Mark Blake’s history of Pink Floyd – the first for fifteen years – has already been acknowledged as the final word on this remarkable band’s life. Lucidly written, incorporating over a hundred new and exclusive interviews, it covers Pink Floyd from their Cambridge beginnings in the early sixties to their triumphant re-formation at Live 8 in 2005 24 years after their last live performance together and the death of their troubled founder-member Syd Barrett a year later. Pink Floyd’s albums like Dark Side of the Moon remain some of rock’s biggest sellers of all every year on CD; Both David Gilmour and Roger Waters continue to do arena and stadium gigs, and the market for this book will exist for many years. In hardback it has reprinted four times already. Aurum’s earlier book about the Clash by Blake’s Mojo stablemate Pat Gilbert, Passion is a Fashion, has so far sold over 22,000 in paperback – and the Floyd cult is far larger. Everyone has commented on the superb “flying pig” cover art and the spine treatment visible right across the bookshop: both are retained for this paperback edition.Mark Blake is a contributing editor at Mojo and Q magazines, and the editor of books on Punk and Bob Dylan. He is currently editing The Wit & Wisdom of Keith Richards for Aurum. He lives in Croydon.

Price : £ 6.99

Read more…

Back in the Cretaceous Period (or was it the 70’s) when calculators were the size of small cars and an auto pop-up toaster was considered hi-tech some geek sandwiched two circuit-boards together chucked in some random wiring and gave birth to a musical (sic) instrument that was to become an icon. After nearly 40 years in the closet the Stylophone pocket synthesiser made popular by the likes of Rolf Harris and David Bowie (he used it in timeless classic Space Oddity) is back. You tap the electronic keys with the integral stylus to make funky noises – now with additional Classic Synth and Bass sounds – and maybe you can produce some musical hits using this retro kit as the likes of Kraftwerk Erasure Orbital Marilyn Manson They Might Be Giants and White Stripes have done in the past. You can play solo or plug in your iPod/MP3 player and play along to your favourite tunes and even add some vibrato enhancement to really annoy anyone foolish enough to be listening to you. It may have been invented in 1967 but 40 years on this re-invention is bound to be another hit.

• Gift – Gadgets

Price : £ 12.99

Read more…