LGBTQ+ Popular Music Books

From Sia to Elton John, Dusty Springfield to Little Richard, LGBT voices have changed the course of modern music. But in a world before they gained understanding and a place in the mainstream, how did the queer musicians of yesteryear fight to build foundations for those who would come after them?

Pulling back the curtain on the colourful legacy that has shaped all of our musical and cultural landscape, music aficionado and writer Darryl W. Bullock reveals the inspiring and often heart-breaking stories of internationally renowned stars, as well as numerous lesser-known names that have driven the revolution from all corners of the globe: those whose personal stories against the threat of persecution during decades of political and historical turmoil - including two world wars, Stonewall and the AIDS crisis - has led to some of the most significant and soul-searching music of the last century. Bullock chronicles these struggles through new interviews and archival reports, dating from the birth of jazz in the red-light district of New Orleans, through the rock 'n' roll years, Swinging Sixties and all-singing and all-dancing disco days of the '70s, right up to modern pop, electronica and reggae.

A treasure-trove of untold histories, David Bowie Made Me Gay is a moving and provocative story of the right to be heard and the need to keep the fight for equality in the spotlight.

Author: Darryl W. Bullock
Format: Paperback
Pages: 358
ISBN: 9780715652992

Reading age - 4 to 8 years.

It’s 1978 in San Francisco, and the city is filled with music and art and protests for social justice – and the Gay Freedom Day Parade needs a new symbol. What happens when a group of friends take up the challenge of creating it? Harvey Milk and Gilbert Baker come up with the idea for a flag. Making it a rainbow, Gilbert decides, will be the perfect way to express love, togetherness, and pride.

Gilbert and his good friends – the tie-dye wizard Faerie Argyle, the sewing expert James, and the experienced activist Cleve – gather a band of volunteers at the Gay Community Center on Grove Street to make it happen. They dye and prepare the fabric, sew the stripes together, add the finishing touches, and then unfurl it at the parade to the delight of the crowd.

Today the Rainbow Flag is a familiar sight, at the Pride Parade and around the world. But it is not only a universal symbol; it is also a brilliant object of design that is part of the collection of The Museum of Modern Art, in New York. This story, based on true events, follows the birth of the idea and the collaborative creation of the flag and, above all, demonstrates the strength and ingenuity possible when a group of people – friends, community, neighbours and family – take a stand for civil rights and l-o-v-e.

In nineties small-town Surrey, watching Top of the Pops was Malcolm's only escape from boredom and the bullies at school ... until a phone call from a pop star changed his life forever. Before long, he was getting compliments from Beyoncé, hanging out at award ceremonies with Posh Spice's mum and sneaking onto All Saints' tour bus.

Freak Like Me is the true story of one teenage pop fan who, with a group of like-minded outcasts, witnesses the disposable music industry of the late nineties and early noughties first-hand. Tracking down A-lister itineraries, he gets to meet the real personalities behind the Smash Hits posters adorning his bedroom walls.

This hilarious memoir is packed with scandalous gossip and poignant memories from the era of Nokia 3310s and dial-up Internet, when chart positions meant everything and, if you wanted to know what your idols were up to off-screen, you had to track them down yourself!

PRAISE FOR FREAK LIKE ME

"Devoured it ... so, so fun. Brought back so many memories of pop music as an escape as a lonely gay teen. Loved all the insight into how late 90s/00s popstars were with fans." - Conor Behan, DJ (RTÉ 2FM) and Popsessed podcast

"Freak Like Me is like slipping into a warm bath of memories of watching my favourite groups on Top of the Pops, Live & Kicking and SM:TV/CD:UK, taping songs off the radio and reading Smash Hits ... I haven t come across any book, TV show or website that has taken me back quite so completely ... reading this book felt a lot like exchanging memories with a friend. McLean strikes exactly the right balance between the good and bad of the 90s, and brings the era back to life just as I remember it. His snarky humour made me snort out loud at times, my heart warmed when he found friends who shared his obsessions, and his anecdotes were so, so relatable ... I would love to see more books like this."- Dr Alice Violett (book blogger)

"Freak Like Me has you hooked from the opening chapter ... a laugh out loud, and endearing coming of age novel about a young teen finding himself, coming out and how the celebrities of the 90s helped him figure out and accept who he was. An absolute must-read, for lovers of 90s and early 00s pop music, and those who have ever wondered what it would be like to meet their idols." - Fuzzable

"Malcolm's memoir of his time as a teenage superfan around the turn of the millennium offers a fascinating, funny and often unexpected journey through several shifts in pop, as he views the changing world through a life of pop fandom." - CMU (Complete Music Update)

From iconic musicians Tegan and Sara comes a nostalgic memoir about high school, detailing their first loves and first songs in a compelling look back at their origin story.

'Genius' Augusten Burroughs, author of Running with Scissors
'A gift' Ellen Page, actress
'Utterly charming' Carmen Maria Machado, author of Her Body and Other Parties

Before they became international musicians and LGBTQ+ icons, twin sisters Sara and Tegan Quin came of age in 90s Canada. They argued relentlessly, skipped school, dropped acid and fell in and out of love - sometimes with their best friends.

One day they found their stepdad's guitar and their lives changed course forever.

High School is a revelatory joint memoir. It captures two sisters wrestling with their sexual and artistic identities and those breathtaking years when the future seems wondrously possible.

More people watched his nationally syndicated television show between 1953 and 1955 than followed I Love Lucy. Even a decade after his death, the attendance records he set at Madison Square Garden, the Hollywood Bowl, and Radio City Music Hall still stand.

Arguably the most popular entertainer of the twentieth century, this very public figure nonetheless kept more than a few secrets. Darden Asbury Pyron, author of the acclaimed and bestselling Southern Daughter: The Life of Margaret Mitchell, leads us through the life of America's foremost showman with his fresh, provocative, and definitive portrait of Liberace, an American boy.

Liberace's career follows the trajectory of the classic American dream. Born in the Midwest to Polish-Italian immigrant parents, he was a child prodigy who, by the age of twenty, had performed with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Abandoning the concert stage for the lucrative and glittery world of nightclubs, celebrities, and television, Liberace became America's most popular entertainer.

While wildly successful and good natured outwardly, Liberace, Pyron reveals, was a complicated man whose political, social, and religious conservativism existed side-by-side with a lifetime of secretive homosexuality. Even so, his swishy persona belied an inner life of ferocious aggression and ambition. Pyron relates this private man to his public persona and places this remarkable life in the rapidly changing cultural landscape of twentieth-century America.

Pyron presents Liberace's life as a metaphor, for both good and ill, of American culture, with its shopping malls and insatiable hunger for celebrity. In this fascinating biography, Pyron complicates and celebrates our image of the man for whom the streets were paved with gold lamé.

"An entertaining and rewarding biography of the pianist and entertainer whose fans' adoration was equaled only by his critics' loathing. . . . [Pyron] persuasively argues that Liberace, thoroughly and rigorously trained, was a genuine musician as well as a brilliant showman. . . . [A]n immensely entertaining story that should be fascinating and pleasurable to anyone with an interest in American popular culture."—Kirkus Reviews

"This is a wonderful book, what biography ought to be and so seldom is."—Kathryn Hughes, Daily Telegraph

"[A]bsorbing and insightful. . . . Pyron's interests are far-ranging and illuminating-from the influence of a Roman Catholic sensibility on Liberace and gay culture to the aesthetics of television and the social importance of self-improvement books in the 1950s. Finally, he achieves what many readers might consider impossible: a persuasive case for Liberace's life and times as the embodiment of an important cultural moment."—Publishers Weekly

"Liberace, coming on top of his amazing life of Margaret Mitchell, Southern Daughter, puts Darden Pyron in the very first rank of American biographers. His books are as exciting as the lives of his subjects."—Tom Wolfe

"Fascinating, thoughtful, exhaustive, and well-written, this book will serve as the standard biography of a complex icon of American popular culture."—Library Journal

The Sunday Times bestseller with a new chapter bringing the story up to date.

'The rock memoir of the decade' – Daily Mail
'The rock star's gloriously entertaining and candid memoir is a gift to the reader' – Sunday Times

In his first and only official autobiography, music icon Elton John reveals the truth about his extraordinary life. Me is the joyously funny, honest and moving story of the most enduringly successful singer/songwriter of all time.
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Christened Reginald Dwight, he was a shy boy with Buddy Holly glasses who grew up in the London suburb of Pinner and dreamed of becoming a pop star. By the age of twenty-three, he was performing his first gig in America, facing an astonished audience in his bright yellow dungarees, a star-spangled T-shirt and boots with wings. Elton John had arrived and the music world would never be the same again.

His life has been full of drama, from the early rejection of his work with songwriting partner Bernie Taupin to spinning out of control as a chart-topping superstar; from half-heartedly trying to drown himself in his LA swimming pool to disco-dancing with the Queen; from friendships with John Lennon, Freddie Mercury and George Michael to setting up his AIDS Foundation. All the while, Elton was hiding a drug addiction that would grip him for over a decade.

In Me Elton also writes powerfully about getting clean and changing his life, about finding love with David Furnish and becoming a father. In a voice that is warm, humble and open, this is Elton on his music and his relationships, his passions and his mistakes. This is a story that will stay with you, by a living legend.
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'Self-deprecating, funny . . . You cannot help but enjoy his company throughout, temper tantrums and all' – The Times

'Racy, pacy and crammed with scurrilous anecdotes - what more could you ask from the rocket man' – Guardian (Book of the Week)

'Chatty, gossipy, amusing and at times brutally candid' – Telegraph

Jim Hutton shares his most personal memories and anecdotes about the real Freddie Mercury, leader of the British rock group Queen, outside the glare of public life.

Filled with never-before-seen photos from Hutton's private collection, it reveals the poignant and amazing story of one of the music industry's most unlikely couples.

I'm just a cosmic yob, I suppose.

I change every day. I'm not outrageous. I'm David Bowie.

I'm an instant star. Just add water and stir.

Genre-hopping, gender-bending: Bowie has never been afraid to push the boundaries. Whether masquerading as an alien, a spaceman or a goblin king, this rock 'n' roll hero was a true visionary. The death of the Man Who Fell to Earth shook fans around the world, but his influence lives on.

Pocket Bowie Wisdom is full of insights into music, identity, fame, love and creativity from one of the most pioneering musicians of all time.

This collection of quotes makes a perfect gift for the Bowie fan in your life.

Format: Hardback
Pages: 96
ISBN: 9781784880729

Dolly Parton's best quotes compiled into a handy pocket-sized edition, perfect for reading on the go.

Dolly Parton, the Queen of Country, or the Dolly Lama, as she has been called, is renowned for her hilarious quotes, witty one-liners, and self-deprecating humour.

I'm not offended by all the dumb blonde jokes because I know I'm not dumb and I'm not blonde either.

Don't get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life.

People are always asking me in interviews, What do you think of foreign affairs? I just say, I've had a few.

So if yo' re feeling blue, need a laugh, a hug, or some solid Southern advice, this is the book for you. From love to diets, life advice, and more, there's something for every Dolly fan. 

Format: Hardback
Pages: 96
ISBN: 9781784880446

For many fans, David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust era remains the most extraordinarily creative period in his career. As a member of Bowie's legendary band at the time - The Spiders From Mars - Woody Woodmansey played drums on four seminal albums: The Man Who Sold The World, Hunky Dory, The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars and Aladdin Sane.

Woody's memoir, which he started work on in 2014, focuses on this key period and brings it to glorious life. With the confidence of youth, Woody always thought he'd be in a famous band but the nineteen-year-old rocker from Hull never expected to be thrust into London's burgeoning glam rock scene, and also into a bottle-green velvet suit and girl's shoes.

Playing with Bowie took him on an eye-opening and transformative journey. In Spider From Mars he writes candidly about the characters who surrounded Bowie, recalling the album sessions as well as behind-the-scenes moments with one of the world's most iconic singers.

The result is an insightful, funny, poignant memoir that lovingly evokes a seminal moment in music history and pays tribute to one of the most outstanding and innovative talents of our time.

ONE OF BILLBOARD'S "100 GREATEST MUSIC BOOKS OF ALL TIME"

The provocative transgender advocate and lead singer of the punk rock band Against Me! provides a searing account of her search for identity and her true self.

It began in a bedroom in Naples, Florida, when a misbehaving punk teenager named Tom Gabel, armed with nothing but an acoustic guitar and a headful of anarchist politics, landed on a riff. Gabel formed Against Me! and rocketed the band from its scrappy beginnings-banging on a drum kit made of pickle buckets-to a major-label powerhouse that critics have called this generation's The Clash. Since its inception in 1997, Against Me! has been one of punk's most influential modern bands, but also one of its most divisive. With every notch the four-piece climbed in their career, they gained new fans while infuriating their old ones. They suffered legal woes, a revolving door of drummers, and a horde of angry, militant punks who called them "sellouts" and tried to sabotage their shows at every turn.

But underneath the public turmoil, something much greater occupied Gabel-a secret kept for 30 years, only acknowledged in the scrawled-out pages of personal journals and hidden in lyrics. Through a troubled childhood, delinquency, and struggles with drugs, Gabel was on a punishing search for identity. Not until May of 2012 did a Rolling Stone profile finally reveal it: Gabel is a transsexual, and would from then on be living as a woman under the name Laura Jane Grace.

Tranny is the intimate story of Against Me!'s enigmatic founder, weaving the narrative of the band's history, as well as Grace's, with dozens of never-before-seen entries from the piles of journals Grace kept. More than a typical music memoir about sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll-although it certainly has plenty of that-Tranny is an inside look at one of the most remarkable stories in the history of rock.

In To Be a Gay Man, Will Young speaks out about gay shame, revealing the impact it had on his own life, how he learned to deal with it, and how he can now truthfully say he is gay and happy.

We know Will as a multi-platinum recording artist, Olivier-nominee, and the first winner of the Idol franchise. But his story began long before his first audition. Looking back on a world where growing up being called gay was the ultimate insult and coming out after a lifetime of hiding his sexuality, Will explores the long-lasting impact repressing his true self has had.

As Will's own story demonstrates, internalised shame in childhood increases the risk of developing low self-worth, and even self-disgust, leading to destructive behaviours in adult life.

Will revisits the darkest extremes he has been to, sharing his vulnerabilities, his regrets, tracing his own navigation through it all and showing the way for others who might have felt alone in the same experience.

Here you will find a friend, champion and mentor, breaking taboos with frank honesty, and offering invaluable practical advice on overcoming the difficult issues too often faced within the LGBTQ+ community.

Author: Will Young
Format: Hardback
Pages: 272
ISBN: 9780753554241