Caroline Stafford

The biography of Ronnie Lane, the English musician and songwriter best known for his bands Small Faces and Faces. Ronnie Lane's story is that of a working-class kid who started his musical career busking a ukulele at the age of eight. As a young man he signed with legendary manager Don Arden, who paid him in paisley shirts. He then enjoyed a phenomenal 17 consecutive Top 40 singles, womanising and LSD, and fell under the spell of a mystic before joining forces with Rod Stewart. Ronnie was later diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, moved to America, went broke and died far too young. Drawing on extensive research and interviews with friends and family, Caroline and David Stafford unearth the truth and talent of the man behind the music.

An American drummer, a bass player from Newcastle and a guitarist a decade older than the other two, with little in common other than their musical brilliance and towering ambition, formed one of the most successful bands in history. Covering the years 1977-1986 and the brief reincarnation in 2007-2008, acclaimed biographers Caroline and David Stafford chronicle the rise and fall of the Police. Much like Reservoir Dogs but without the light relief, it's a tale of jealousy, anger and attrition both on the road and in the studio. And yet, despite - or perhaps because of - the battles, these three musicians, Sting, Andy and Stewart, each supremely talented in his own right, together achieved a symbiosis that produced music of soaring magnificence.

"There's only ever been two English rock 'n' roll singers," Ian Dury said, "Johnny Rotten and Billy Fury." Butter adverts have tainted Johnny's status, but Billy's combination of beauty, sex, innocence, talent, charisma and vulnerability has never been matched. The Sound of Fury, his first L. P., is still widely revered as the best British rock'n'roll record ever made. When he first appeared on TV, a generation of teenagers found true love, and his post-rock'n'roll heartbreak ballads were the essential soundtrack to adolescent angst. In 1973, he was brought out of semi-retirement to play Stormy Tempest - to some extent a parody of himself - in the movie That'll Be The Day. The magic rose above the parody. He never knew how not to be magnificent. David and Caroline Stafford guide the reader through Billy's troubled childhood in Liverpool, via gold and silver lame, to his later years as a farming ornithologist, and his comeback cut short by his premature death. Billy Fury was a key figure on that watershed between post-war privations and sixties excess. He knew everybody, auditioned the Beatles to be his backing band, met and outhandsomed Elvis, partied with Keith Moon and hosted acid parties. Yet, throughout the mayhem, he always remained true to himself- diffident and amused. Halfway To Paradise tells the full story with the compassion and affection due to an artist who, decades after his death, still has the power to command admiration and adoration.