#2 UNCUT BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023

In 1979, 2 Tone exploded into the national consciousness as records by The Specials, The Selecter, Madness, The Beat, and The Bodysnatchers burst onto the charts and a youth movement was born.

2 Tone was black and white: a multi-racial force of British and Caribbean island musicians singing about social issues, racism, class and gender struggles. It spoke of injustices in society and took fight against right wing extremism.

The music of 2 Tone was exuberant: white youth learning to dance to the infectious rhythm of ska and reggae; and crossed with a punk attitude to create an original hybrid. The idea of 2 Tone was born in Coventry, masterminded by a middle-class art student raised in the church. Jerry Dammers had a vision of an English Motown. Borrowing £700, the label’s first record featured ‘Gangsters’ by The Specials’ backed by an instrumental track by the, as yet, unformed, Selecter. Within two months the single was at number six in the national charts. Dammers signed Madness, The Beat and The Bodysnatchers as a glut of successive hits propelled 2 Tone onto Top of the Pops and into the hearts and minds of a generation. However, soon infighting amongst the bands and the pressures of running a label caused 2 Tone to bow to an inevitable weight of expectation and recrimination.

Still under the auspices of Jerry Dammers, 2 Tone entered in a new phase. Perhaps not as commercially successful as its 1979-1981 incarnation the label nevertheless continued to thrive for a further four years releasing a string of fresh signings and a stunning end-piece finale in ‘(Free) Nelson Mandela’.

Told in three parts, Too Much Too Young is the definitive story of a label that for a brief, bright burning moment, shaped British culture.

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“Collecting vinyl is an addiction. Nothing beats listening to vinyl and pouring over the cover art and inner sleeve. The first album that I ever bought was Led Zeppelin II when I was 13. I have at least 40 different versions of it now.” — Ross Halfin 

Led Zeppelin released only eight studio albums and no singles over the course of their 12-year career, but to date there are more than 1,000 official singles and 2,000 LPs in the market. 

This definitive volume illustrates in full colour some of the rarest and most interesting vinyl releases, including one-of-a-kind rarities, bizarre regional variations, official albums and bootleg recordings of legendary concerts, sometimes featuring handmade artwork or colored vinyl. All the vinyl, labels and covers have been documented by photographer Ross Halfin in superb detail, and are annotated with details of their release. 

In addition, the book includes over forty pages of the most up-to-date comprehensive discography ever compiled on the band, with forensic detail. All known album and single vinyl releases from around the world are listed with catalogue numbers, release or recording dates and additional notes. 

A labour of love, Led Zeppelin Vinyl is a must-have for fans of the group and vinyl enthusiasts. It is a paean of praise to vinyl artwork and graphic design: the illustrations are explosive and surreal, playful, experimental and subversive, interpreting multiple artistic disciplines with flair and wit.

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SHORTLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2023

‘Profoundly moving.’ EDMUND DE WAAL
‘A work of searching scholarship, acute critical observation, philosophical heft, and deep feeling.’ ALEX ROSS
‘A rare book: extraordinarily powerful – magisterial, meticulously rich and unexpected, deeply affecting and human.’ PHILIPPE SANDS

A remarkable and stirring account of how music acts as a witness to history and a medium of cultural memory in the post-Holocaust world.

When it comes to how societies commemorate their own distant dreams and catastrophes, we often think of books, archives, or memorials carved from stone. But in Time’s Echo, Jeremy Eichler makes a revelatory case for the power of music as culture’s memory, an art form uniquely capable of carrying forward meaning from the past.

Eichler shows how four towering composers – Richard Strauss, Arnold Schoenberg, Benjamin Britten and Dmitri Shostakovich – lived through the era of the Second World War and the Holocaust and later transformed their experiences into deeply moving works of music, scores that carry forward the echoes of lost time. A lyrical narrative full of insight and compassion, this book deepens how we think about the legacies of war, the presence of the past, and the profound possibilities of art in our lives today.

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