McLeods Booksellers

How to Play the Ukulele by Terry Burrows

$14.99 NZD

Category: Music

Easy to understand and use, this excellent guide to playing the ukulele has everything you need to get started. Beginning with a brief introduction describing what the ukulele is and how it evolved, the book takes you through the basics of understanding the instrument, how to create chords and play simp le melodies, how to learn different styles of ukulele music from around the globe and how to maintain a ukulele (which includes items such as mending broken strings). By the end of the book, readers should have begun to master the ukulele and will be prepared to venture into playing more complicated tunes and pieces. Beautifully designed, bright and colourful, this is a fun way to bring music into your life and entertain your family and friends ...Show more

Drum Course For Beginners

$14.99 NZD

Category: Music

Pick Up & Play, Guitar Chords by Jake Jackson

$19.99 NZD

Category: Music | Series: Pick up and Play Ser.

All the key chords, in every key, organised as a chord per page, this is a flexible, comprehensive solution for anyone learning or playing the guitar at any level. This no-nonsense, easy to carry, concealed spiral book will fit into a gig bag, flight case or hand bag with the minimum of fuss.

Where's My Room: The Neil & Liam Finn Summer 2018 Tour of Aotearoa by Ian Jorgensen

$49.99 NZD

Category: Music

In the summer of 2018 Neil & Liam Finn teamed up with A Low Hum for a tour that took them to spots even the most ardent of Kiwi nomads would be hard-placed to point out on a map - communities such as Purekireki, Tauhei, Tirohanga, Himatangi Beach and Absurdistan. It was a way to connect with audienc es often neglected by touring musicians combined with an epic summer road-trip.'Where's My Room' was both a vacation for the Finns and their friends and a celebration of that li'l kiwi battler, the community hall. Nineteen shows in all, the tour stretched throughout January and saw Neil and Liam Finn debut live a wealth of material from their new collaborative album, Lightsleeper, as well as digging into the various band members' envious and deep back catalogue of hits.Utilising his privileged position as promoter and tour manager, notorious music photographer Ian Jorgensen captured intimate moments of the Finns, crew and the visited communities on 35mm film. His candid portraiture documents the tour behind-the-scenes, showing what it's like to be out on-the-road in rural New Zealand from the perspective of one of touring's most roadworn advocates.Wake up, drive, load-in, set-up, sound-check, rest, perform, pack-down, load-out, sleep, repeat. This is what happens when twenty-odd friends, family, band and crew head out on the road in rural New Zealand and attempt something out-of-the-ordinary."Young New Zealanders head out as soon as they can - but are they missing something precious on their own doorstep? Now the world seems fixated on watching itself in a spiral of despair, perhaps there is something to be discovered by exploring the margins; what's happening unobserved in the small towns. Some truth." Neil Finn. ...Show more

This Searing Light, the Sun and Everything Else: Joy Division: The Oral History by Jon Savage

$45.00 NZD

Category: Music

An exciting new book on Joy Division, featuring never before told stories.   Jon Savage's oral history of Joy Division is the last word on the band that ended with the suicide of Ian Curtis in Macclesfield on 18 May, 1980. It weaves together interviews conducted by the author, but never used in the making of the film Joy Division (2007) which told the story of the band in their own words, as well as those of their peers, collaborators, and contemporaries.   Here are 15 or so vivid witnesses to the band's genesis, meteoric rise, and tragic demise, including Peter Hook, Bernard Sumner, Annike Honore, Deborah Curtis, Paul Morley, Tony Wilson, Rob Gretton, Martin Hannet ... It is the story of young men driven to create and cause rock n' roll havoc inspired by literature, radical ideas, and the wasteland that was post-industrial Manchester in the late 70s. It is as intense and funny and alive on the page as only an oral history can be, recalling masterpieces like Edie by Jean Stein and Meet me in the Bathroom by Lizzy Goodman. It is essential reading. ...Show more

The Big Book of Rock and Roll Names by Adam Dolgins

$32.99 NZD

Category: Music

The Big Book of Rock & Roll Namestells the behind-the-scenes stories of how the world’s most popular and influential rock and pop acts got their names. By turns fascinating, funny, and bizarre, the pages offer insight into the peculiar choices and idiosyncratic psychologies of hundreds of top musicians from the 1960s to the present. Originally published more than two decades ago to great success, it’s been out of print for years and has now been completely updated and expanded to feature dozens of exclusive interviews including conversations with groups like The Black Keys, The Killers, Twenty One Pilots, Coldplay, Cage the Elephant, and Vampire Weekend. From Arcade Fire to ZZ Top, this diverting and handsome collection reveals the often overlooked but defining histories of hundreds of the biggest names in rock and pop. ...Show more

A Fabulous Creation: How LPs Saved Our Lives by David Hepworth

$40.00 NZD

Category: Music

The era of the LP began in 1967, with 'Sgt Pepper?; The Beatles didn?t just collect together a bunch of songs, they Made An Album. Henceforth, everybody else wanted to Make An Album. The end came only fifteen years later, coinciding with the release of Michael Jackson?s 'Thriller?. By then the Walkman h ad taken music out of the home and into the streets and the record business had begun trying to reverse-engineer the creative process in order to make big money. Nobody would play music or listen to it in quite the same way ever again.It was a short but transformative time. Musicians became 'artists? and we, the people, patrons of the arts. The LP itself had been a mark of sophistication, a measure of wealth, an instrument of education, a poster saying things you dare not say yourself, a means of attracting the opposite sex, and, for many, the single most desirable object in their lives.This is the story of that time; it takes us from recording studios where musicians were doing things that had never been done before to the sparsely furnished apartments where their efforts would be received like visitations from a higher power. This is the story of how LPs saved our lives. ...Show more

Serving The Servant - Kurt Cobain by Danny Goldberg

$37.99 NZD

Category: Music

On the twenty-fifth anniversary of Kurt Cobain's death comes a new perspective on one of the most compelling icons of our time-and the only book written by someone who knew him. In early 1991, top music manager Danny Goldberg agreed to take on Nirvana, a critically acclaimed new band from the undergrou nd music scene in Seattle. He had no idea that the band's leader, Kurt Cobain, would become a pop-culture icon with a legacy arguably at the level of that of John Lennon, Michael Jackson, or Elvis Presley. Danny worked with Kurt from 1990 to 1994, the most impactful period of Kurt's life. This key time saw the stratospheric success of Nevermind, which turned Nirvana into the most successful rock band in the world and made punk and grunge household terms; Kurt's meeting and marriage to the brilliant but mercurial Courtney Love and their relationship that became a lightning rod for critics; the birth of their daughter, Frances Bean; and, finally, Kurt's public struggles with addiction, which ended in a devastating suicide that would alter the course of rock history. Throughout, Danny stood by Kurt's side as manager, and close friend.Drawing on Goldberg's own memories of Kurt, files that previously have not been made public, and interviews with, among others, Kurt's close family, friends, and former bandmates, Serving the Servants sheds an entirely new light on these critical years. Casting aside the common obsession with the angst and depression that seemingly drove Kurt, Serving the Servants is an exploration of his brilliance in every aspect of rock and roll, his compassion, his ambition, and the legacy he wrought-one that has lasted decades longer than his career did. Danny Goldberg explores what it is about Kurt Cobain that still resonates today, even with a generation who wasn't alive until after Kurt's death. In the process, he provides a portrait of an icon unlike any that has come before. ...Show more

50 Years: The Story of Woodstock Live Relive the Magic, Artist by Artist by Julien Bitoun; Michael Lang (Foreword by)

$60.00 NZD

Category: Music

A complete chronological account of Woodstock, hour by hour, performance by performance. Released to coincide with its 50th anniversary and with a foreword by festival co-founder, Michael Lang. Foreword by Woodstock co-founder, Michael Lang.3 days. 33 concerts. 2 deaths. 2 births. 500,000 people. And an other 250,000 stuck in traffic trying to get in. Woodstock was a festival like no other. Now, on its 50th anniversary, relive every moment.Detailed text and evocative photographs tell the full story of every single act that performed - when they took to the stage, what songs they played, who was there, what they were like. From The Who to Hendrix, Jefferson Airplane to Creedence Clearwater Revival, every single second is an experience to enjoy over and over again.Also includes fascinating features on the stories around Woodstock, from the unique social and political context to the drugs, the free love, the film, the albums and the legacy. ...Show more

Bruce Springsteen - The Stories Behind the Songs by Brian Hiatt

$65.00 NZD

Category: Music

Bruce Springsteen is the rare recording artist who is both an iconic figure and an acknowledged master of music and lyrics. Songs like "Blinded by the Light," "Born to Run," "Hungry Heart," and "Dancing in the Dark" have made him a multi-platinum, Grammy-winning artist and earned him an enormous cult-li ke following among generations of fans. In Bruce Springsteen, Brian Hiatt, a senior editor at Rolling Stone, examines these songs and all the others that Springsteen has written and performed on his studio albums from 1973 to the present, resulting in a unique look at the legendary rocker's methods, along with historical context, scores of colorful anecdotes, and around 150 photographs. Hiatt has interviewed Springsteen himself numerous times in the past and has conducted many new interviews with musical collaborators for this book--from longtime producers to members of the E Street Band--to create an authoritative and profusely illustrated journey through Springsteen's entire songbook and career. ...Show more

Robert Doisneau: Musicians by Robert Doisneau; Clementine Doroudille

$60.00 NZD

Category: Music

With camera in hand, master photographer Robert Doisneau crisscrossed Paris to capture intimate moments with star musicians such as Eartha Kitt in a jazz club, Django Reinhardt at home, and Yehudi Menuhin backstage, or with locals at a neighborhood dance or jamming together in a brass band. He was commi ssioned for portraits of Georges Brassens, Juliette Gréco, Charles Aznavour, or Claude François, and he immortalized a new generation of musicians in the 1980s including Rita Mitsouko, Les Négresses Vertes, Pierre Schaeffer, and Pierre Boulez. Doisneau's lifelong friend Maurice Baquet with his cello formed a photogenic duo on impromptu outings that gave rise to iconic images. Doisneau's passion for the energy and joy inherent in the music world comes alive on the page in images that cover the musical spectrum, from classical and jazz to be-bop to the roots of modern rap and alternative rock. This book-curated by the photographer's granddaughter to accompany an exhibition at the Philharmonie de Paris that will include music by Moriarty and scenography by Stephan Zimmerli- features more than one hundred photographs, many previously unpublished, that showcase the artist's mastery in editing, special effects, photomontage, collage, photo distortions, and splits. ...Show more

Learn to Play the Ukulele, 2nd Ed by Bill Plant; Trisha Scott

$39.99 NZD

Category: Music

Learn to Play the Ukulele, 2nd Edition will teach anyone how to play the ukulele overnight. No prior musical experience is assumed. Beginners learn how to hold the instrument, position the hands, strumming techniques, basic chords, and beyond. An enclosed CD guides the reader through a series of exercis es, which are organized in progressive fashion (practicing one strum and slowly building to more complicated rhythmic patterns). The CD also includes a variety of charming songs that readers will be able to strum along with (starting with one/two chords and progressing on to more complex). Encouraging tips are included as well as fun/interesting trivia and sidebars about the ukulele. Music theory is included, but the emphasis is on getting up to speed and on with the fun of playing quickly. ...Show more