Decades

When Yes ran into problems recording their tenth album in Paris at the end of 1979, it was almost the end. Yet in the 80s, the band rallied, firstly as part of an unlikely collaboration with new wave duo The Buggles, then with 90125, the most successful album of their career, which spawned a number one hit in the USA with 'Owner Of A Lonely Heart'. The band failed to capitalise on this success, however, lingering too long over its successor Big Generator and by the end of the decade, Yes had effectively split into two versions of the same group. With most authors concentrating on the group's 1970s career, Yes in the 1980s looks in detail at this relatively underexamined era of the band's history, featuring rarely-seen photos courtesy of author David Watkinson. The book follows the careers of all nine significant members of the group during a turbulent decade which saw massive highs but also many lows. Not only does it consider the three albums the band itself made across the decade, but also its member's the solo careers and the other groups – including Asia, XYZ, The Buggles, Jon and Vangelis and GTR - formed by those musicians as the decade wound towards a reunion of sorts in the early 1990s. Stephen Lambe is an author, publisher and festival promoter. His ten books include the best-selling Citizens Of Hope And Glory – The Story Of Progressive Rock (Amberley, 2011) and Yes On Track (Sonicbond, 2018). He lives in Tewkesbury, UK. David Watkinson is an author and collector, with a specific interest in Yes. His books include Yes – Perpetual Change (Plexus, 2001) and Jon Anderson And The Warriors – The Road To Yes (Sonicbond, 2018). He lives in Sussex, UK.

There were many very different bands in progressive rock's 'golden age' of the 1970s. Some tended toward symphonic grandeur, others towards jazz fusion, and yet others ploughed the more immediate end of the spectrum, not to mention the left-field eccentrics and the 'difficult' bands. Apart from it all, however, there was Van der Graaf Generator. In a decade stuffed with a wild array of influences and styles, there can be few that pushed so clsoe to the definition 'unique' as the four musicians who made up the 'classic' line-up of Van der Graaf. For a start, there was the astonishing songwriting and vocal skills of Peter Hammill. But there was much more behind the band to set these men apart. Their unparalleled instrumental configuration saw little or no guitar while organist Hugh Banton handled the bass parts on pedals. David Jackson pioneered an astonishing saxophone style, sometimes playing two instruments at once and using a full effects pedalboard. Drummer Guy Evans filled in everything else. It was and remains a sound quite like no other. Discussing all the band's albums and Hammill's solo work at the time, this book documents their incredibly influential first decade as prog's ultimate 'outsiders'. It's quite a ride. Steve Pilkington is a music journalist, editor and broadcaster. He was Editor in Chief for the Classic Rock Society Magazine and is now co-administrator of the rock website Velvet Thunder, as well as presenting a weekly internet radio show called A Saucerful Of Prog. As well as writing CD booklet notes, his previously published books include Led Zeppelin On Track, Decades: Uriah Heep In The 1970s, Iron Maiden On Track, Deep Purple and Rainbow On Track,and The Rolling Stones On Track, all for Sonicbond. He has also written the official biography of legendary guitarist Gordon Giltrap, entitled Perilous Journey. He lives in Wigan, Lancashire, UK.

Derided as seventies throwbacks upon their arrival and misremembered by the wider population as one-hit wonders, Marillion rode the 1980s as one of the most successful bands in Britain. Delivering the musical and conceptual density of early progressive rock with the caustic energy of punk, the Aylesbury heroes both spearheaded the neo-prog revival and produced its crown jewel in their number one album Misplaced Childhood and its Top 5 singles 'Kayleigh' and 'Lavender.' Musically, their influence reaches from prog legends Dream Theater and Steven Wilson to household names like Radiohead and Muse. The 1980s encapsulated Marillion's birth, commercial apex, and near-implosion. This book combines meticulous history with careful musical analysis to chronicle their most turbulent decade from their first gig, through the dizzying success and destructive decadence of their time with frontman Fish, to his bitter departure and replacement by Steve Hogarth. It turns an experienced critical eye not only on their five albums of the decade - from the seminal Script For A Jester's Tear to Season's End - Hogarth's debut - and a lineup that remains as active as ever. The book also discusses demos, singles, and Fish's solo debut to dissect a band which critics still love to hate, even as today's music industry stands upon their shoulders as pioneers of self-promotion and internet-based crowd funding. Nathaniel Webb is an American author, musician, and game designer. As a lead guitarist, he has toured and recorded for numerous acts including Grammy-nominated singers Beth Hart and Jana Mashonee, Colombian pop star Marre, and Talking to Walls. His writing includes the novels Expedition: Summerlands, The Days of Guns and Roses, and Arcadia Mon Amour. A graduate of Phillips Exeter Academy and Wesleyan University, Nathaniel lives in Portland, Maine with his wife and son under a big pile of cats. He can be found on Facebook and Twitter @nat20w.

The Sweet's look, sound and attitude became an instantly recognisable hallmark of the early 1970s glam rock era. But the band did not start the 1970s as a glam band and certainly didn't finish as one. This book charts the band's journey through the decade that made them a household name: from their initial rise as purveyors of manufactured bubblegum pop to their metamorphosis into harder-edged glam rock icons. The Sweet in the 1970s takes a look at both their successes and their struggles in their quest to be recognised as a serious rock act in the latter part of the decade, once the sparkle and glitter of glam had begun to pale. The decade saw them score fifteen UK Top 40 singles, release seven studio albums and tour several continents. Unlike many bands of the era, personnel changes were few. The Sweet began the 1970s with the arrival of new guitarist Andy Scott and ended the decade with the departure of frontman Brian Connolly, followed by an ultimately ill-fated attempt to continue as a three-piece. This book is an unashamed celebration of the music of the Sweet and charts the lasting impact they had on many of the bands that followed them. After acquiring a second-hand copy of Sweet's Give Us A Wink album from Action Records in Preston as a teenager in the early 1980s, Darren has been a dedicated fan of the band. A former politician, he has written for a number of UK national newspapers, but after stepping away from politics, he has been able to devote more time to his first love: music. A keen follower of both rock and folk, he maintains a popular music blog Darren's Music Blog and has reviewed albums and gigs for a variety of publications. He lives in Hastings, East Sussex, UK.

For a few short years in the 1970s, the unique music of Focus entertained the world. Built around the prodigious instrumental talents of Dutch masters Jan Akkerman (guitar) and Thijs van Leer (keyboards and flute), the band produced three classic hit albums in quick succession, at the same time scoring two worldwide hits with 'Sylvia' and 'Hocus Pocus'. The latter piece is as ubiquitous as tunes from the 70s get, distinctive for Akkerman's famous riff and van Leer's yodelling. Musical and personal tensions between the two lead to a split in early 1976 and the band limped on until 1978. However, the decade also saw other many projects, with Akkerman moving into jazzier territory while van Leer had huge success with his Introspection series of light classical, flute-orientated albums. Stephen Lambe's book guides the reader through the band's early history year by year, dealing with all eight Focus albums song by song, while also giving the same treatment to Akkerman and van Leer's other work during the decade. It is an important potted history of the band and an insight into the tensions which lead to such a creative - if short lived – peak. But it also acts as an essential guide to the astonishing music the two men made while at the apex of their powers. Stephen Lambe is an author, publisher, festival organiser and journalist. An acknowledged expert on progressive rock, his books include: Yes - on track (Sonicbond, 2018) and the best-selling Citizens Of Hope and Glory: The Story Of Progressive Rock (Amberley, 2011). He lives in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, UK.