Mick Middles

Formed around the future husband and wife team of Win Butler and Regine Chassagne in 1993, this powerful seven-piece band seemed to define onstage dynamism before they discovered an audience. Once beyond the obligatory low-budget debut EP, they fused their complex instrumentation - piano, viola, French horn, accordion, harp and hurdy gurdy etc - to produce Funeral, one of the greatest debut albums in decades. This 1994 release, bolstered by hearty support from the likes of David Bowie, David Byrne and U2, catapulted Arcade Fire to worldwide success. Triumphant sets at the Coachella, Reading and Latitude festivals only served to continue the momentum. This book looks beyond the triumphs that gather in their story, to discover a band who are determine to retain the pure yet complex personal dynamic that always set them apart.

Factory Records' fame and fortune were based on two bands - Joy Division and New Order - and one personality - that of its director, Tony Wilson.

This is the first ever 'authorised' biography of this most inscrutable of bands - now updated. This new edition incorporates a new epilogue in which Mick Middles considers recent upheavels in the Fall camp, the "Heads Roll" album, Mark E. Smith's appearance at its launch and his ongoing tirades at anything and everything. Together music writer Mick Middles and Fall leader Mark E Smith have written an exhausting biography of the Fall. Spanning their years on the fringe of the Manchester punk scene, three dozen albums, numerous tours, two successful stage playes and numerous 'spoken word' events, this book is strangely compelling as the band itself.