Porcupine Tree began in 1987 as a solo project for Steven Wilson but became a four-piece band when Steven was later joined by Richard Barbieri, Colin Edwin, and Chris Maitland (who was later replaced by Gavin Harrison). Their first live gig was in a pub in High Wycombe, England, in 1993, but by 2010 the band had toured Europe and America extensively, ending up by playing to thousands of fans at a sold-out Royal Albert Hall in London. The band was nominated for two Grammy awards, and their last album, The Incident, made the top 30 in both the UK and the US. Although often labelled as a progressive rock band, Porcupine Tree constantly changed style. Beginning by playing psychedelic music, Porcupine Tree experimented with space rock, dance, trance and melodic pop as well as prog rock. In their last few albums, the band created a new hybrid of progressive metal riffs, melodic strength and rich vocal harmonies, with strong lyrics and powerful concepts. This aspect of the band has provided their most enduring legacy. This book analyses all Porcupine Tree’s studio albums and EPs in forensic detail, providing illuminating insight into the band’s music for existing and new fans alike.

Since Sonicbond Publishing launched at the end of 2018, iwe have published books that span most genres in popular music, from easy listening to psychedelia and from pop to metal. However, it is in the world of progressive rock that we have found our most comfortable home. This book features eleven chapters from books on some of the greats of the genre, including from our On Track series Yes, Genesis, Caravan, ELP, Gentle Giant, Jethro Tull, Pink Floyd, Porcupine Tree and Steve Hackett solo. Our Decades series offers up chapters on Marillion in the 1980s and Van Der Graaf Generator in the 1970s and our Year In series has a chapter on Aphrodite’s Child’s seminal 666. This is just the tip of the iceberg, though, and for the up-to-date list, check out the complete stocklist at the back of this book. The book contains two exclusive pieces that you won’t find in printed books anywhere else. Nick Holmes’ detailed chapter on Porcupine Tree’s Closure/Continuation can be found in the current E-book but not yet in the printed version. Stephen Lambe has rewritten his own chapter on Yes’ ‘lost album’ Talk, released 30 years ago. Contents: Closure/Continuation (2022) from Porcupine Tree On Track (Revised Edition) by Nick Holmes (to be published in 2025) Talk (1994) from Yes On Track by Stephen Lambe. Revised version for future Editions Aphrodite’s Child – 666 (1972) from 1972: The Year Progressive Rock Ruled The World by Kevan Furbank If I Could Do It All Over Again It Again I’d Do It All Over You (1970) from Caravan On Track by Andy Boot Tarkus (1971) from Emerson, Lake & Palmer On Track by Mike Goode Wind & Wuthering (1976) and the Spot The Pigeon EP from Genesis On Track by Stuart Macfarlane Acquiring The Taste (1971) from Gentle Giant On Track by Gary Steel Songs From The Wood (1977) from Jethro Tull On Track by Jordan Blum 1985: The Heart That We Have Live from Marillion in the 1980s by Nathaniel Webb Meddle (1971) from Pink Floyd On Track by Richard Butterworth Defector (1980) from Steve Hackett On Track by Geoffrey Feakes 1975: The Undercover Men From Van der Graaf Generator In The 1970s by Steve Pilkington

The brother and sister team of Karen and Richard Carpenter rank as one of the most successful acts in pop music history. Between the first Carpenters’ album released in 1969 and their final studio album together in 1981, they achieved three Grammy awards, 18 hits in the US Top 20 (and ten in the UK) and multiple platinum discs, leading to eventual sales of over 100 million copies worldwide. Although the group’s career was brought to a tragic and premature end by the untimely death of Karen Carpenter in 1983, they remain a much-loved band. The Carpenters crafted their own distinctive sound with multi-part harmonies and lush arrangements. A unique singer and gifted interpreter of songs, Karen was also passionate about playing the drums, with Richard’s talents extending to keyboards, singing, composing, arranging and producing. This book explores the background to each of their studio albums and classic singles, as well as their solo recordings, live albums and compilations of rare tracks. From their earliest recordings in a jazz trio through to Richard’s reinterpretations of their best-known songs with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and as a solo pianist, this appraisal looks at over 55 years of Carpenters material. Paul Tornbohm is a songwriter and musician. As befits a Carpenters fan, he has recorded an album of his songs, August Afternoons, with his sister Cathy on lead vocals. A former member of the ‘ghost-rock’ group Piano Magic, Paul has also released the solo EP Down an English Lane. Additionally, he composes for Spontaneous Productions, a theatre company in Sydenham, London. Paul has a Masters in music production from Kingston University, teaches music qualifications at a sixth-form college in Surrey and lives in Crystal Palace, London, with his wife, the composer Yumi Mashiki. This is his first book.

From schoolboy band to sold-out stadium tours and worldwide album sales of over 100 million, Genesis were one of the defining progressive rock bands of the seventies, playing a huge part in shaping the genre. Over a career spanning fifty-five years from formation to the Last Domino? tour of 2021, they developed and adapted through many changes, some of which polarised their existing fans but attracted countless new ones. While Foxtrot and The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway helped define progressive rock, it was the three-piece line up of Tony Banks, Mike Rutherford and Phil Collins that became the real hit-makers, with albums like Invisible Touch and We Can't Dance and massive hit singles like 'No Son of Mine' and 'Land of Confusion'. This book takes the reader on a journey through their entire catalogue, which includes fifteen studio and six live albums, including five consecutive number ones in the UK and five consecutive top tens in the USA, visiting each album in turn and examining every track. It is compiled from the viewpoint of a lifelong fan, and it is hoped that the book stirs many old memories, as it has done for the author, as well as providing some insight for more recent fans of the band. Stuart Macfarlane was a teenager during the seventies, the heyday of classic rock. He quickly developed a love of progressive music, listening to as many bands as he could find and was regularly in the audience at the famous Glasgow Apollo. His previous writing experience includes many technical conference papers and publications as well as reviews and interviews for Rock Society Magazine. He is also a musician, having written and performed original music through the 80s with Dunfermline band StraiTTalk. He lives in Dunfermline, Scotland.

Rising to prominence in 1994 on the back of their eponymous debut album, Korn ushered in a new sound within heavy metal which many would try and imitate in the years that followed. Earning themselves the title of ‘The Godfathers of Nu Metal’, the Bakersfield quintet has sold well over 40 million records, they have topped charts all around the world, and they have also won multiple awards which include two prestigious Grammys. Still firing on all cylinders after three decades, Korn continues to produce powerful and accessible anthems in the present day. Korn On Track covers all the band’s studio releases thus far - from their 1993 demo tape, Neidermayer’s Mind, to their thirteenth studio album, The Nothing, released in 2018. Reviewing every track and delving into the stories behind many of them, also discussed is Korn’s largely unheralded unreleased material, and their B-sides. The book also includes songs exclusively featured on movie soundtracks, making this an essential guide to this groundbreaking nu metal band. An avid music fan, author, and journalist, Matt Karpe has written for multiple print and online magazines over the last decade, including Powerplay Rock & Metal Magazine and Down For Life (Punk & Hardcore). As well as releasing four books (We Own the Night: The Underground of the Modern American Hard Rock Scene, two volumes of Nu Metal: Resurgence, and Nu Metal: A Definitive Guide), he is also the creator of the nu metal dedicated zine, The Nu Zine, and the owner of the independent record label, TNZ Records. He lives in March, Cambridgeshire, UK.

Motorhead were arguably the greatest rock and roll band in history, but it took many years to win that accolade. As a result, this is the story of the band that refused to die. The band had to deal with wayward producers, hostile record companies, a couple of false starts and even the ignominy of being proclaimed the Worst Band in the World by the NME! Famed for their loudness and their singular anthem, ‘Ace Of Spades’, Motorhead not only proved inspirational for a host of newer bands but also, accidentally, created two sub-genres of heavy music - speed and thrash metal. Not bad for a band who announced themselves with: ‘We are Motorhead, and we play rock and roll.’ at live gigs. This book covers every studio album, combined with many rarities and the more significant solo work from Lemmy. Beginning with the highly regarded trio of albums that ended the 1970s, the book continues through the line-up hardships and turmoil of the 1980s to the occasionally awkward musical experiments of the early 1990s. It finally closes with the band’s triumphant two-decade-long career revival, making this book an essential companion to the entire studio output of a unique and iconic band. Duncan Harris started as a music journalist and interviewer in the 1980s, writing for fanzines and magazines. He contributed to the Rough Guides music series and, until recently, maintained a long series of reviews for the Internet website The Dreaded Press. This book is the result, a labour of love for an iconic band. Duncan continues to live in Wiltshire, UK, with his remarkable wife, their dog Willow and their cat Lily.

It’s almost impossible to discuss the history of rock music without praising the monumental quality, impact, variety, and boldness of Britain’s Jethro Tull. Named after an eighteenth-century agriculturalist – and not after their striking front-man Ian Anderson – the group almost immediately became one of the most ambitious, and significant acts in two subsections of the genre: progressive and folk rock. Officially formed in 1967, mastermind Anderson, guitarist Martin Barre and company initially forged a blues course before veering in a more diverse, and expansive direction. Their 1970s period – which is often considered their peak—took them close to progressive rock via iconic albums like Aqualung and Songs From The Wood plus lengthy narrative suites Thick as a Brick and A Passion Play, all hit albums on both sides of the Atlantic. Like numerous peers at the time (including ELP, Rush, Yes, and King Crimson), Tull then embraced the more commercially accessible demands of the 1980s – complete with a fair share of both synthesizers and hard rock. Album by album, this book examines the behind-the-scenes circumstances and motivations for each release via a track-by-track analysis to acutely observe why Jethro Tull were – and always will be – of invaluable 'benefit' to rock music. Jordan Blum holds an MFA in Creative Writing, and is the founder/Editor-in-Chief of The Bookends Review, an independent creative arts journal. He focuses mostly on progressive rock/metal and currently writes for – or has written for – many other publications, including Sonic Perspectives, Paste, Progression, Metal Injection, Rebel Noise, PROG, Sea of Tranquility, and Rock Society. Finally, he records his own crazy ideas under the pseudonym Neglected Spoon. When he's not focused on any of that, he teaches English courses at various colleges. He lives in Philadelphia, PA, USA.

1979 was an amazing time for post-punk pop. At the end of March, a fresh new sound entered the UK top 20. It was ‘Sultans of Swing’, a very wordy song with lots of driving guitar, a tight rhythm section and some killer musicianship. Dire Straits, unlikely pop stars led by a 29-year-old Geordie who could play guitar brilliantly, had finally arrived. Six years later, they were, for a time, the biggest band in the world. Brothers in Arms sold by the truckload, one of the first massive sellers on CD. Since then, however, their star has fallen. Over exposure as the safe, boring champions of the CD age has resulted in Dire Straits becoming, to many, the embodiment of a certain sort of benign, homogenised music. Mark Knopfler, their singer, guitarist, producer and songwriter, became a caricature of the middle-aged rocker in the minds of many. Their music remains stubbornly unfashionable but retains its huge fanbase. Dire Straits On Track revisits, re-evaluates and contextualises the band’s six studio albums and two live albums, as well as EPs and archive releases. Seven ex-members of Dire Straits have been interviewed for this book, providing fresh perspective and insight. The band made a huge amount of good music; it’s time it was reappraised. Andrew Wild is a music collector and experienced writer with several books to his name, including Crosby, Stills & Nash (Sonicbond, 2020), The Solo Beatles (Sonicbond 2020) and Queen On Track (Sonicbond 2018). He's been a fan of Dire Straits since seeing them perform the forgotten single 'Skateaway' on the kids’ Saturday morning TV show Multi-Coloured Swap Shop in spring 1981. He lives in Rainow, Cheshire, UK.

One of the biggest names in the musical landscape of the 1970s, Steely Dan released a string of albums that pushed the boundaries of what was possible in a recording studio. With albums like The Royal Scam and Aja, the songs of Walter Becker and Donald Fagen drew from their love of jazz, their ability to write memorable pop hooks and their penchant for subversive humour, to produce a catalogue of unparalleled brilliance. With worldwide album sales in excess of 40 million copies, the durability of their songs has made Becker and Fagen one of the most celebrated writing partnerships in popular music. With Walter Becker’s untimely death in 2017, Donald Fagen continues to keep the band’s flame burning on stages around the world. Steely Dan - on track gives an overview of the band's career while investigating every track recorded across the nine Steely Dan studio albums. It also covers Becker and Fagen’s six solo records plus the official live albums and joint collaborations. The book also delves into duo’s early - largely unreleased - recordings and other tracks recorded under the Steely Dan name, making this a comprehensive guide for both fans of the band’s work or newcomers to the fascinating world of this unique partnership. A music fan for as long as he can remember, Jez Rowden worked in record shops for many years, absorbing music of all kinds. He enjoys many genres and has been involved in writing album and concert reviews, mostly within the progressive rock field, for nearly fifteen years. He also acted as editor for the Dutch Progressive Rock Pages website and, more latterly, The Progressive Aspect which he helped found in 2013. The music of Steely Dan fascinated him from first hearing, the appeal growing stronger as the years go by. An avid concert goer, he lives in Swansea, UK.

The British singer, songwriter and musician Peter Hammill is one of the key figures in the history of progressive rock. As the leader and main creative force of Van der Graaf Generator, he was behind some of the most powerful and compelling rock music of the 1970s, and since VdGG reformed in 2005 has continued to lead the group down a unique musical path. But Van der Graaf Generator are only part of the Peter Hammill story. Beginning with 1971’s Fool’s Mate and continuing all the way to 2021’s In Translation, Hammill has carved out a lengthy solo career consisting of some 35 albums, plus many live albums and collaborations. The range of styles in evidence on these albums is remarkable, from baroque progressive rock to snotty proto-punk, angular new wave, delicate ballads, electronic experiments and he even wrote and recorded a full-length opera. This is the first book to offer an in-depth exploration of Peter Hammill’s solo discography, revealing the sonic intensity and emotional turmoil that lie at the heart of his work. The book is an invaluable companion to Dan Coffey’s Van der Graaf Generator On Track. Richard Rees-Jones lives in Geneva, Switzerland, where he works for an international organization. He previously lived in Vienna and wrote the chapter on music for the Time Out Guide to Vienna. He has also written album reviews for the acclaimed music website The Quietus and for The Sound Projector magazine. He comes from Salisbury, south-west England, and studied English at Sussex University. He is married with two children. This is his first book.