New Releases by Barry Miles

"This is a reissue of a sought after classic that has stood the test of time, and this new edition now stands as a testament to its creators and an age that has passed." — Black + White Photography Magazine "My London is Soho" — Frank Norman For as long as anyone can remember, Soho has been the fluttering heart of London. Its storied pubs, shops, trattorias, gambling dens and nightclubs are every bit as alive as the millions of tourists, locals and crosstown visitors who crowd the streets all year round. People from all walks of life are made and unmade in Soho, and few knew it better than Frank Norman and Jeffrey Bernard. Writers and raconteurs, the pair haunted Soho’s establishments for much of their lives. While Bernard was renowned for his Low Life column in the Spectator, these pages collect his photos of the Soho he loved, with insightful commentary from Norman, an acclaimed novelist in his own right. Soho Night & Day is an authentic and very personal portrait of a special time and place, telling the tale of Soho in the ’60s. This new edition is embellished with an introduction by Barry Miles, as well as Jeffrey Bernard’s moving obituary for Frank Norman.

Detective Sergeant Carmoody has gotten complaints about a peeping tom from a woman named Miss Morgan. Carmoody put her beachfront motel under surveillance, but while he was taking a meal break, someone broke into the motel, and murdered her.

Fashion designer Peter Golding’s comprehensive collection is a unique, insightful record of the 20th century’s most exciting and productive periods of rock poster art and graphics. Fashion designer Peter Golding’s comprehensive collection is a unique, insightful record of the 20th century’s most exciting and productive periods of rock poster art and graphics. As part of the ’60s and ''70s fashion movement, Peter Golding’s famous ACE boutique in London’s Chelsea district brought him into regular contact with the biggest names in rock ’n’ roll, and he went on to create one of the most comprehensive collections of rock ’n’ roll graphics in existence. Showcasing the cream of this collection and more, Rock Graphic Originals is packed with vibrant poster art, logos, stage set designs, and promotional ephemera created for artists such as the Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Pink Floyd, The Doors, and many others. Barry Miles’s concise introduction places the key protagonists and their work within their cultural and political context, while reflections from the artists themselves lend unique perspectives on their influences and methods. The book is punctuated throughout with special illustrated features on the social, political, and cultural phenomena that influenced the music scenes and design approaches of the period, including radical collective, The Diggers, US and UK underground comics, the psychedelic shops, and the legalize pot rallies. Rock Graphic Originals is a unique, insightful record of the 20th century’s most exciting and productive periods of rock poster art and graphic design. As part of the ’60s and ''70s fashion movement, Peter Golding’s famous ACE boutique in London’s Chelsea district brought him into regular contact with the biggest names in rock ’n’ roll, and he went on to create one of the most comprehensive collections of rock ’n’ roll graphics in existence. Showcasing the cream of this collection and more, Rock Graphic Originals is packed with vibrant poster art, logos, stage set designs, and promotional ephemera created for artists such as the Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Pink Floyd, The Doors, and many others. Barry Miles’s concise introduction places the key protagonists and their work within their cultural and political context, while reflections from the artists themselves lend unique perspectives on their influences and methods. The book is punctuated throughout with special illustrated features on the social, political, and cultural phenomena that influenced the music scenes and design approaches of the period, including radical collective, The Diggers, US and UK underground comics, the psychedelic shops, and the legalize pot rallies. Rock Graphic Originals is a unique, insightful record of the 20th century’s most exciting and productive periods of rock poster art and graphic design.

Love, poetry, protest, the Beatles, psychedelia and the 1960s underground in pictures, words and rare sound recordings form this limited edition illustrated memoir by one of the key figures of the Sixties British counterculture.

With the resurgence of vinyl going from strength to strength, album cover art is as important as it''s ever been. This sumptuous book brings together 250 of the greatest album covers of all time and is arranged chronologically, beginning in 1956. Our judging panel, drawn from the great and the good of the music industry, has selected the final 275 entries, giving their reasons for selection to accompany the illustrations. From rock ‘n’ roll to pop, R&B to jazz, blues and even folk, some of the album covers included are obvious classics, while others will surprise readers and jog memories. The chosen entries might not necessarily be of a best-selling release, but they are important artistically, stylistically or culturally. This fascinating book forms a wonderful visual record of this popular art form, and is an essential read for music fans the world over.

A revealing history of the Beatles’ experimental record label, as told by the label’s manager. In August 1968, the Beatles launched their greatest business enterprise, Apple Records, to international fanfare. The less well-known story is the introduction of their Zapple label about nine months later. If Apple represented artists with new, commercial opportunities, Zapple offered more cutting-edge freedom; its mission was to distribute experimental music and spoken word recordings from the leading avant-garde figures of the time. The brainchild of Paul McCartney, the label captured the counterculture spirit of the 1960s by collaborating with Yoko Ono alongside John Lennon, Allen Ginsberg, Richard Brautigan, Charles Bukowski, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and Charles Olson. The Zapple Diaries is the first full-length look at the enterprise, as well as a true insider account from Barry Miles, the label’s manager who went on to become a leading authority and chronicler of ‘60s culture. He provides insight into the colorful lives and working methods of the artists and discloses the fascinating story of the experimental venture, ultimately offering up a revealing and engaging account of this little-known chapter of Beatles history.

The Beat Hotel has been closed for nearly forty years. But for a brief period—from just after the publication of Howl in 1957 until the building was sold in 1963—it was home to Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, Gregory Corso, Brion Gysin, Peter Orlovsky, Harold Norse, and a host of other luminaries of the Beat Generation. Now, Barry Miles—acclaimed author of many books on the Beats and a personal acquaintance of many of them—vividly excavates this remarkable period and restores it to a historical picture that has, until now, been skewed in favor of the two coasts of America. A cheap rooming house on the bohemian Left Bank, the hotel was inhabited mostly by writers and artists, and its communal atmosphere spurred the Beats to incredible heights of creativity. Its inhabitants followed the Howl obscenity trial, and they corresponded with Jack Kerouac as On the Road was taking off. There Ginsberg wrote “Kaddish,” “To Aunt Rose,” “At Apollinaire’s Grave,” and “The Lion for Real,” and Corso developed the mature voice of The Happy Birthday of Death. The Beat Hotel is where the Cut-up method was invented, and where Burroughs finished and published Naked Lunch and the Cut-up novels. From a party where Ginsberg and Corso drunkenly accosted Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray, to an awestruck audience with Louis-Ferdinand Céline a year before he died; from a drug-addled party on a houseboat on the Seine with Errol Flynn and John Huston, to Burroughs’s near arrest as a heroin dealer: mischief, inspiration, and madness followed the Beats wherever they went. Based on firsthand accounts from diaries, letters, and many original interviews, The Beat Hotel is an intimate look at a crucial period for some of the twentieth century’s most enduring and daring writers.

William Burroughs ha cinque anni quando, seduto con il fratello nella casa di famiglia, in un quartiere altoborghese di St. Louis, scoppia improvvisamente a piangere: «Era come la sensazione disperata e assoluta di essere vulnerabile». William ne è ancora ignaro, ma lo Spirito del Male è già penetrato in lui, entità ostile che lo perseguiterà per tutta la vita. Che studi medicina a Vienna o antropologia ad Harvard, che faccia il disinfestatore a Chicago o si rifugi tra le braccia dell''amico Allen Ginsberg a New York, lo Spirito del Male non gli darà mai pace, portandolo alle azioni più sconsiderate e alle sperimentazioni più folli, ma anche, per reazione violenta, alle visioni più lucide e alle verità più drammaticamente insondabili. L''uccisione della moglie nella delirante e ubriaca imitazione di Guglielmo Tell, la ricerca di giovani corpi nei casini di Tangeri, l''automutilazione del mignolo per farne dono all''innamorato, la dipendenza dall''alcol e dalle droghe, la fascinazione per l''occulto in tutte le forme con cui si manifesta, dallo sciamanismo a Scientology alla stregoneria: Burroughs, vestito di un abito scuro e di un cappello fedora per scivolare tra la folla come un hombre invisible, con l''immancabile pistola in tasca e la freddezza inquietante dello studioso, sperimenta ogni possibile deragliamento dei sensi, convinto di poter sfuggire al controllo dello Stato, delle religioni, del sesso, della droga, delle dipendenze solo immergendovisi fino in fondo, sprofondandovi ogni volta, dando in pegno la sua vita per guadagnarne mille. Sempre in fuga – Tangeri, Parigi, Città del Messico, New Orleans, Chicago, New York – e sempre un passo oltre, non solo rispetto agli amici beat, che ammirati lo elessero capo spirituale, ma anche alle mode letterarie e culturali e a qualsiasi limite dell''immaginario e della morale. Il Saggiatore porta in Italia la biografia fondamentale di uno degli scrittori più radicali e decisivi del XX secolo. A firmarla è Barry Miles, che assistette in presa diretta alla sua eccezionale esistenza e ne ricostruisce qui, tramite testimonianze inedite, l''intera vicenda biografica: una storia privata estrema che getta nuova luce sull''opera letteraria di Burroughs come tentativo disperato di esorcizzare lo Spirito del Male e «scrivere la propria via di fuga».

Fifty years ago, Norman Mailer asserted, "William Burroughs is the only American novelist living today who may conceivably be possessed by genius." Few since have taken such literary risks, developed such individual political or spiritual ideas, or spanned such a wide range of media. Burroughs wrote novels, memoirs, technical manuals, and poetry. He painted, made collages, took thousands of photographs, produced hundreds of hours of experimental recordings, acted in movies, and recorded more CDs than most rock bands. Burroughs was the original cult figure of the Beat Movement, and with the publication of his novel Naked Lunch, which was originally banned for obscenity, he became a guru to the 60s youth counterculture. In CALL ME BURROUGHS, biographer and Beat historian Barry Miles presents the first full-length biography of Burroughs to be published in a quarter century-and the first one to chronicle the last decade of Burroughs''s life and examine his long-term cultural legacy. Written with the full support of the Burroughs estate and drawing from countless interviews with figures like Allen Ginsberg, Lucien Carr, and Burroughs himself, CALL ME BURROUGHS is a rigorously researched biography that finally gets to the heart of its notoriously mercurial subject.

Barry Miles knew Frank Zappa intimately and was present at the recording of some of his most important albums. This sparkling biography brings the Zappa the musician and composer, Zappa the controversialist and Zappa the family man (despite his love of groupies, he was married for more than 30 years) together for the first time. Barry Miles'' biography follows Zappa from his sickly Italian-American childhood in the 1940s (when his father, Frank senior, worked for the US military and was used to test the efficacy of new biological warfare agents) to his death from cancer in the 1990s. Miles shows how Zappa''s goal had been to become a classical composer, until he realised that he would starve to death pursuing this ambition in post-war America. In an effort to make music people would actually listen to, in the mid-1960s he joined a noisy new band called ''The Mothers of Invention''. Before long, Zappa had taken over as singer, song writer and lead guitarist and together they exploded on to the San Francisco freak scene. Following the release of recordings such as Freak Out, Absolutely Free, We''re Only In It For the Money and Hot Rats, Zappa''s reputation in the United States and in Europe, especially the UK, Germany and Holland, took off. When the Berlin wall fell, Frank was surprised to learn that his extravagant music embodied sixties liberty for a generation of dissidents (including Vaclav Havel, who invited Zappa to be his minister for culture). Frank Zappa is an authoritative and hugely enjoyable portrait of a singular man and a vivid evocation of the West Coast scene.

Greenwich Village, 6 marzo 1970. Tre esplosioni in rapida sequenza sventrano l''elegante palazzo al numero 18 dell''Undicesima Strada Ovest; dalle fiamme escono, confuse ma illese, due ragazze seminude. Domato l''incendio, le forze dell''ordine trovano in cantina più di sessanta candelotti di dinamite, una bomba anticarro e tutto l''occorrente che sarebbe servito al gruppo terroristico Weather Underground per produrre altri ordigni. È l''atto di nascita degli anni Settanta e Barry Miles è a New York per registrarne i primi, turbolenti vagiti. Giornalista inglese sbarcato negli Stati Uniti per lavorare con i grandi della Beat Generation, Miles attraversa la decade più anticonformista e trasgressiva del Novecento e ne sperimenta in prima persona la genialità e gli eccessi: è con Allen Ginsberg nella comune di Cherry Valley, dove il poeta accoglie amici, amanti e artisti newyorkesi alla ricerca di pace e disintossicazione; è nel capanno di Lawrence Ferlinghetti nel Bixby Canyon, a poca distanza da dove Jack Kerouac ha scritto Big Sur; è nel bunker di William Burroughs sulla Bowery quando «Bill», per dimostrare l''efficacia della sua pistola antiaggressione, finisce per riempire la stanza di soffocanti fumi tossici. È l''epoca di sesso, droga e rock''n''roll; della cocaina, della pornografia, delle mode estreme; delle stravaganze notturne all''Hotel Chelsea, casa di poeti come Gregory Corso e musicisti come Bob Dylan e Patti Smith, e degli spettacoli drag delle Cockettes, il gruppo teatrale fondato da Hibiscus, alias George Harris, l''hippy con il dolcevita che in una storica fotografia infila un fiore nel fucile di un militare, fuori dal Pentagono. Ossessioni, provocazioni, conquiste. Ci sono tutti i Settanta in questo memoir suggestivo, nostalgico e insieme sfavillante: gli astri di quegli anni – come le stelle visibili a Manhattan durante il famigerato blackout del luglio 1977 – bruciano con un''intensità che non accenna a spegnersi.

The vertebrate endodermal cell layer gives rise to the intestine and related organs such as the liver and pancreas. The endodermal organs control many critical metabolic processes including the absorption of nutrients, homoeostasis of blood sugar levels, and detoxification of the blood. The cell fate specification and organogenesis of the zebrafish endoderm is well characterised, however the morphogenic processes during migration to the midline at somitogenesis stages and the formation of the primitive endodermal rod were unknown.This study used the Tg(sox17:EGFP) endodermal reporter line to determine the process of endoderm development at somitogenesis stages during two important phases of morphogenesis, the migration to the dorsal midline, and the formation of the endodermal rod (termed "midline aggregation"). Analysis of the polarisation of the microtubule organising centre (MTOC) in respect to the direction of cell migration reveals a contrasting difference between the endoderm and the surrounding mesoderm, indicating the directed migration of these two cell types are not regulated by the same mechanisms.The Planar cell Polarity (PCP) signalling pathway is known to regulate convergence and extension (C&E) movements of the mesoderm and ectoderm (Topczewski et al., 2001; Jessen et al., 2002). This study analysed endodermal development in the PCP mutants trilobite and knypek, and reports on the requirements of individual components of the PCP signalling pathway for endoderm development and morphogenesis during somitogenesis stages. The role of PCP signalling components during brain morphogenesis was also investigated, identifying a requirement of specific PCP signalling components for brain vesicle expansion.This study also describes the generation of a transgenic line that enables the inducible disruption of the PCP signalling to analyse the time-specific roles of this signalling pathway during development. This novel transgenic line enabled the identification of a time-specific role of PCP signalling in the regulation of hindbrain axis morphogenesis.

Beginning with the Weathermen explosion in Greenwich Village and ending with punk, the seventies was the age of extremes; sex, drugs and, of course, rock ''n'' roll.With an extraordinary cast of characters, and even more extraordinary anecdotes, In The Seventies tells, firsthand, the story - and stories - of the decade. From Allen Ginsberg''s hippie commune in upstate New York to the time Miles spent cataloguing William Burroughs'' archives in London, from David Bowie in drag to Grace Jones naked at Studio 54, it''s all here. Vivid, compelling, intimate and, sometimes, insane, Barry Miles reveals the truth behind this legendary era.

Bowie''s career year-by-year, 1963-1987.

Edward Wesson was one of the great watercolourists of the 20th century. His work spanned nearly half a century, ranging from the 1930s until his death in 1983 during which period he also taught extensively.

Formidable plongée dans les riches heures de la culture underground.Londres. Fin de la deuxième guerre mondiale. Tout est à reconstruire. Et tout semble désormais possible. Dans les ruines encore fumantes laissées par le Blitz, écrivains excentriques, peintres bohêmes et artistes fêtards définissent alors les contours d’une avant-garde créative et libertaire, en pleine ébullition. Des premiers clubs du West End aux boutiques branchées de Carnaby Street, des Teddy Boys en cuir noir des fifties aux nouveaux romantiques des années 80, des premiers magazines de la Free Press aux fanzines punks, des light shows de Pink Floyd à l’UFO aux performances de Throbbing Gristle, Londres va s’imposer durant près de quarante ans comme la capitale d’une foisonnante et bruyante contre-culture.Ce livre de référence, extrêmement documenté, où l’on croise Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud, Colin McInnes, Ronnie Scott, Mary Quant, Syd Barrett, John Lennon, William Burroughs, David Hockney, Soft Machine, Pete Townshend, Mick Jagger, David Cooper, Gilbert et George, les Sex Pistols, Clash, Michael Moorcock, J.G. Ballard ou Boy George, raconte cette folle aventure, et témoigne non seulement de l’immense énergie d’une époque, mais aussi de l’incroyable vitalité de son épicentre, Londres.

An authentic and compelling story of the group that gave alternative London its first real soundtrack and launched on the rock world a radical combination of music, light shows and pyrotechnic stage effects.A revealing diary of Pink Floyd''s daily routine, from their roots in Cambridge to cult status in Sixties London. Author Barry Miles saw the band play when they were still called The Pink Floyd Sound and he wrote the first ever article about them for a New York underground newspaper in 1966. He also knew band members socially, witnessed the rapid decline of Syd Barrett and became actively involved in setting up some of Floyd’s major gigs.Barry Miles is an acclaimed music writer and expert on ''Beat'' poetry and poets. A founder of the Indica bookshop and gallery in the Sixties, he went on to launch International Times and write for NME. He ghost-wrote Many Years From Now, Paul McCartney''s autobiography and has written books on The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Frank Zappa.

L''hôtel du 9, rue Gît-le-Coeur ferma pour de bon au printemps 1963. William Burroughs se souvenant du moment où Madame et son chat Mirtaud sont finalement partis : "Il y avait un chat gris au Beat Hotel. C''était celui de Madame. Quand elle s''est retirée, elle est allée de l''autre côté de la rue. Elle avait l''air si triste, là, l''air des gens qui prennent leur retraite. Elle avait des géraniums et un vieux menton gris et un vieux, vieux chat gris, et elle a simplement disparu dans un fondu enchaîné..." Au coeur du quartier latin, rue Gît-le-Coeur à Paris, un hôtel miteux a joué un rôle clé dans l''histoire de la littérature beat. C''est dans cet établissement, tenu d''une main de fer par Madame Rachou, que les écrivains américains beat, exilés volontaires d''un pays trop puritain pour recevoir leurs idées, ont trouvé refuge. Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, Gregory Corso... tous y ont séjourné. Et ce petit hôtel de devenir l''épicentre du phénomène beat qui, entre New York, San Francisco, Mexico, Tanger, Amsterdam, Londres et Budapest, n''a pas simplement concerné les écrivains et artistes américains, mais toute la bohème internationale. Cet ouvrage remarquablement bien documenté retrace les années parisiennes des grandes figures beat. Il saisit l''aspect international de ce mouvement et nous plonge dans le Paris populaire et interlope de cette époque, son souffle, ses voix aujourd''hui disparus.

Beginning with the Weathermen explosion in Greenwich Village and ending with punk, the seventies was the age of extremes; sex, drugs and, of course, rock ''n'' roll. With an extraordinary cast of characters, and even more extraordinary anecdotes, In The Seventies tells, firsthand, the story - and stories - of the decade. From Allen Ginsberg''s hippie commune in upstate New York to the time Miles spent cataloguing William Burroughs'' archives in London, from David Bowie in drag to Grace Jones naked at Studio 54, it''s all here. Vivid, compelling, intimate and, sometimes, insane, Barry Miles reveals the truth behind this legendary era.

2010 fut une année particulière pour John Lennon. Elle marque à la fois son 70e anniversaire, le 30e anniversaire de sa mort et le 40e anniversaire de l’album Let It Be. Le mois d’octobre voit tous ses albums solo réédités, et en décembre, la sortie du biopic Nowhere Boy, avec l’étonnant Aaron Johnson dans le rôle du Beatle. Consart a décidé de consacrer un ouvrage au chanteur-compositeur. De ses débuts, avant la formation des Beatles, au sein des Quarrymen jusqu’à son assassinat au Dakota Building en décembre 1980, c’est non seulement la vie de Lennon qui parcoure les pages de ce livre, mais une époque. Celle de l’avènement du rock anglais, des années psychédéliques, de la rupture avec les Beatles, de l’exil aux Etats-Unis, des manifestations politiques. L’occasion de voir à travers le prisme lennonien une société en mouvement, qu’il incarne jusque dans ses errances.

The Beats. a title that Jack Kerouac coined to define the exhausted exaltation of a generation, produced a body of works infected with a new energy. Their spontaneous, often-unedited style epitomised their own era and their famed close-knit literary community continues to inspire writers today. Barry Miles, friend and biographerof Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, was there , part of the Beat Vibe. here he gathers together some of the most influential as well as the most overlooked writers of the era. He covers the writings from The Original Beats (New York 1944-53): The San Francisco Scene (1954-57) and The Second Wave (New York 1958-60) including works from Gregory Corso, John Clellon Holmes, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Frank O''Hara, Diane di Prima and Alexander Trocchi to the king of the Beats Himself, Jack Kerouac. The result is a fascinating compendium that recaptures the unique but varied voices of the Beat generation..

London has long been a magnet for aspiring artists and writers, musicians and fashion designers seeking inspiration and success. In London Calling, Barry Miles explores the counter-culture - creative, avant garde, permissive, anarchic - that sprang up in this great city in the decades following the Second World War. Here are the heady post-war days when suddenly everything seemed possible, the jazz bars and clubs of the fifties, the teddy boys and the Angry Young Men, Francis Bacon and the legendary Colony Club, the 1960s and the Summer of Love, the rise of punk and the early days of the YBAs. The vitality and excitement of this time and years of change - and the sheer creative energy in the throbbing heart of London - leap off the pages of this evocative and original book.

Allen Ginsberg occupies a significant and enduring position in American literature. This title presents a readable account of one of the twentieth century''s most extraordinary poets