Book projects

New George Harrison book due in March

John Blaney: George Harrison Soul Man Vol. 1

Hardback ISBN 978-0-9544528-7-2

Publication date 25/03/2016

To celebrate what would have been George Harrison’s 73rd birthday, Paper Jukebox publishes the first volume of a new career spanning discography – George Harrison Soul Man Vol. 1. Compiled by author and Beatles expert John Blaney, it’s the first in-depth illustrated critical review of Harrison’s remarkable solo career.

Vol. 1 maps his career as songwriter, producer and reluctant star from Wonderwall Music in 1968 to George Harrison in 1979. It places his songs in their historical, cultural and crucially spiritual context while also mapping his stylistic changes, which saw him reject Phil Spector’s turgid Wall of Sound in favour something altogether more anodyne and modest.

John Blaney is a passionate fan of The Beatles who brings to his writing the experience and rigour of a professional historian. His previous books include Paul McCartney: The Songs He Was Singing, John Lennon: Listen To This Book, Beatles For Sale: How Everything They Touched Turned To Gold and A Howlin’ Wind: Pub Rock and The Birth of New Wave.

Blaney studied at Camberwell College of Arts and Goldsmiths College (both in London) before taking up a post as a curator at a museum of technology.

George Harrison Soul Man Vol. 1 is available as a 8-inch x 8-inch 416 page hardback book illustrated with over 400 colour images that include UK and US label variations, album sleeves, picture sleeves, trade advertisements and more.

Meanwhile, the people behind last year’s excellent “Eight Arms To Hold You” book about the filming of “Help!”, Archivum Publishing have two new book projects on the way.

Early design idea.

One of these is called “Performance” – which they intend to release in time for Christmas 2016. It will concentrate on the Beatles concert performances, which ties nicely in with Ron Howard’s film, working title “The Beatles Live Project”, also due out around Christmas.

“All You Need Is Love” – due out this spring.

The other one, “All You Need Is Love” will be a photo book concentrating solely on The Beatles’ song and performance on the “Our World” satellite TV Special in 1967. It’s available for pre-ordering at Pledgemusic.com/projects/AllYouNeedIsLove, where you’ll also find details about the book and it’s various editions.

The Hamburg Days

Also in the making is a new graphic novel from John Timmons called “The Hamburg Days“, all about The Beatles in Hamburg.

It lets the fans see visually what happened to The Beatles as they played in the clubs in Germany, and is not very expensive to buy. The aim of the book is also to help younger kids understand the fab four. This is the first of four Beatles products from Timmons. If your are interested in viewing the first 20 pages of the graphic novel online, check out this link. You may enquire the author directly about this book by emailing him at johntimmo@hotmail.com.