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Adrenalized
Adrenalized
Sep 30, 2024 3:21 PM

Author:Philip Collen,Chris Epting

Adrenalized

Meet Phil Collen. You may know him as the lead guitarist in Def Leppard, whose signature song Pour Some Sugar on Me is still as widely enjoyed as when it debuted in 1988. Maybe you’ve heard of him as the rock star who gave up alcohol and meat more than 25 years ago. Most likely you’ve seen him shirtless - in photos or in real life - flaunting his impeccably toned body to appreciative female fans.

But it wasn’t always like this. Collen worked his way up from nothing, teaching himself guitar from scratch as a teenager by imitating his heroes. He slogged it out in London-based pub bands for years, long before Def Leppard formed and transformed from unknowns to icons (all thanks to a little album called Pyromania), from playing openers in near-empty arenas to headlining in those same stadiums and selling them out every night. But as Collen discovered, true overnight success is a myth. Like the other band members, he had to struggle and fight his way to the top; in the end, he says, 'our work ethic saved us'. Just as it still does.

This is Collen’s story, starting with his first real taste of success and wild rock and roll excess as a member of the seminal glam rock outfit Girl. But once he joins Def Leppard, it’s also an amazing underdog tale featuring a bunch of ordinary working-class lads who rose to mega-stardom, overcoming incredible obstacles - such as the drummer, Rick Allen, who lost an arm in a car crash, and the tragic death of guitarist Steve Clark, Phil’s musical soul mate, who lost his fight with alcoholism. Featuring personal, never-before-seen photos of Collen and his band mates on stage and off, Adrenalized is a fascinating account of the failures, triumphs, challenges, and rock-hard dedication it takes to make dreams come true.

Reviews

Wild...packed with juicy tales about everyone's favourite nine-armed pop-metal superband

—— Rolling Stone

Raw and captivating… Collen proves that he is one man who was able to go beyond the ordinary and redefine the rock and roll genre of music… Fans get to know Collen on a more intimate basis, thanks to this authentic memoir. This book garners 5 out of 5 stars

—— Digital Journal

An unflinching, sometimes painful, sometimes hilarious look inside the mind of a 19-year-old … It’s invasive, juicy, sad, nostalgic and gripping all at once. It’s as if you’ve knocked the lock off of your cooler older sister’s journal and discovered she’s been sleeping with the hottest boy in school this whole time.

—— LA Times

Fisher offers a thoughtful, sardonic meditation on the price of fame, cost-of-living adjustments included.

—— J.D. Biersdorfer , The New York Times Book Review

[The Princess Diarist] is a radical truth bomb

—— Julia Felsenthal , VOGUE.com

Carrie Fisher was so real it was dangerous…. My God, girls, we owe her a lot.

—— Sharon Horgan

She didn't need The Force. She was a force of nature, of loyalty and of friendship.

—— Steven Spielberg

Greg Mitchell's The Tunnels uncovers an unexplored underworld of Cold War intrigue. As nuclear tensions grip Berlin, a whole realm of heroes and villains, of plot and counterplot, unfolds beneath the surface of the city. True historical drama.

—— Ron Rosenbaum, author of Explaining Hitler and How The End Begins

When you have read the last page of Greg Mitchell's The Tunnels you will close the book. But not until then.

—— Alan Furst, author of A Hero of France and Night Soldiers

Greg Mitchell is the best kind of historian, a true storyteller. The Tunnels is a gripping tale about heroic individuals defying an authoritarian state at a critical moment in the Cold War. A brilliantly told thriller—but all true.

—— Kai Bird, author of The Good Spy

A compelling look at a wrenching chapter of the Cold War that chronicles the desperate flights for freedom beneath the streets of post-war Berlin and the costs that politics extracted in lives

—— Barry Meier, author of Missing Man

A riveting story. Mitchell, an exemplary journalist, goes deep into the political dynamics of Cold War Berlin. John Le Carré couldn’t have done it better.

—— Bill Moyers

A narrative full of interest and acute observation.

—— Allan Massie , The Scotsman

Tense, fascinating... Mitchell delivers a gripping, blow-by-blow account.

—— Publishers Weekly

A gripping page-turner that thrills like fiction.

—— Kirkus Reviews

One of the most gripping stories of the Cold War.

—— Omnivoracious - The Amazon Book Review

Monstrous behaviour and vanity suffuse this oral history of Hollywood’s troubled dynasties… Tragedy lurks around the manicured lawns and marbled halls.

—— Anthony Quinn , Guardian

The anecdotes come so thick and fast it’s like being machine-gunned with marshmallows. Gradually, though, the mood darkens, the catalogue of vulgarity, cruelty and insanity takes its toll. While the Technicolor tour is relentlessly fascinating, it is reassuring to be shown in black and white that, in La-La Land at least, with the millions comes endless misery.

—— Mark Sanderson , Evening Standard

Jean Stein’s approach to family history is unconventional… Stein weaves them together with immense narrative skill.

—— Christopher Silvester , Spears Wealth Management Survey

The stories are mesmerising… Great for people who want to see beyond the world of make-believe.

—— William Leith , Evening Standard

A very dark oral history of Hollywood… mesmerising.

—— i

Writers like Costello because he's always taken writing seriously. That's obvious to anyone who pays attention to his lyrics, and it's even more apparent to anyone who reads Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink, his charming new autobiography. The book is refreshingly free of salacious gossip and needless name-dropping; it's an intelligent self-assessment from a musician who went from angry young man to elder statesman of pop ... a defiantly fun autobiography.

—— Michael Schaub , NPR Books

This is a big book, literally, by one of the best rockers in the business. Given the singular, and eclectic, nature of his career, it is no surprise that Elvis Costello's anecdotal autobiography is an idiosyncratic journey through his music and the people and places that have inspired him ... A must for Costello fans everywhere.

—— Booklist (starred review)

Costello's prose cuts with the same spiky wit and observational power as his well-known lyrics ... packed with great lines, vivid anecdotes ... a treat for his many fans.

—— Kirkus Reviews

Plenty of tales to keep the pages turning. Readers will be fascinated by Costello's stories...his book feels like a discussion between friends over a pint.

—— Publishers Weekly

Often brilliant and wholly idiosyncratic

—— David Ulin , Los Angeles Times

Revelatory, evocatively crafted, [and] highly entertaining

—— David Fricke , Rolling Stone

A winningly droll and good-natured guide to his life and many works throughout

—— Clark Collis , Entertainment Weekly

Punctuated with sardonic and self-aware truths

—— Pitchfork

Vivid ... It's not surprising that one of rock's most literate songwriters would pen such a deep, free-form memoir

—— Houston Chronicle

Elvis Costello delivers an impeccably detailed autobiography. He's often as brilliant at turning a phrase in prose as he is in his lyrics

—— Paste Magazine

Enthralling ... This is family history as musical encyclopedia, and to listen to Costello recount his life is to be buttonholed by an enthusiastic fan. Fandom for Costello is inseparable from the compulsion to write songs and, it seems, to understand his own life ... Fortunately for the fan of Costello's music the topic of discussion is often his own songs, and he is, unsurprisingly, a witty and eloquent guide

—— Paul Grimstad , New Republic

[Costello] pens books with the same clever writing that he uses in song

—— Kathy Flanigan , Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel

Costello['s] book is capacious, clever, and full of heart and soul

—— Dan DeLuca , Philadelphia Inquirer

The story unfolds like a movie that jumps across time, more thematic than chronological, as boyhood anecdotes and obsessions intersect with mature songs and adult reckoning.... The book doubles as a selective mini-history of 20th century music, as told by a discerning guide. He addresses artists both towering (Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Johnny Cash) and relatively unheralded (David Ackles, Robert Wyatt) with a fan's affection and music scholar's insight

—— Greg Kot , Chicago Tribune

With an encyclopedic knowledge and appreciation for, and deep love of, music, and with an expressive power and heart, Costello's memoir will take its place in the highest echelons of the genre

—— Library Journal (starred review)

His book is almost essential as an idiosyncratic history of 20th-century pop music

—— Express

Studded with entertaining anecdotes

—— Evening Standard Best Music Books of 2015
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