Allan Brown

There is something magnificent about the sheet doggedness of The Blue Nile's adherence to the unorthodox trajectory of their singular career' Richard Williams. The Guardian `The Blue who? Oh my God. I've never heard of them' Chris Martin, Coldplay A riddle wrapped in an enigma wrapped in a raincoat. The Blue Nile are one of the most adored. yet perplexing, outfits in the history of British music. The band's work - a blend of Brian Eno and disco, the balladry of Sinatra and serial composition: of film soundtrack. Kraftwerk and musique concrete - is treasured for its aching romanticism and its evocation of late-night melancholy: for being, as one critic put it. pop music's answer to Venice. The band formed at Glasgow University in 1981, and their album A Walk Across The Rooftops went on to become one of the most acclaimed debuts in pop history. But the high wasn't to last. Conditioned by the low-gear perfectionism of songwriter Paul Buchanan and by the bizarre Gordian knots of its method the band took five years to make its next record. Over the strange course of three decades and four albums - A Walk Across The Rooftops, Hats, Peace At Last and High - The Blue Nile were to produce a rough average of just one song a year. In this first full-length biography Allan Brown examines how the band's austere idealism gave way to the emotional mutinies of middle-age; and how the hive mind of its three founders disassociated under the pressures of acclaim and adulation, of self-effacement and self-doubt. The story of stoppable forces meeting moveable objects. Nileism examines the heartbreakingly human side of the music industry: `It costs you everything' says Paul Buchanan now. `Everything goes away: your relationships go, everything goes. It all goes. And coming down is hell.'

The Strange Course of the Blue Nile

Nileism

how not to make a cult classic

Inside The wicker man

John Michell

New in paperback, How the World Is Made explores how ancient peoples who grasped the timeless principles of sacred geometry were able to create flourishing societies. Galileo described the universe as a large book written in the language of mathematics, which can only be read by those with knowledge of its characters - triangles, circles and other geometrical figures. More than 300 colour illustrations reveal the secret code within these geometrical figures and how they express the spiritual meanings in the key numbers of 1 through 12. He identifies the various regular shapes and shows their constructions; their natural symbolism; their meetings, matings and ways of breeding; and their functions within the universal order. In the process, Michell helps us see the world in a new light. Disparate shapes and their corresponding numbers are woven together, resolving themselves into an all-inclusive world image - that 'pattern in the heavens', as Socrates called it, 'which anyone can find and establish within themselves.' 'A delightful book: clear, witty, beautiful and illuminating. It is well worth buying for yourself - and for your friends' - The Spectator 'Utterly gorgeous ... 288 full-colour pages of wisdom and wonder on thick, art-quality paper that should survive many years of use. A thing to be cherished, a work of art, it is also a beautifully illustrated geometry primer with philosophical commentary ... the text is Michell's finest prose - cool, succinct and rational' - Fortean Times 'Instructive and illustrative ... John Michell has stamped this book with the freshness and originality that are his hallmark. It is a worthy bequest of an extraordinary mind ... a source of inspiration for seekers in the arts, mathematics and the Mysteries' - Temenos Academy Review 'A real treasure! ... it will delight anyone associated with sacred cosmology or sacred landscape' - Gatekeeper Magazine

The Story of Creation According to Sacred Geometry

How the World Is Made

A book about The Wicker Man? I would think you'd need an encyclopaedia' - Christopher Lee 'A stunning examination of one of my favourite films by one of my favourite journalists' - A A Gill "Inside The Wicker Man" is a treat for all cinemagoers, exhaustively researched and achieving a near-perfect balance between history, trivia and serious analysis. Allan Brown describes the filming and distribution of the cult masterpiece as a 'textbook example of How Things Should Never Be Done'. The omens were bad from the start, and proceeded to get much, much worse, with fake blossom on trees to simulate spring, actors chomping on ice-cubes to prevent their breath showing on film, and verbal and physical confrontations involving both cast and crew. The studio hated it and hardly bothered to distribute it, but today it finds favour with critics and fans alike, as a serious - if flawed - piece of cinema. Brown expertly guides readers through the film's convoluted history, attempting along the way to explain its enduring fascination, and providing interviews with the key figures - many of whom still have an axe to grind, and some of whom still harbour plans for a sequel.

How Not to Make a Cult Classic

Inside the Wicker Man

Jan-Menno Kraak

Maps and atlases are created as soon as information on our geography has been clarified. They are used to find directions or to get insight into spatial relations. They are produced and used both on paper as well as on-screen. The Web is the new medium for spreading and using maps. This book explains the benefits of this medium from the perspective of the user, and the map provider. Opportunities and pitfalls are illustrated by a set of case-studies. A website accompanies the book and provides a dynamic environment for demonstrating many of the principles set out in the text, including access to a basic course in Internet cartography as well as links to other interesting places on the Web. Professor Kraak looks at basic questions such as "I have this data what can I do with it?" and discusses the various functions of maps on the web. Web Cartography also looks at the particularities of multidimensional web maps and addresses topics such as map contents (colour, text and symbols), map physics (size and resolution), and the map environment (interface design/site contents).

Web Cartography

Robert G. Picard

Digital technology for the production, transmission, and reception of television is expected to replace analogue transmission throughout the world. The timetable for this transition is uncertain and different projections have been made for virtually every country in the world. This book gives the exhaustive details of the issues of this changeover in Europe and elsewhere. The details are placed within the context of the massive changes, which the television industry has been subjected to over the past 25 years. The rollout of digital terrestrial television (DTTV) in Europe is a significant issue for every country included in this survey. It is of such importance because DTTV is the centerpiece of many governments' policies toward making Europe the world leader in new information and communication technologies. These same governments are all wrestling with the issues of how to use the technology in ways that create both commercial and non-commercial value. European perspectives on the social, cultural, and political nature of broadcasting vary significantly from those in other parts of the world and require that the introduction of DTTV should be handled differently to its introduction elsewhere. There are enormous technical, political, and economic aspects to be considered and these vary from country to country in Europe. The two editors bring a perspective to this study as media economists who come to the European scene from other parts of the world. The book covers DTTV in depth, and it also includes discussions of cable, satellite, broadband, and Internet technology for comparison.

Digital Terrestrial Television in Europe

California Split: Racing through the Sixties is a memoir of living through the turbulent sixties in the San Francisco Bay Area with detours to the Peace Corps, the Army, New York, and Europe. Mr. Brown was on the scene when it was all going down'the anti-Vietnam war protests, the race riots, acid rock, the sexual revolution and the hippie invasion of the Haight Ashbury. All in all, a panoramic and satisfying read of the 1960s as witnessed by one young man coming of age. pp 500

California Split

Few cities can rival Glasgow for their contribution to the history of British humour. From the gladiatorial atmosphere of the old Empire Theatre, dubbed the 'graveyard of English comics', to the front-page controversies of Frankie Boyle today, the city and its citizens have trademarked their own two-fisted brand of confrontational, but always hilarious, comedy. In this, the first dedicated overview, Allan Brown gives a historical,kaleidoscopic and encyclopedic account of the people, places, performers and procedures that have made Glasgow a by-word for a certain kind of rough, tough quick-wittedness. Every facet of Glaswegian life is considered, viewed through the prism of the city's sense of humour; from the showbiz renown of Billy Connolly and Chic Murray, Kevin Bridges and Boyle, to the occasions the lighter side was seen in Glasgow's history of television, film, literature, football,law, science, academe, crime and art. Through profiles, criticism, tales and anecdotes, The Glasgow Smile - fittingly also the term for infamousGlasgow gang punishment - is a treasury of the city's past and present, and of its own very particular approach to the absurd.

The Glasgow Smile

The Morbid Ingenuities

Galileo described the universe as a large book written in the language of mathematics, which can only be read by those with knowledge of its characters triangles, circles and other geometrical figures. In How the World Is Made John Michell explains how ancient peoples who grasped the timeless principles of sacred geometry were able to create flourishing societies. His more than 300 colour illustrations reveal the secret code within these geometrical figures and how they express the spiritual meanings in the key numbers of 1 through 12. He identifies the various regular shapes and shows their constructions; their natural symbolism; their meetings, matings and ways of breeding; and their functions within the universal order. In the process, Michell helps us see the world in a new light. Disparate shapes and their corresponding numbers are woven together, resolving themselves into an all-inclusive world image that pattern in the heavens, as Socrates called it, which anyone can find and establish within themselves.

Allan Brown

About

Books

Join the club