Autorentext

GARRY Bushell is best known for his hard-hitting, award-winning newspaper columns which have been published in the national press for 29 years. But before that he wrote for rock weekly Sounds where he covered and discovered hundreds of bands. A fireman's son from Woolwich, south east London, Garry did his journalist training under Paul Foot on the Socialist Worker before joining the rock press in 1978. He was the first to write about such legendary bands as the Specials, U2, Bad Manners, Secret Affair and Twisted Sister. He wrote Iron Maiden's authorised biography Running Free and co-wrote Ozzy Osbourne's first authorised biography, Diary Of A Madman. He managed the Cockney Rejects and The Blood. He fronted (and still fronts) his own band, and notched up a Number One single with the all-star charity record Let It Be - a project he conceived and organised. Garry's Bushell On The Box TV column has appeared in The Sun, The Daily Star and The People. His own TV show of the same name Box ran for two series on ITV, attracting more than one million viewers at midnight and attaining an audience share high of 68per cent. He has appeared on more than 2,000 other TV shows, including some of television's biggest prime time hits; and many radio shows. Garry is an outspoken broadcaster who has written novels, appeared in gangster movies and featured prominently in the acclaimed documentary films East End Babylon, Casuals and Rough Cut & Ready Dubbed. He has worked with and befriended legends of British comedy, including Benny Hill, Bob Monkhouse, Bradley Walsh, Joe Pasquale, Bobby Davro and Jim Davidson. Harry Hill has said his TV Burp was inspired by Garry's column; guests on his TV series included Lilly Savage, Vic & Bob, Craig Charles and Penn & Teller. He has campaigned consistently for TV talent shows (when executives insisted the format was dead) and for variety shows. Garry's column is currently published weekly in the Daily Star Sunday.

Klappentext

Sounds of Glory chronicles the rise of the most exciting generation of British music and musicians the world has ever seen - before or since. In rapid succession came punk, Ska, New Mod, Oi and the New Wave of British Heavy Metal...a firestorm of incendiary music, created and performed by geniuses and madmen. What a time to be a music journalist! At the heart of this rock 'n' roll tsunami was Britain's SOUNDS magazine. And at the heart of SOUNDS was Garry Bushell. Like his idols, Garry lived every day as if it was his last. Which it nearly was. Fed heroin in India by Hanoi Rocks. Going to prison with the Angelic Upstarts. Getting his eyebrows shaved off by Ozzy Osbourne. Getting raided by the C.I.D. Fighting a world champion boxer...All in a day's work for Garry. These were truly days of glory. The Specials. The Selecter. Madness. Bad Manners. 2-Tone visionary Jerry Dammers. Garry was right there at ground zero. Motorhead. The Jam. The Ruts. Twisted Sister. Rose Tattoo. Iron Maiden. Secret Affair. The Exploited. A unique explosion of raw and exciting bands, giant characters and radical ideas. You'll meet them all. Sounds of Glory brings together Garry's two rock memoirs Riff-Raff, Rebels & Rock Gods and The Power & The Glory in one brilliant collection. And it comes with four extra chapters not included in the previous volumes. This is a sometimes frightening but often laugh-out-loud road trip through the glory years of Sounds and the golden years of rock music. It packs in the Sex Pistols, Status Quo, Thin Lizzy, the Cockney Rejects, ZZ Top, Gary Moore, Judge Dread, UFO, Splodge, Crass, Englebert Humperdinck (!), Judas Priest and many more. It's a unique record of a time when punk kicked opened the doors of opportunity and chaos reigned.