We do apologise for the lack of updates lately; we’re only a small business and had some family health issues to deal with which have clobbered our publication plans this summer. However we’re now starting to pick up the pieces and pleased to announce that our German language Deep Purple edition is at the printers.  More to follow!

Easy On The Eye Books have been busy planning our schedule for 2018 and our next three releases are now being ‘sold in’ to book shops by our distributors.  The plan is to issue Boom Boom Boom Boom – The Blues Photos of Brian Smith first.  This title brings to print for the first time many of Brian’s wonderful photos taken mostly in Manchester in the early Sixties.  He was the official photographer for the pioneering fanzine R’n B Scene, and covered many visiting American blues artists such as Little Richard, Howling Wolf, Johnny ‘Guitar’ Watson, John Lee Hooker and dozens more.  You can read more about the title on the site, and subscribe to a newsletter to get advance information when it goes to print. Brian also unwittingly covered the start of the Northern Soul scene at the famous Twisted Wheel club in Manchester, many of the acts being promoted by Roger Eagle.
The next title is Yes – Time & A Word – The Interviews, a remarkable collection of interviews by DJ John Kirkman. Jon has spoken to almost every member of the band past and present, and together these interviews shed interesting light on the band’s history, how the musicians viewed their fellow musicians, the solo projects and much more.  The interviews have only been available before in a large format limited edition book sold only through mail-order, but will now be available in a more affordable edition on general sale.  The book will be illustrated throughout with photographs and memorabilia old and new.
Finally comes the much anticipated Deep Purple – Fire In The Sky, the Story of Machine Head and Smoke On The Water.  This follows our very popular Deep Purple book Wait For The Ricochet, now in it’s second edition. Fire In The Sky tackles the group’s most famous album in the same fascinating detail, looking at the build up to the album sessions in Montreux in late 1971, the astonishing trials and tribulations (and fires!) which beset the band once in Switzerland, and then the subsequent tours leading to the late release of Smoke On The Water. This became their most famous track, and helped propel the band to the top of the American charts, selling over 12 million copies.  As before the book is chock full of great photographs, rare memorabilia, a gig list and discography.

Actual release dates will be posted here as soon as we have them, and news of book previews and other promotional material will be sent to people who subscribe to the individual newsletters for each title.

We’ve been getting some nice comments and reviews in from customers, magazines and rock websites for the Graham Bonnet biography. We have posted some of these on a special review page on the site, but this one from Jens Nepper on the Eternal Terror site in Norway really seems to understand how much hard work went into it!

We have been trying to work out a schedule for our next few titles and plan to make the book of Brian Smith’s rare rhythm and blues photographs our next release, and this will at last appear in early 2018.  We will announce pre-orders soon and people will be able to have their copy signed by Brian if they order in advance of publication.  The cover had to be submitted to our distributors this week and our designer took the opportunity to tweak this a little: “The cover photo is a no brainer; it both sums up Brian’s skill with a camera, the era in which it was taken, and the sheer joy some of these visiting blues players felt at playing in Manchester.  But I was struggling to make my original title text work against the photograph.  In the end I decided the vintage typeface was the cause of the problem, and have moved on to something more simple. This allowed me to sneak in a few smaller photos, including a great shot of Brian himself fooling with Screaming Jay Hawkins!”

We can show this new design below.  There is still a bit of retouching work to be done but it’s about there.

Delivery of the Graham Bonnet book began this week, and will continue into next. Review copies have also been sent to selected media outlets and to people who helped us during the production of the book. Stock has also gone out to our distributors so should be available to order through high-street bookshops very soon.  The limited edition signed version is only available from our own on-line shop.

We spent some time with Graham Bonnet Biography author Steve Wright the other day so he could sign copies of the biography personally for people who had requested this option.  Fuelled by tea and a Penguin biscuit we formed a chain; me opening at the right page, Steve signing, and Ann packing back into boxes. Oh and me forgetting to take any photos.

This gives us a logistical fun-time; we now have in effect four versions of the book to keep on top of!  Regular edition; regular edition signed by author Steve; special edition signed by Graham, and special edition signed by Graham and Steve (on different pages of course)…  So it’s a question of triple checking everyone’s paperwork before we pack.

Copies signed by Graham will also get a certificate sheet to guarantee it is what it is.

Anyone who pre-ordered the reprint of Wait For The Ricochet will be getting their copy over the next few days, indeed a lot of people have already received it.  We will hold the special price for another fortnight.  The book will be available to order through book shops etc. but this will take a few weeks, so if you want to jump the queue (and stop online slavery) order through us.  For more on the book, read the post below.