{"title":"Monoray","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"scattershot-life-music-elton-and-me","title":"Scattershot: Life, Music, Elton and Me","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis is the memoir music fans have been waiting for. Half of one of the greatest creative partnerships in popular music, Bernie Taupin is the man who wrote the lyrics for Elton John, who conceived the ideas that spawned countless hits, and sold millions and millions of records. Together, they were a duo, a unit, an immovable object. Their extraordinary, half-century-and-counting creative relationship has been chronicled in biopics (like 2019's Rocketman) and even John's own autobiography, Me. But Taupin, a famously private person, has kept his own account of their adventures close to his chest, until now.Written with honesty and candour, Scatterhot allows the reader to witness events unfolding from Taupin's singular perspective, sometimes front and center, sometimes from the edge, yet always described vibrantly, with an infectious energy that only a vivid songwriter's prose could offer. From his childhood in the East Midlands of England whose imagination was sparked and forever informed by the distinctly American mythopoetics of country music and cowboys, to the glittering, star-studded fishbowl of '70s and '80s Beverly Hills, Scattershot is simultaneously a Tom Jones­-like picaresque journey across a landscape of unforgettable characters, as well as a striking, first-hand account of a creative era like no other and one man's experience at the core of it.An exciting, multi-decade whirlwind, Scattershot whizzes around the world as we ride shotgun with Bernie on his extraordinary life. We visit New York with him and Elton on the cusp of global fame. We spend time with him in Australia almost in residency at an infamous rock 'n' roll hotel in an endless blizzard of drugs. And we spend late, late night hours with John Lennon, with Bob Marley, and hanging with Frank Sinatra. And beyond the world of popular music, we witness memorable encounters with writers like Graham Greene, painters like Andy Warhol and Salvador Dali, and scores of notable misfits, miscreants, eccentrics, and geniuses, known and unknown. Even if they're not famous in their own right, they are stars on the page, and we discover how they inspired the indelible lyrics to songs such as \"Tiny Dancer,\" \"Candle in the Wind,\" \"Bennie and The Jets,\" and so many more.Unique and utterly compelling, Scattershot will transport the reader across the decades and around the globe, along the way meeting some of the greatest creative minds of the 20th century, and into the vivid imaginings of one of music's most legendary lyricists.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Monoray","offers":[{"title":"Hardback | Signed Copy","offer_id":50390592422219,"sku":"2055418","price":25.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/9781800960756_6da1f48e_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1726392581"},{"product_id":"the-manchester-chronicles-true-tales-of-music-madness-and-mayhem-1976-2006","title":"The Manchester Chronicles True Tales of Music, Madness and Mayhem 1976 - 2006","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe much-loved indie star and DJ's entertaining folk-history of life in the\u003cbr\u003eheyday of the city of music.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e'This is the greatest rock and roll book ever written' GUY GARVEY, Elbow\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e'A brilliant storyteller, Clint has been there to see it all first-hand' TIM BURGESS, The Charlatans\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e'Clint writes like he speaks and plays; as one who knows'JOHNNY MARR, The Smiths\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e'Clint knows it all, has done it all' PETER HOOK, New Order\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWITH A FOREWORD BY SHAUN RYDER\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTHE MANCHESTER CHRONICLES is an exhilarating and highly personal folk-telling of the Manchester music scene, as seen through the eyes and ears (and hair) of one of the city's favourite sons, Clint Boon from the iconic Inspiral Carpets. From early days of punk in the mid-1970s through the crucible of the 1980s indie and psychedelic scenes, the explosion of Madchester, Rave and then Brit Pop in the 1990s, this is an intimately told adventure of an extraordinary musical renaissance.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA born storyteller, Clint Boon pieces together a collage of often hilarious stories to give us a unique take on the city's coming of age alongside his own. At art school, rehearsal studios and sweaty gigs, we meet the movers and shakers of Manchester, often well before they were famous, as they came together to forge their identities and put the city on the map.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBe it a near-fatal car crash, or suffering the ignominy of being on Top of The Pops one week and signing on the dole the next - while your former roadie, Noel, makes pop history - Clint entertainingly captures the mayhem of music, success and the city's extraordinary musical family.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEncountering bands like Buzzcocks, Joy Division, The Fall, New Order, the Smiths, James, the Stone Roses, the Happy Mondays, Elbow, Inspiral Carpets and Oasis, raconteur Clint tells the Manchester legend not as an exhaustive history, but as what it felt like to be there at the time, taking the trip of a lifetime.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Monoray","offers":[{"title":"Hardback - Exclusive","offer_id":57052764143947,"sku":"R0144-7510","price":25.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/TheManchesterChronicles-jacketimage.jpg?v=1776411912"}],"url":"https:\/\/shop.roughtrade.com\/collections\/monoray.oembed","provider":"Rough Trade","version":"1.0","type":"link"}