Bøker av Richard Houghton

Cropredy Capers is an oral history of the folk-rock band Fairport Convention and contains over 250 fan memories and 250 photos and items of memorabilia from the band's 57-year career

Black Sabbath: The Day I Was There is the story of the pioneers of heavy metal in the words of over 350 fans. From 1970 to 1975, Black Sabbath released six epoch-defining albums, including such songs as 'war Pigs', Iron Man' and the hit single 'Paranoid'. Their story has been told many times before, but never from the perspective of the front row. Until now. Starting with memories from their pre-Sabbath shows in the north west of England, when they were named Earth, the book charts Sabbath's gigging history through the drug-fuelled seventies and a relentless touring schedule on the back of the first six Sabbath albums that cast the die for heavy metal with the classic line up of Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward. Encompassing numerous personnel changes since, including vocalists Ronnie James Dio, Tony Martin, Ray Gillen and Ian Gillan, this is a fan's eye view of how Black Sabbath went on to become the greatest metal band of all time, selling over 70 million records worldwide.

An oral history of the rise of The Beatles to international superstars in the words of over 500 fans

An oral history of Pink Floyd in the words of over 500 fans

An oral history of rock band The Who in the words of over 500 fans

An oral history of legendary rock band the Faces (featuring Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood) from 1969 to 1975

Over 300 fans, friends and celebrities choose their favourite songs by 'semi-legendary' Indie band The Wedding Present, nominating the one song that means the most to them and why.

An oral history of the Rolling Stones career in the 1960s, told in the words of over 600 fans

The story of Thin Lizzy as told in the words of over 350 fans

An oral history of the folk-rock band Fairport Convention as told through the memories of over 200 fans, friends and musical collaborators

An oral history of the Rolling Stones 1972 North American tour as told through 300 first hand fan accounts

In the early 1960s, four boys from Liverpool changed the world of music forever. And today The Beatles are rightly recognised as the biggest act in music history, famed for hits from 'She Loves You' and 'I Wanna Hold Your Hand' through to 'Day Tripper' and 'All You Need is Love'. They had 17 UK and 20 US number 1 singles. Their singles compilation, 1, topped the album charts in 34 countries in the year 2000. All Our Loving - A People's History of The Beatles takes the reader back to Liverpool in the 1950s and accompanies John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr on their journey to stardom, from John and Paul's fateful first meeting at Woolton Village Fete in July 1957 to the last ever paid-for show at Candlestick Park, San Francisco in August 1966. In the 1960s, post-war black-and-white Britain turned technicolour thanks to The Beatles, with 73 million Americans tuning into The Ed Sullivan Show on TV to see what all the fuss was about. The Beatles conquered the world, leaving behind a glittering legacy of popular songs and concert memories that fans have carried with them for years. There was no YouTube or Instagram then, no smartphones or selfies. Concert memories were made in the mind's eye and captured in fans' hearts and diaries, their stories shared with family and friends but otherwise unheard. Beatlemania placed four lads at the centre of a musical revolution that swept the world. This is that story, in the words of almost 500 teenagers who were there.

An oral history of Pink Floyd in the words of over 500 fans

Tell Everyone: A People's History of the Faces is the story of one of the world's most loved, most celebrated and most mourned rock and roll bands as seen through the eyes of over 500 fans. Forged from the shards of the Small Faces and the Jeff Beck Group, the Faces - Rod Stewart, Ronnie Wood, Ronnie Lane, Ian McLagan and Kenney Jones - stumbled bleary-eyed onto the gig circuit in 1969 and packed in more than 470 shows across the UK, North America, Australia, Japan and Europe, becoming one of the top-grossing live acts of the period. They split after their twelfth and final US tour in 1975, having consumed a lot of alcoholic beverages and produced some of themost memorable live performances of the decade, earning a reputation for bringing a party to town, both on stage and back at the hotel afterwards. Here is the Faces story told through over 500 previously unpublished first-hand accounts, from fans who still remember the backstage parties, the all-day rock and roll shows, the pub-style singalongs and the good time vibe that the band exuded every time they stepped on to a stage.

Fully authorised by the band, this book is an oral history of British folk-rock pioneers Fairport Convention as told in the words of fans. With contributions from Fairport Convention's Simon Nicol and Dave Pegg, this is the Fairport story in the words of over 300 fans, from their formation in 1967 through to their 2022 annual Cropredy Convention in a field in Oxfordshire, England where they once again played host at Britain's friendliest festival.

1972 saw the Rolling Stones perform on American soil for the first time since the stabbing of a fan by Hell's Angels at Altamont three years earlier. The Beatles having split up - and with Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison all dead - the Stones embodied what wasleft of Sixties counter culture. But they were close to broke and being impacted by drug use, and did America really want to see a band some thought incapable of functioning as a live act? Plus the United States was still coming to terms with 1970's Kent State massacreand grappling with the Vietnam War, the draft and the civil rights movement.So it was that the Stones travelled coast-to-coast, playing 51 shows in 32 cities in 54 days to promote their latest album, Exile on Main St. With a groundbreaking new stage show and a setlist drawn mainly from their last four albums, demand for tickets was high and the tour a sell-out. But the Stones and their fans found themselves going head-to-head with the authorities from the outset. Concerts were marked by crowd riots in the clamour for tickets and there were drug busts and tear gassings thanks to over-zealous cops. And in Rhode Island, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards wound up in police custody while a full house in Boston was expecting them on stage.In All Down the Line - A People's History of the Rolling Stones 1972 North American Tour, over 300 fans look back 50 years at the most infamous tour in rock 'n' roll history and remember every show, from opening night in Vancouver to the tour finale (and MickJagger's 29th birthday) at New York City's Madison Square Garden less than two months later. Ladies and gentlemen, the Rolling Stones.

With fans recalling memories of the earliest Smiths shows at UK clubs, you'll see a portrait of The Smiths from the fans perspective. With personal photographs, memorabilia, fascinating anecdotes, and fan stories that have never been published before. Based on the songwriting partnership of Morrissey and Marr, The Smiths are one of the most important bands to emerge from the British independent music scene of the 1980s. All four of their studio albums reached the top five of the UK Albums Chart, including Meat Is Murder which hit number one. They won a significant following and remain cult favourites. The band broke up in 1987 due to internal tensions and have turned down several offers to reunite.

Heart of the Crowd is an official oral history of Simple Minds, mixing over 800 fan anecdotes with those of band members and other collaborators and with an introduction written by Jim Kerr. The book also features never before seen photographs, collectable memorabilia and fans pictures capturing their live performances.Simple Minds have been musical pioneers for 40 glittering years selling over 60 million records. Catching the mood of the post-punk era, when the angry sounds of 1977 were splintering into a thousand different shapes, they emerged with a style rooted in the art-rock of David Bowie and the electronic dance of Donna Summer. They went on to become one of the great bands of their generation, deploying rousing choruses and booming atmospherics to provide a soundtrack that has endured.They topped the American chart with Don't You (Forget About Me) and followed suit in the UK with Belfast Child. Three of their 20 studio albums reached number one in the UK, they starred at Live Aid and they played three momentous London shows in honour of Nelson Mandela.

If you are thinking about starting your own consultancy; have started one and hit your first round of growing pains, or are a veteran looking at an exit, this book is for you.