The John Hellier's top Tens for the week end!

Blimey, this is difficult there are hundreds (well dozens) of favourites but off the top of my head here goes.....

Albums, not including compilations and only one per artiste.

PET SOUNDS - BEACH BOYS (DEFINITELY THE BEST ALBUM EVER!)

and in no particular order

EVERY PICTURE TELLS A STORY- ROD THE MOD

OGDENS NUT GONE FLAKE- SMALL FACES

JAMES BROWN LIVE AT THE APOLLO

BB KING LIVE AT THE REGAL

GEORGIE FAME LIVE AT THE FLAMINGO

A NODS AS GOOD AS A WINK TO A BLIND HORSE- FACES

MY GENERATION- THE WHO

OTIS BLUE-OTIS REDDING

IMAGINE-JOHN LENNON

Singles: no particular order and only one per artist.

BE MY BABY-RONETTES

GOD ONLY KNOWS-BEACH BOYS

REACH OUT I'LL BE THERE-FOUR TOPS

NIGHT TRAIN-JAMES BROWN

WHEN A MAN LOVES A WOMAN-PERCY SLEDGE

PENNY LANE/STRAWBERRY FIELDS-BEATLES

ALL OR NOTHING-SMALL FACES

I'VE BEEN LOVING YOU TOO LONG-OTIS REDDING

MY GIRL-TEMPTATIONS

RAG DOLL-FOUR SEASONS

Books.......music biographies are my thing, again in no particular order......

ALL TOO BEAUTIFUL (STEVE MARRIOTT) well why not!-HEWITT/HELLIER

DEEP SHADE OF BLUE (SCOTT WALKER)- MIKE WATKINSON/PETE ANDERSON

SEX AND DRUGS AND ROCK AND ROLL (IAN DURY)- RICHARD BALLS

LAST TRAIN TO MEMPHIS (ELVIS PRESLEY)- PETER GURALNICK

DEAR BOY (KEITH MOON)- TONY FLETCHER

WHO KILLED CHRISTOPHER ROBIN (BRIAN JONES)-TERRY RAWLINGS

17 WATTS (HISTORY OF THE ELECTRIC GUITAR)- MO FOSTER

THE COLONEL (COL.TOM PARKER)- ALANNA NASH

HAPPY BOYS HAPPY (SMALL FACES ETC)- ULI TWELKER/ROLAND SCHMITT

DEEP JOY (STANLEY UNWIN)- STANLEY UNWIN

THIRD EDITION AVAILABLE SOON

From Helter Skelter Publishing with new packaging and additional text

ALL TOO BEAUTIFUL

A Steve Marriott biography by John Hellier and Paolo Hewitt

A 5 star review by Record Collector!

This comprehensive biography of Steve Marriott is as close as we’re going to get to extracting the truth about Britain’s finest white soul exponent. From Mod antics with the Small Faces to his brief superstar tenure with Humble Pie and beyond, Marriott was a musical and psychological conundrum par excellence, the enigma of which still unravels to this day.

All Too Beautiful is an exhilarating, if infuriating, tale of Marriott’s chaotic lifestyle with a litany of relatives, ex-wives and partners recalling his menagerie of personalities and mood swings.

Unfortunately, this is a complex story of extraordinary talent, missed chances, exotic highs and frightening lows and yet Marriott’s determination to remain in control at all costs marks him out as a Mod maverick of the highest order. While his peers were consolidating their finances during the 1970s, Marriott was dangling between fame and destruction; arriving in limousines with Humble Pie one moment and filching potatoes from fields and hot wiring his cottage from a pylon the next. Ironically, the mans most settled period came towards the late 1980s, with a hectic tour of pubs and clubs before he tragically passed away in a house fire in 1991, before Brit Pop could fully canonise his influence.

This book succeeds as much as is possible in detailing Marriott’s brief but eventful tenure on planet Earth and yet even these 400 pages aren’t enough to penetrate the complex mysteries that went into making up Mods most complex creation.

Simon Wells