Composers Books

This was a beautiful book,with pictures that took my breath away,many times. Well worth the hardback price. The tidbits of information were icing on this cake. A coffee table book I will enjoy over and over again.

The book is a great on the photo's are amzing. Also it's got some good reading in there too. all in all a very good book.

I Bought the original book a few years ago..Leather bound,signed by Mick Rock/Brian and roger and now the people who could not afford that get this..the compact version, still full of rare pictures of Queen in the early years, great insiders view of the Band before Bo Rhap, a Great read and well worth the price..BUY!!

Metcalf and Marshall delve deep into the world of classic rock here, with smart descriptions, good biographical information and excellent audio drum examples. Who knew Ginger Baker made his first set of drums from perspex, or that John Bonham's tuning was as essential to his style as his massive groove? The book covers all the classic rock drummers in great detail, with equally colorful and informative drum examples.

Contrary to appearances, this it not an instructional manual for drummers; it is far more than that. Additionally, if you, like me, think that books can't teach as clearly as DVDs, you're in for a surprise here. While DVDs tend to illustrate various "how-to's," they rarely if ever get inside the heart and soul of an artist's style or offer any clues to the unconscious motivations that form an artist's approach. But this unique and easy to grasp little tome presents an intelligent and succinct overview of 11 classic drummers that does just that. Dressed out with a biographical overview, individual gear and setup specs, equipment histories, style & technique, a lesson that includes each artist's major essentials with written examples, and more, you walk away from each chapter feeling you've gained insight into each artist's visceral dimension that you never considered before. The typically dry accounts of technique and exercises found on most DVDs rarely provide that. Musicians want and need more than mathematical analyses, and this delightful little page turner fills the bill for beginners, intermediates, and anyone else interested in discovering that personal something extra that each of these classic drummers contributed to musical history. Ultimately, what we all get when we're inspired by the sound and style of any classic artist, are new ideas about how to approach our own music, and thus refresh and add to our own style of playing, over time.

Profiles here feature Charlie Watts, Mitch Mitchell, Ginger Baker, Jon Bonham, Stewart Copeland, Richie Hayward, Keith Moon, and Ian Paice, plus this typist's favorite chapters, those on Ringo Starr, Levon Helm, and Jeff Porcaro.

A book like this is invaluable in helping to cut the time and arduous process of "getting the ultimate clue" that always seems like some zen koan that can't be achieved without suffering and madness. Messrs. Micallef and Marshall take a lot of the pain and mystery out of it. Note: Highly recommended for GB drummers who have to learn various major styles in a short amount of time before the audition or gig.

Drummers will benefit most from this book, but it's a good read for any musician. Very highly recommended. - JMM

This installment of the "Way They Play" series is a welcome addition to anyone's music library. The series uses the styles of original professional musicians to illustrate the techniques that made their drumming great. Accompanying the text is a CD of audio examples, a crucial tool in understanding their lessons. For this edition, the authors have chosen not only titans like John Bonham, Charlie Watts and Ringo Starr, but also iconoclasts like Keith Moon , Ginger Baker and Mitch Mitchell, and somewhat less well-known greats as Richie Heyward and Jeff Porcino, who tragically died when he was only 38.

For this book, the historical context is provided by Ken Micallef, one of the great drum specialists in rock journalism. His breadth of knowledge and experience in drumming provides a detailed yet concise analysis of each drummer's bag of tricks. Using archival footage, official and bootleg recordings, and copious interviews (many of them conducted himself), Micallef covers their early influences, how they sat at the kit, tuning methods, equipment, style, how they evolved throughout their careers, and everything in between.

Though clearly geared towards musicians, rock historians will not be disappointed in this book, as technical jargon is kept to a minimum and the wealth of biographical and musical information will keep even the casual reader interested. For instance, Micallef is able to draw interesting comparisons to drummers from all kinds of musical milieux, such as the identification of Gene Krupa as Keith Moon's principal forerunner as the "first drum maniac." Also, he often exhibits a propensity for humorous turns of phrase, delivered deadpan, and forthright opinions, such as a passage about Charlie Watts, whose "crotchety feel and slack strokes" nonetheless produce "exquisite, slipping, sliding drum breaks." This result is even more surprising, as Micallef points out that Watts "seems to miss rim shots, his timing is a little off, and he glances cymbals like a blind man." The secret to Keith Moon's style is perhaps even more chimerical, as Micallef advises that the key to playing like him requires "the ability to become very excited, perhaps even traumatized, before you sit down at the kit."

The drum lessons are provided by Donnie Marshall, a well-known drummer who has worked with Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, and Bonnie Bramlett. On the CD, he plays expertly in the styles of each example drummer, providing audio lessons that are easy to follow and a pleasure to listen to. Overall, this is a great package for anyone interested in rock drumming.

I've caught Ms. Laine twice, and look forward to seeing her next year when she returns. One of the last of the Greats. Read her, hear her.

Obviously not ghost-written, this book is a portrait of a very charming lady who face life with a smile.Her way with words is clever and unpretentious, her stories funny and she consiously avoids telling about some darker moments, althought is sure she had to have them as she wasn't always so succesful as in later chapter of her career.Perhaps is just the way one is born, this woman is obviously optimistic and she desreves all the succes she got!

Cleo takes us through her life from being an extra in "Thief of Bagdad" through many ups and downs, to grammy and tony nominations and awards. Her honest rendering brings us in contact with the world's greatest in music & the theatre. The humorous tales of taming her hair always brought me a chuckle. Mostly, she gives us a glimpse of someone who just loves to sing.

I borrowed this book from a friend and I'm buying my own copy after reading about what is the complex group of individuals known as Coldplay.

I was very perturbed at the few mentions of how much Chris Martin was teased as a kid because people believed he was gay (so what if it was the case, which it isn't?) and how critics continue to put down the most original group that has graced music in about a decade. I'm also a bit tired of hearing the wisecracks about Martin's looks (I think the man is cute and very charming, along with the rest of Coldplay).

The first Coldplay song I heard on the radio was "Clocks" (from "A Rush of Blood to the Head") and I, at first, thought it was a new U2 single (not realizing, until I read this book, that Coldplay idolizes U2). I was hooked from then on.

I recently sat down and listened to the entire "X&Y" album again and appreciate their songwriting and vocal abilities more than ever. The group is a welcomed breath of fresh air in this day and age of corporate "music" (undertalented and overexposed starlets doubling as singers, rappers rapping over drum machines calling women every derogatory name in the book and videos being nothing more than glorified porno film shorts).

Phil O'Brien exposed Coldplay for what they really are: A complex group of individuals who value their art and their talent is appreciated (screw the naysayers!).

I'm a little old for a Coldplay fan (53), but I "discovered" them when I watched them play at Live8 in July 2005.

Chris Martin is far from "boring" as this book attests. He's interesting, smart, funny, complex, deep and - yes - a nice guy who can get in touch with his feelings and express them beautifully in his wonderful songs.

I was already a fan of Chris' wife, Gwyneth Paltrow, and was glad to see that the book dealt with the relationship.

It made me dislike the "STALKerazzi" even more. Vultures!

The book really told me a lot that I was dying to know about the band, especially their charismatic frontman.

I highly recommend it.

I've been a massive Coldplay fan ever since I first heard 'Yellow' and enjoyed Phil O'Brien's book the most out of the three books on the group that I've read. The author's account of the band reveals them to be four very different and equally interesting individuals and is a riposte to critics of Coldplay who have often unfairly derided the band as being dull and faceless.

Look At The Stars is written from an inherently humanist perspective and recounts the professional and personal difficulties that the band have overcome during their rise to international acclaim. Tellingly, O'Brien explores the way in which the band's specific insecurities make it difficult for them to enjoy the fruits of their success and reveal Coldplay as a group that genuinely cares about their music and their fans.

No serious student or devotee of music should be lacking a copy of this book in their collection! This is one of the most important collections of writings on serious music to date, alongside George Perle's THE RIGHT NOTES and Elliott Carter's COLLECTED ESSAYS & LECTURES, 1937-1995. The annotations by two leading Babbitt scholars are first rate, as Babbitt's thought provoking insights reveal an extraordinary musical intellect at work, corroborating once again his status as one of the most important musical figures of our time with just that right combination of heart and brain. Just one caveat, though: I only wish the book had included Babbitt's doctoral dissertation THE FUNCTION OF SET STRUCTURE IN THE TWELVE-TONE SYSTEM, written in 1946 but not published until 1992. Though this seminal work is gratefully available from UMI, the print is very hard to make out. Including this 1946 classic text fully annotated into the main body of this new book would have made it the ultimate 'perfect book'.

A great deal of these essays form the basis for current intellectual music thought: the five great twelve-tone essays, the Stravinsky verticals essay, 'Contemporary music theory as contemporary intellectual history,' and 'The Structure and Function of Music Theory' should be required reading for anyone even considering applying the label of 'composer,' 'theorist,' or 'musician' to themselves. Many of the other essays provide fascinating insight into a whole variety of musical, musico-sociological, and musico-philosophical issues, including the place of the composer in society, the perceptual issues raised by the electronic medium, biographical insights into a myriad of Babbitt's contemporaries, and, most critically, the reason for and role of precise speech in musical discourse. Babbitt's virtuosic use of such precise language, as mentioned above, can make for slow reading. Familiarity with these essays makes one realize that Babbitt's control of language, even if a little opaque at times, makes his writing more powerful, more accurate, and more musical. I can't recommend this book higher; these essays changed my life and they've changed Western music.

Babbitt always inspires debate, especially amongst musicians and theorists: is he a bold radical, is his music sterile, is he the future, is he ruining music? Who can say? Ultimately, you'll need to make up your own mind and what better way to do that then with this handsome edition! I've read six or seven thus far and have formed the basis for a number of conclusions.

I believe Babbitt was a brilliant theorist and his work with pitch class theory was seminal in developing serial music. However, his music seems to lack something when I listen to it. It's mathematically complex, formally advanced, and fascinating to analyze; but it doesn't seem to have the passion of Berg or the beautiful mixture of formal perfection and expressive texture of Webern. While I don't particularly "enjoy" his music, I completely respect his ideas and I know music has benefitted from his work.

The only reason for the digression on my take on Babbitt is because I formed this opinions reading his work and listening to his music. I would encourage everyone who his passionate about 20th century music to give Babbitt a chance: read what he has to say about music - it's profound. If you don't like his music, simply consider his ideas and you will see how they are at work in many current composers.

Before I wrap this up, a few words on his style: Babbitt's prose is unwieldy to say the least - half page sentences, needlessly complex sentence structures, awkward wordings, it's all here. I've read widely in aesthetics, philosophy, and musicology and one can quickly tell when a complex style is necessary (Lacan or Deleuze) and when it's the fault of the writer (Hegel never claimed to be a good writer!). Perhaps Babbitt is, at times, being deliberately obscure, but I feel that he simply isn't the greatest at explaining ideas in a way that leads to understanding. There were so many instances where a paragraph could be half the size while still conveying the same meaning - it's actually that bad. Oh well - maybe this is part of the fun. It definitely WAS amusing at times and in all honesty, it's not all THAT hard to understand - just harder than it needs to be.

In short, this is a very welcome collection and it belongs on the shelf of any 20th century theorists or musicologist. You'll enjoy it.

Such a strange,obnoxious and fiercely independent man with an unbelievable story that is told in scrupulously researched details, but is as readable as a novel.A BIG piece of the Elvis puzzle and an inside into southern americana circa first half of the twentieth century.
Highly recommended!!

If you're interested in Colonel Thomas Andrew Parker, this is THE book for you. This story took years and many man-hours of exhaustive research to bring to fruition. By now, most Elvis fans are well aware that Parker was an illegal Dutch immigrant by the name of Andreas Cornelis van Kuijk. But until now, relatively little was known of his life in the 'old country.' We learn that a woman was brutally murdered in Parker's hometown in Holland on the very day of his disappearance. Did he commit the dastardly deed and abscond to America? Of course, we'll never know, but it's an interesting theory, nonetheless. It appears that the old boy may have been asexual. If so, this might explain his aversion to being touched. Though Parker earned mega-millions during his lifetime, he left behind a relatively modest estate. Of course, the same can be said of Elvis. Parker's addiction was gambling, while Elvis simply overspent on virtually everything.They were both masters at profligate spending. The Colonel seemed to possess a "Jekyll/Hyde" personality, displaying acts of kindness and generosity to loyalists and cruelty to others. The Eddy Arnold years are very interesting indeed. Parker and Eddy were opposites, and Parker's taste for ostentation sometimes clashed with Eddy's more conservative tastes. The story of Parker moving in with the Arnolds is hilarious. Alanna Nash is a very gifted writer and unless I'm mistaken, this is her third Elvis-related book. "Revelations" is still the best Elvis book I've ever read. I've never had the pleasure of reading the Alan Fortas book, which I believe she ghost-authored, though I hear it's excellent. Her latest book is an intriguing read which I finished in one day. I simply couldn't put it down. The phrasing, the meticulous research and the fascinating enigma that was Tom Parker all come together quite nicely. Buy this book. I promise you'll like it.

The title including the word "Extraordinary" is fully justified. I thought this book would be a "dishing the dirt" epic on Parker but it turns out to be a very well researched lifetime biography of the Colonel's life and not just his involvement with Elvis.

The well told story is of a man who from poor beginnings in Holland was involved in a murder there and forced to flee to the USA at an early age. He then spent his life as an illegal immigrant with that dark secret.

His early struggles with poverty in the 1930s and 1940s including being discharged from the army with mental illness, sets the scene for a man who revitalised his childhood fascination with fairs and carnivals, which were a major circus in the Americas of that period. All the man's later business cunning and marketing skills were learnt in that "carny" environment of deceit, overstatement, advance promotion and getting the cash in any deal as soon as possible to survive. He clearly retained a soft spot for this teaching ground all his life.

His first major music involvement came with country star Eddy Arnold who he fell out with when Arnold found him doing personal side deals. With no real appreciation of music ever, he became aware of the early Elvis and the storm he was creating in the South and took control under an initial contract that fully reflected Parker's approach all his time in managing Elvis of keeping it simple and balanced in his favour.

The view established by the book is that while the Colonel (a title obtained by politial hucksterism and not from his army days) always looked after Number One and was continually doing side deals that personally benefitted him not his client, the usual Elvis fan's view of the Colonel being a parasite is certainly challenged-

- the fan mania developed across 1956 and subsequent years including manipulation of the RCA label and TV was unprecedented and owed a lot to the flair of Parker to do things differently in the face of others historic approach to how to promote pop stars;

- Elvis's enlisting into army service and his "protected" life in Germany plus a controlled keeping in the public eye across those years may owe more to the manipulation of Parker;

- the much derided series of Elvis movies in the 1960s together with their hit singles and dross LPs may in retrospect have actually protected Elvis from live performance and a decline in popularity esp. with the advent of the Beatles plus given his lifelong poor approach to financial matters kept him earning a steady stream of income in that period;

- the return to live performance while driven by Elvis was taken to a new level by Parkers' approach to concert promotion, both in Las Vegas and across the USA.

However, the book does not flinch from the downsides of the man's personality and approach to business, especially his endless paranioa, bullying and control by fear over all those who worked with him; his ensuring limited access and opportunities being shown to Elvis by others (notably his failing to allow his development as an actor in serious roles); his Las Vegas deals fuelled by his increasing addiction to gambling and not Elvis's best interests at the hands of the casinos, and due to his illegal immigrant status his unwillingness to ever allow foreign tours by Elvis which in the later years could have been major revenue earners for him.

The sad conclusion is that Parker given his personality always saw himself as the person in charge and Elvis his instrument and that Elvis's success and earnings were down to the Colonel's skills and negotiations not Elvis's talents. The reality demonstrated endlessly is that Elvis and his family (especially his father) were never going to challenge Parker, given their lack of financial acumen and extravangant spending laid them open to continual manipulation. Parker in turn given his personality was unable to help as Elvis's deline under drugs gathered pace and the inevitable happened.

The post Elvis years show a man who was still driven by the self benefitting deal and his manipulation of the Elvis estate, with the sad endgame as he gambled ceaslessly of a man who earned an estimated $100 million plus from his relationship with Elvis but at death had less than a million dollars in assets.

This is by far the best rock management biography that I have ever read.

Colored Lights: Forty Years of Words and Music, Show Biz, Collaboration, and All That Jazz An absolutely fascinating look into the hearts and minds and working habits of two men who contributed so much to the American Theater over the last half century. Fred Ebb is no longer with us, so we can be truly thankful that he and John Kander collaborated on this book while he was still alive. As a songwriter myself, I always find such memoirs interesting and valuable.

As the song says, start spreading the news -- this memoir in dialogue form by John Kander and Fred Ebb really is a surprising gem. I didn't expect to enjoy a book that is mainly conversation but I went through it in one sitting (on a flight from NY to LA) and didn't want it to end. These two geniuses of musical theater are totally engaging, and their breezy dialogue is often as provocative (and sometimes hilarious) as their best musicals and songs. It's like being in the same room with the two of them and having a chance to eavesdrop on their wry insights into the shows and various personalities they've worked with, including Liza Minnelli, Barbra Streisand, Frank Sinatra, Lauren Bacall, Bob Fosse, Shirley McLaine, and Anthony Quinn.

The anecdotes in the book, even the dishiest ones, are told with wit and intelligence, and without the usual celebrity tell-all pretensions. Kander and Ebb come across as two very different personalities as collaborators, yet both seem very earthy and wise about life and show business. Anyone who was wowed by Chicago or Cabaret will be delighted by their reminiscences. And there are some surprising revelations, like the fact that their biggest hit, "New York, New York," would never have been written if it hadn't been for Robert Deniro, who they say disapproved of their first version of the song and made them rewrite it for him. I was also surprised by the down-to-earth side of Liza Minnelli that comes across in the Introduction -- not at all like her usual media image. This book is like a little play itself, and what a great way to experience forty years of Broadway history and backstage lore. Definitely, a unique'must read' for theater lovers.

Good for Greg Lawrence for facilitating this oral history ad thinking of the right questions to get these two chatterboxes off and running, to the races! Lawrence wrote an OK biography of Jerome Robbins, and an as told to "by" Gelsey Kirkland which was good, but this book is terrific fun. The only thing is, aren't Kander and Ebb a couple? Or was that something they didn't want to talk about? Maybe they're not, who knew! But discussion of their personal lives is totally not on the menu here. Maybe after they are dead the whole story will come out. They tell some great stories here about working with Bob Fosse, maybe the best sustained account available of the great choreographer's ambitions, dreams, desires, and mania. I like the way that Liza Minnelli and Harold Prince also jump in to give their two cents here and there from the bleachers. It's a technique you often see in journalism, and here it works just fine. Liza is subject #1 of Kander and Ebb's discussions. They are always trying to make her look good, or rather to bring her natural talents to the fore. But in doing so they paint a picture of a talented actress who was thwarted by the commercial failure of THE RINK and therefore never tried to be anything but "just Liza" again, and being "just Liza" is pretty messed up what with having a mother who tried to take over her life in a drunken haze and at least one boyfriend (Martin Scorsese) who attempted to direct a whole show for her (THE ACT) via Moviola. Kander and Ebb also discuss writing for Lauren Bacall and the differences that affected WOMAN OF THE YEAR when Raquel Welch came in and replaced Bacall. It's all very illuminating and will make you laugh out loud as well. Their post mortems for their flops THE RINK and STEEL PIER, which they consider among their best shows, are not convincing, but their account of work with a sour kvetching Frank Sinatra and a controlling Barbra Streisand have the bitter ring of truth. This is not a particularly light-hearted book but I think anyone who's interested in musical theater will get a charge out of it.

I wish there had been more in it about the mysterious ingenue Jill Haworth who, after a strong of movies for Otto Preminger, took the Sally Bowles part in CABARET and got crucified for it--and had a "thing" with Sal Mineo (!!!) -- and then left show business. She is one of the most intriguing personalities of the 1960s and Kander and Ebb mention her only briefly (though very sympathetically).

El alma no desaparece con la ausencia del cuerpo. Las hermosas palabras de Soraya reverberan con la belleza que sólo su corazón es capaz de impregnarle a la vida. Este libro respira su luz, su necesidad de vivir al máximo y su deseo de que el resto del planeta lo hiciera. Su sinceridad es el hilo conductor de cada idea y es esta honestidad la que llega tan dentro a quien lo lee. ¡¡Simplemente, precioso:)!!

This is a tremendously inspiring book about Hispanic-American singer-songwriter Soraya, who lost her life to breast cancer at age 37, in 2006. It's an incredibly inspiring memoir that has broken records for Spanish-language books. It is now available to order in English, with 100 extra pages of memories, filled with pictures and stories told by friends, family and fellow musicians. Through this alternate story we learn things the humble Soraya would not have said: that in the final years of her life she became a world-class humanitarian, and that she was one heck of a musician. Enjoy. Soraya: A Life of Music, A Legacy of Hope

A veces nos quejamos de un simple malestar o porque el dia por una tonteria no nos haya salido bien, pero una vez uno lee este libro, aparte de que cuando empiezas a leerlo no lo puedes dejar, es una gran enseñanza de que las cosas pequeñas que nos enfrentamos cada día son bien insignificantes. Hay que tener mucha fe y valor para pasar por lo que pasó Soraya y a la misma vez continuar viendo la vida de la maner que ella lo hizo. Este libro me enseño a que hay que darle la importancia a las cosas que realmente la tienen y dejarnos de darle importancia a las tonterias que nos pasan dia a dia. Lo recomiendo 100%, si todos actuaramos de la manera que ella lo hizo, poniendo su ejemplo en las cosas que nos toca vivir todos los dias, creo que tendriamos un mundo mejor. Que pena que personas como ella, de tanta fe y tanta perseverancia, tengan que dejarnos, quizas porque de esta manera han cumplido su proposito en la vida y nosotros podamos seguir su ejemplo. Gracias mil por este legado de esperanza.

Very often, scholarship on Kurt Weill tends to favor his German works such as "The Threepenny Opera" or "Mahagonny," however Sanders account spans the entire length of Weill's career. From his beginnings in Berlin with Busoni, to his German hits with Brecht, to his flight to America and "Johnny Johnson," to his Broadway successes with "Knickerbocker Holiday," "Lady in the Dark," and "One Touch of Venus." Sanders presents each era of Weill's life with the same objectivity. He calls for an approach to Weill that encompasses Weill's entire career.

If you are thinking of doing any research on Kurt Weill, THIS is the place to start.

I just finished this book and was mightily impressed. My esteemed predecessor in these reviews has summarized the book very well, leaving me the opportunity to comment on a single important aspect of the book. When you mention Weill's name, people think of only one thing (if they know him at all). The Three Penny Opera. This book emphatically puts his '20 something work with Brecht in perspective, showing that he continued to grow and develop throughout his career. The narrative is keen and passionate. The details of the creative periods and production periods of various works are gripping. My net response is: there is a lot more to this man's creative output than just The Three Penny Opera and Mahagony (son of 3-penny?). He deserves to be heard; will he?

Biographies (especially those of people from the entertainment industry) have become a fad since the early 80's, and most of them, however entertaining, don't add much to our knowledge of their subject and time. One admirable exception is this account about Kurt Weill and his lifetime by Ronald Sanders. Since the very beginning, Mr. Sanders manages to give us a vivid portrait of how was Germany since the years before Weill was born, how was life like in those days for Jewish people there, and the great composer's musical roots: his father was a Cantor, and many of his ancestors were professional or amateur musicians. To say only that Mr. Sanders' account is full of painstainkingly researched details would be unjust, for he goes far beyond that. He uses all these details to make us understand and feel in depth the makings of a remarkable career that unfortunately didn't last so long (Weill died prematurely, at 50). Mr. Sanders not only treats us to an unforgettable tour of 20th Century's troubled first half but also gives us a thorough knowledge of how music evolved from the days of Ferrucio Busoni and Gustav Mahler to Kurt Weill's works in the U.S., with lots of information about other great artists like Arnold Schoenberg, Bertolt Brecht, Lotte Lenya, how Weill created such masterpieces as "Dreigroschenoper", "Knickerbocker Holiday", "Lady in the Dark", and so on. You can say that this is a cliché, but, if you are, like me, interested in anything related to the best music that was produced in the 20th Century, don't miss "The Days Grow Short". And if you are already a fan of Kurt Weill's, this book will make you even more appreciative of him and his music. I recommend that you read this biography with your CD player on. You'll enjoy it even more when Mr. Sanders speaks of Weill's perennial creations, like "Mack the Knife", "September Song", "Speak Low", "Lost in the Stars", "My Ship"...

so says anton on the first page. even if you're not a big fan of depeche mode, this is an essential for any corbijn fan. it was the only publication readily available in 1990 and i've treasured it ever since! i suppose some of the images of dave gahan hamming it up can become a bit trite for some, but it looks like they had some good fun. it includes both b/w and color images, which were taken from the american west coast to eastern europe as well as shots from promos, video shoots and concerts.

There were rumors that Depeche Mode photographer Anton Corbijnwas working on a book of rare photos fro the Violator era, but it wasthree years before I finally found it. And it was worth the wait. The paper-backed book contains behind-the-scenes photos from several videos and photo sessions, never-before seen concert photographs, as well as a rare and very personal look at Depeche Mode not as Rock Stars, but as four friends. This book is an absuloute must for anyone interested in the band.

A Great Book of photos of a great band I am a devoted fan of the band Depeche Mode and I can tell you that Anton Corbjin and Depeche mode are now almost one in the same. This collection of photos spans the world with depeche mode. From photos taken in the dry earth of western USA to the now liberated east europe. This book is a must For anyfan or love of photgaphy in the Black & White Form. - Roger "pimpf Boy" Erickson