of unrestricted access to family members, close friends and fellow musicians, and his encyclopedic knowledge of sixties music and culture, Philip Norman has written the definitive portrait of the insecure, often pain-racked man.

Almost 50 years after his lonely death, Hendrix is the abiding symbol of musical genius cut tragically short. Wild Thing will be the first biography to bring together the splendour and sadness of his brief life, and to attempt to unravel the circumstances of his death. Hendrix revolutionised classic rock, inventing a whole new vocabulary for the guitar. Onstage he pushed the boundaries of Sixties permissiveness, fellating the strings of the guitar with his tongue, lying it flat and straddling it, even setting fire to it. Yet in private he was polite, shy and sweet-natured. Norman will explore these contradictions in a narrative that takes us from Hendrix's roots in Seattle to his louche and glamorous life in Mayfair, when London was the world's most 'swinging' capital and then back to the US with the series of historic outdoor rock festivals that rounded out the decade. Wild Thing will be a celebration of matchless artistry, and a gripping chronicle of those now mythical times. But it will also investigate the peculiar conditions of his death, part whodunnit as it tells the most cautionary of rock 'n' roll parables. After all these years of rumour and speculation, Jimi's ghost may finally be laid to rest.

This is the first and best Beatles biography, Norman had close working relationships with each of the Fab Four, having interviewed them many times since 1965 and observed first hand the events that led to the split during 1969-70. The resulting book contained unique insights into the rise of the Beatles, their final years, the chaos of Apple and the collapse of hippy idealism. Now fully updated, and written with all of Norman's trademark verve and skill, this is an essential book for anyone with an interest in pop music, the Sixties and the pleasures and perils of god-like fame. 'Nothing less than thrilling ...the definitive biography' - "New York Times". 'This stands as the first (and still the best) collision of Beatles history and literary depth ...just about everything is rendered with beautiful prose and laser-like insight' - "Q".

This is the first and best Beatles biography, Norman had close working relationships with each of the Fab Four, having interviewed them many times since 1965 and observed first hand the events that led to the split during 1969-70. The resulting book contained unique insights into the rise of the Beatles, their final years, the chaos of Apple and the collapse of hippy idealism. Now fully updated, and written with all of Norman's trademark verve and skill, this is an essential book for anyone with an interest in pop music, the Sixties and the pleasures and perils of god-like fame. 'Nothing less than thrilling ...the definitive biography' - "New York Times". 'This stands as the first (and still the best) collision of Beatles history and literary depth ...just about everything is rendered with beautiful prose and laser-like insight' - "Q".

An entertaining and illuminating celebration of televisual history by cultural historian Phil Norman For decades, television occupied a unique position in the national imagination. By today's standards the 'box' was tiny, but it dominated the living room in a way its technically superior descendants never quite manage. Has the television lost its power in the internet age? Cultural historian Phil Norman goes in search of such questions as he tells the history of TV through 100 ground-breaking programmes. He celebrates the joy of the TV schedule which, in the days of just a few channels, threw up dizzy juxtapositions on a daily basis: an earnest play might be followed by a variety spectacular; a horror anthology that drove children behind furniture followed a sketch show that chewed the carpet. This riotous mix, now slowly disappearing as themed channels and on-demand services take over, gave television a sense of community that no other media could compete with. The wonderful variety of programmes in the book includes overlooked gems and justly wiped follies, overcooked spectaculars and underfunded experiments - just as much a part of TV history as the national treasures and stone-cold classics. A History of Television in 100 Programmes revels in the days when television was at the most exciting, creative stage of any medium: a cottage industry with the world at its feet.

This is the first and best Beatles biography, Norman had close working relationships with each of the Fab Four, having interviewed them many times since 1965 and observed first hand the events that led to the split during 1969-70. The resulting book contained unique insights into the rise of the Beatles, their final years, the chaos of Apple and the collapse of hippy idealism. Now fully updated, and written with all of Norman's trademark verve and skill, this is an essential book for anyone with an interest in pop music, the Sixties and the pleasures and perils of god-like fame. 'Nothing less than thrilling ...the definitive biography' - "New York Times". 'This stands as the first (and still the best) collision of Beatles history and literary depth ...just about everything is rendered with beautiful prose and laser-like insight' - "Q".