[UCP Books]: Introducing the Reverb Seriess
Introducing the Reverb Series
Published by Reaktion Books ▪ Distributed by the University of Chicago Press
Van Halen
Exuberant California, Zen Rock’n’Roll
John Scanlan
| Publication Date: June 15, 2012 | ||
| ISBN: 978-1-86189-916-3 | 224 pages • 30 halftones | Paper • $25.00 |
Van Halen follows the band’s pursuit of the art of artlessness. John Scanlan describes how they characterize what historian Kevin Starr terms “Zen California”—a state of mind and way of being that above all celebrates the now, and in rock and roll terms refers to the unregulated expenditure of energy and youthful exuberance destined to extinguish itself. Scanlan sheds light on key events and influences—the decaying of Hollywood in the 1970s; Ted Templeman’s work as a producer at Sunset Sound Studios; and the building of Eddie Van Halen’s Hollywood Hills studio in 1983—that show how 1970s California was the only time and place that Van Halen could have emerged.
The Beatles in Hamburg
Ian Inglis
| Publication Date: June 15, 2012 | ||
| ISBN: 978-1-86189-915-6 | 224 pages • 30 halftones | Paper • $25.00 |
In The Beatles in Hamburg, Ian Inglis reveals that, before they took the world by storm, the Beatles were little more than an inexperienced, semi-professional group of talented musicians in dire need of practice. He tells the story of the Beatles in Hamburg, Germany, where their agent, Allen Williams, first sent them in August of 1960. In addition to showing how Hamburg itself played a role in the Beatles’ remarkable story, Inglis details the experiences and personalities that shaped them as performers and composers. Ultimately, Inglis explains, the Beatles not only became proficient musicians in Hamburg, but while there they began to build the reputation that would eventually make them the most popular band in the world.
Ian Inglis is a visiting fellow in the School of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Northumbria, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. John Scanlan is a senior lecturer in the Department of Sociology at Manchester Metropolitan University and the author of On Garbage. Please contact Laura Avey at lavey@press.uchicago.edu or 773.702.0376 for more information.