Sporting shades and a feedback-heavy sounds, the Velvets straddled art and rock, changing popular music forever, and sowing the seeds for punk, grunge and thousands of countercultural four-chord wonders. The Rough Guide to The Velvet Underground explores: The Velvet Story: How Lou Reed, Sterling Morrison, John Cale and the others emerged from the New York scene, their successes and excesses and what happened to each in their solo years. Velvet Music: From their 1967 debut with Nico to their 1993 reunion with all the tales behind the tunes. Velvet Universe: Everybody who was anybody in the Velvet's world, taking in Andy Warhol, Edie Sedgwick, David Bowie, Delmore, Schwaretsz and Brian Eno. Velvet Goldmine: The "Underground" on screen, the Velvets' New York, clubs, influences, covers, websites and more.

Compiles career biographies of over 1,200 artists and rock music reviews written by fans covering every phase of rock from R & B through punk and rap.

Get the lowdown on the best fiction ever written. Over 230 of the world’s greatest novels are covered, from Quixote (1614) to Orhan Pamuk’s Snow (2002), with fascinating information about their plots and their authors – and suggestions for what to read next. The guide comes complete with recommendations of the best editions and translations for every genre from the most enticing crime and punishment to love, sex, heroes and anti-heroes, not to mention all the classics of comedy and satire, horror and mystery and many other literary genres. With feature boxes on experimental novels, female novelists, short reviews of interesting film and TV adaptations, and information on how the novel began, this guide will point you to all the classic literature you’ll ever need.

The Velvets straddled art and rock, changing popular music forever, and sowing the seeds for punk, grunge and thousands of countercultural four-chord wonders. The Velvet Story: How Lou Reed, Sterling Morrison, John Cale and co emerged from the New York scene, their successes and excesses and what happened to each in their solo years. Velvet Music: all there recordings plus all of Lou Reed's solo work. Velvetology includes Andy Warhol, Edie Sedgwick, David Bowie, Delmore Schwaretsz and Brian Eno and the Velvets' on screen and in New York, their influences, covers, websites and more.

Though The Velvet Underground were critically and commercially unsuccessful in their time, in ensuing decades they have become a constant touchstone in art rock, punk, post-punk, indie, avant pop and alternative rock. In the 1970s and 80s Lou Reed, John Cale and Nico produced a number of works that traveled a path between art and pop. In 1993 the original band members of Reed, Cale, Morrison and Tucker briefly reunited for live appearances, and afterwards Reed, Cale and briefly Tucker, continued to produce music that travelled the idiosyncratic path begun in New York in the mid-1960s. The influence of the band and band members, mediated and promoted through famous fans such as David Bowie and Brian Eno, seems only to have expanded since the late 1960s. In 1996 the Velvet Underground were in inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, demonstrating how far the band had traveled in 30 years from an avant-garde cult to the mainstream recognition of their key contributions to popular music. In these collected essays, Pattie and Albiez present the first academic book-length collection on The Velvet Underground. The book covers a range of topics including the band's relationship to US literature, to youth and cultural movements of the 1960s and beyond and to European culture - and examines these contexts from the 1960s through to the present day.

The Rough Guide to Dubai is the ultimate companion to the world's most exciting tourist destination. Experts cover everything from traditional souks to state-of-the-art tourist attractions, and from beautiful beaches to "seven-star" hotels, and up-to-date listings include all the hottest places to stay, eat, drink, and shop. An inspirational introduction highlights the best of the city, while subsequent sections reveal the incredible contrasts between traditional and futuristic Dubai. The Rough Guide to Dubai features the latest developments to Dubai Marina and the Palm Jumeirah, as well as day-trips throughout the United Arab Emirates, including Sharjah, Al Ain, the East Coast, and ambitious Abu Dhabi. Comprehensive maps throughout help you find your way around the region. Make the most of your time with The Rough Guide to Dubai.

Rock legends Led Zeppelin remain a colossal music force with songs at once mystical, heavy, traditional and highly original. The Rough Guide to Led Zeppelin tells the story of the life and afterlife of this most extraordinary supergroup. Features include: The Story: from the first meeting of Plant and Page to the untimely death of John Bonham, detailing the magic, mayhem and excesses of the era. The Music: the band’s fifty best songs unpicked, plus coverage of blues influences, bootlegs, solo careers, and the best Jimmy Page guitar solos and most outstanding Robert Plant vocals. The Passengers: profiles of collaborators and colleagues including Roy Harper and Mickie Most. The Cargo: Zeppelin films, places, myths and memorabilia, books, websites and the afterlife of “Stairway to Heaven.” It’s a whole lotta Zep...

This expanded and completely revised fifth edition is a unique ebook, spanning a thousand years of music from Gregorian chant via Bach and Beethoven to current leading lights such as Thomas Adès and Kaija Saariaho. There are concise biographical profiles of more than 200 composers and informative summaries of the major compositions in all genres, from chamber works to operatic epics. Topics such as the influence of jazz, notation, conducting, the madrigal, and why Stradivarius made such great violins are covered fully in feature boxes. The Rough Guide to Classical Music in a new ebook (PDF) fromat has been praised for its mix of well-known composers with more obscure, but interesting, figures (like Antoine Brumel and Barbara Strozzi), and for the way it takes contemporary music seriously.

Get the lowdown on the best fiction ever written. Over 230 of the world's greatest novels are covered, from Quixote (1614) to Orhan Pamuk's Snow (2002), with fascinating information about their plots and their authors - and suggestions for what to read next. The guide comes complete with recommendations of the best editions and translations for every genre from the most enticing crime and punishment to love, sex, heroes and anti-heroes, not to mention all the classics of comedy and satire, horror and mystery and many other literary genres. With feature boxes on experimental novels, female novelists, short reviews of interesting film and TV adaptations, and information on how the novel began, this guide will point you to all the classic literature you'll ever need.

Now available in ePub format. This second edition of The Rough Guide to Dubai is the ultimate companion to the world's most exciting tourist destination. Read expert coverage on everything from traditional souks to state-of-the-art tourist attractions, beautiful beaches to "seven-star" hotels, with up-to-date listings of all the hottest places to stay, eat, drink, and shop. An inspirational full-color introduction highlights the best of the city, while subsequent full-color sections reveal the incredible contrasts between traditional and futuristic Dubai. The Rough Guide to Dubai features the latest developments to Dubai Marina and the Palm Jumeirah, as well as day-trips throughout the United Arab Emirates, including Sharajah, Al Ain, the East Coast, and ambitious Abu Dhabi. Comprehensive maps throughout help you find your way around the region. Make the most of your time with The Rough Guide to Dubai.