The Best Books About Music

The best books about music for World Book Day

Scenes from some of the greatest music docs of all time: Liam Gallagher in Supersonic; The Beatles get down in Peter Jackson's Get Back; The Stones whip up a storm in Gimme Shelter; and the late great Amy Winehouse in Asif Kapadia's Amy,

The 20 best music documentaries

Could these frontmen master a guitar riff? Freddie Mercury. Bono and Ian Curtis

Great frontmen who weren't that great on guitar

Blur in Japan, 1994, shortly after the release of their genre-defining Parklife album: Graham Coxon, Dave Rowntree, Damon Albarn and Alex James.

10 songs that ended an era... or began a new one

New Order's Gillian Gilbert, Stephen Morris, Peter Hook and Bernard Sumner in 1986

Where did New Order get the title Blue Monday from?

Manchester music legends: The Smiths, The Stone Roses, Oasis, Joy Division

The 50 best songs from Manchester

Final album covers from Nirvana, The Beatles, The Verve, David Bowie and The Smiths

The "final" albums by the greatest artists

Ian Curtis - at work in his persona as Joy Division frontman, and at play at his office Christmas party

Joy Division's Ian Curtis at an office Christmas party is strangely wonderful

Albums missing in action? Noel Gallagher, The Beatles and Joy Division

The most famous lost songs and unreleased albums

Classic album titles

What’s the meaning behind these classic album titles?

Ian Brown with The Stone Roses in June 1989... and performing solo at the O2 Academy in Edinburgh, September 2022.

Manchester music legends now and then

The classic Beatles "Red" and "Blue" albums, released on 2nd April 1973.

The best artist compilations of all time

Excellent drummers: Dave Grohl, Reni, Taylor Hawkins and Ronnie Vannucci Jr

The most incredible drumming moments caught on camera

Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures album cover detail

What does the cover of Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures mean?

Tony Wilson and Peter Saville's classic Factory design

The 20 best singles released on Factory Records