Britain from the Air (1993)

Photographs by Jason Hawkes/text by Jane Struthers

A decade or so ago I was on a family weekend break in Warwick.

At the end of the first day the Frau and I were in the hotel bar.

The tables had built in shelves with a selection of books.

This one caught my eye.

My community spiritedness/fear of getting caught

suppressed the fleeting urge to steal it.

Next day we took a trip out to a re-creation of a medieval farm.

They have old barns with ancient ploughs,

animals you can pet/feed and activities such as archery.

There was a small room with books that supporters had donated.

You guessed it...there was 'Britain from the Air' priced at £2.99.

So I stole it.

Just kidding...I bought it :)

The book has famous landmarks and buildings, as you'd expect,

but many of the pictures are rather artistic and beautiful  in composition.

The Needles, Isle of Wight

Holy Island, Wales

St. Ives, Cornwall 

The Vale of Llangollen, North Wales

Footway over the M4 Motorway

Holiday caravans in Rhyl, North Wales

Glastonbury Tor

The maze at Margam Abbey

regards

Titus

Stephen Davis

Hammer of the Gods (1985)

First released in 1985, updated in 1995 and again in 2005.

This is one of the best books I've read about Zep.

Some interesting photos are included.

The picture above was taken in 1974.

Jimmy Page is not visible but he's somewhere behind Robert Plant'

Fifteen year old Lori Maddox is seated at the far right next to Bonzo.

"This was typical of the kind of photograph

the band didn't want their wives to see"

Is Page mentioned in the Epstein files?

Percy Plant looks out over Hollywood and shouts "I am a Golden God!":

The author pulls no punches and I expect the band were less than pleased.

regards

Titus

Mark Blake

Pigs Might Fly

The inside story of Pink Floyd (2007)

There are many books about Pink Floyd.

This is one I can heatily recommend.

The short lived five piece line-up (January 1968):

After a while they just stopped picking Syd up on the way to gigs.

😒

regards

Titus

Naomi Klein

No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies (1999)

The debut effort by Canadian author Naomi Klein.

A well researched condemnation of the corporate entities

who stain the modern world with their corruption and greed.

We should be more concerned about the treatment of the people

who actually make the products we all buy.

This book will further your understanding of how it all works.

Nike manufacture zero products.

Let that fully sink in for a moment.

All their overpriced goods are franchised out to wherever the cheapest labour can be found.

These contracts are then sub-let to other people

...and so on until the actual production is so far removed from Nike

they are able to throw their hands up in "we had no idea" horror

whenever an unsafe factory burns down or child/slave labour is exposed.

regards

Titus

Theodore Sturgeon

More than Human (1953)

Sturgeon was a talented American author and poet.

He also wrote some of the best scripts for the original Star Trek series

including the fabulous  'Shore Leave' episode:

More Than Human is a masterpiece which envisions the next stage

of human evolution as it attains a gestalt collective consciousness.

Theodore (Ted) was interviewed for a radio poetry show in 1954.

I've uploaded that short audio for those who may be interested.

He's very well spoken...for a Yank! :)

regards

Titus

1954 interview

Kraftwerk: Future Music from Germany (2020)

Uwe Schutte

Although I found myself disagreeing with some of Herr Schutte's analysis/conclusions

his book remains essential reading for all fans of Kraftwerk/Krautrock.

There are a few, poor quality, black & white photos.

Robots in front of Detroit State Theater 1998:

"We are not artists nor musicians, We are workers"

regards

Titus

Clark Ashton Smith

Genius Loci and other tales (1948)

Clark Ashton Smith (January 13th 1893 – August 14th 1961)

was an American fantasy/sci-fi/horror writer and also an artist/poet.

The fantasy writer and critic L. Sprague de Camp said of him

that "nobody since Poe has so loved a well-rotted corpse"

Smith c.1912:

One of the 'big three' from the Weird Tales magazine

along with Robert E. Howard and H. P. Lovecraft.

I used to have a copy of the paperback

with the startling cover art but that has long-since vanished.

My old, comparatively understated, hardback edition provides ample consolation:

The main thing I really like about Clark's writing

is his extraordinary ability to describe landscapes.

The eponymous tale is a particularly notable example of this talent.

trivia corner:

I plagiarized the title 'The Ninth Skeleton' for an instrumental back in the 80s.

regards

Titus

Lemmy - White Line Fever (2002)

Ian Fraser Kilmister's autobiography.

It's a great read especially for Hawkwind and Motörhead fans.

The book could have benefitted from more vintage photographs

but there are a few included.

This was Lemmy's favourite pic:

His holiness:

Aged four (we were all young once!):

regards

Titus

The Steve Howe Guitar Collection (1994)

This is excellent if you have any interest in guitars.

The book measures approximately 10 x 13 inches (25 x 33cm)

and it is printed on very high quality paper.

There are several pages that open out to form beautiful triple-page layouts:

We get the usual Gibsons and Fenders etc. as you'd expect.

All exquisite in their own right but Steve's hoard

of weird and wonderful instruments goes much further than that.

Here's a few scans:

I wonder what will happen to them all when Steve is gone?

BTW  you can click on any picture in a post

to view all the images as a slideshow which, in some cases, is bigger/better.

(Apologies if you've already figured that out)

regards

Titus