Polygon Signs Macca Biog

Polygon is delighted to announce the signing of Man on the Run by Tom Doyle from Kevin Pocklington at Jenny Brown Associates. The book covers McCartney’s life after The Beatles during the 1970s, a period often thought of as McCartney ‘in the wilderness’ and which featured his time with Wings, his retreat to the Mull of Kintyre and his post-Beatles-split nervous breakdown and multiple drug busts.

Polygon Publishing Director, Neville Moir said, “Tom's new book on Paul McCartney in the 70s, Man on the Run, will be the highlight of our autumn 2013 programme. We are thrilled to have acquired world rights and delighted to be working with a writer of Tom Doyle’s calibre once more.”

Polygon published a very successful new edition of Tom’s bestselling book The Glamour Chase: The Maverick Life of Billy MacKenzie in September 2011.

(Confidentially, we're stupidly excited!)

Hit the Right Note With Your Christmas Presents

It’s not just carols at Christmas, nor blaring muzak in shops, neither. For the discerning music fan in your life we have some suggestions for pitch-perfect presents this year.

Fond of flares? If 1970s music is their thing, man, it’s going to be a tough choice between Some People are Crazy: The John Martyn Story or The Sensational Alex Harvey, both by John Neil Munro. John Martyn was the last of the music mavericks, loved and loathed in equal measure but hugely talented as a singer-songwriter. And what can you say about Alex Harvey? Somewhere between naughty boy and wild man, he was one of the most exciting and diverse (everything from Jacques Brel to rock) of the 1970s. Truly sensational!

If they still hanker after shoulder pads and batwings, the 1980’s music fan will love The Glamour Chase: The Maverick Life of Billy MacKenzie (our Alison certainly does). Author Tom Doyle traces the story of the fabulous front man of The Associates who left a rich musical legacy despite his short life. But if their tastes run to beautifully crafted, emotionally-charged ‘2 a.m. songs’ Nileism: The Strange Case of The Blue Nile by Allan Brown is perfect, as he tries to unravel the most reclusive of bands. (We have a small number of hardback copies of Nileism, so if you really want to make an impact get one of these.)

And for something for everyone you should tune into Stuart Adamson: In a Big Country by Allan Glen. Beginning as dynamic guitarist for The Skids, Stuart Adamson would conquer the world with Big Country before branching out as part of The Raphaels and as a solo artist. But behind his success was a tragic story of alcoholism which would drive him to disappear to a lonely death.

So, there are our suggestions for harmony this Christmas but there are plenty more at www.birlinn.co.uk.

"If there's a cure for this, I don't want it"

Christmas is the one time you can go overboard but, unless you’re blessed with a cast-iron constitution and need no sleep, it’s probably a good thing it’s only once a year. There are, though, some people to whom the normal rules do not apply – Billy MacKenzie was one of those people.

The beautious Billy

The octave-vaulting charismatic front man of 1980’s band The Associates, he beguiled and unsettled in equal measure with the voice and face of an angel and the impulse-control issues of a spoiled 8-year-old. As with so many gifted artists ahead of their time, Billy was his own worst enemy and went from the top of the charts to the depths of despair in the blink of an exquisitely made-up eye. Convinced that the music industry had forgotten him and his career was over, he took his own life aged just thirty-nine leaving a rich dynamic musical legacy that continues to inspire artists today. We love him madly.

It came as no surprise, then, that resident Polygon hipster Alison chose Tom Doyle’s fabulous biography of Billy, The Glamour Chase: The Maverick Life of Billy MacKenzie as her Christmas pressie wish:

“One of the most entertaining music biogs ever written. It matters not a jot if you don't know who Billy MacKenzie was, this is an intimate, funny, moving account of a genuine one-off, taking in whippets, Dundee, chocolate guitars and heaps of 80s excess. Just gorgeous!”