A tolerably diverting autobiography by a member of a minor music-industry dynasty, from juvenile delinquency in the Middle East to huge success as a booking agent for new wave bands. Copeland's father was a CIA agent involved in such high-level postwar skulduggery that President Nasser of Egypt became the author's godfather. Growing up in Beirut in the '50s and '60s, Copeland gravitated toward unsavory acquaintances, including an Armenian biker known locally as the King of Death. As a teenager he left home for London, hitchhiked back to Beirut, and finally headed to London again just in time to avoid being thrown into a Lebanese prison for a string of prank car thefts. After an army tour in Vietnam, Copeland entered the music business through the connections of his brother Miles, who started out managing prog- rock bands and later founded the maverick record label IRS. Copeland says he became a booking agent because his lack of money and musical ability disqualified him from every other job in the industry, but the arcane politics of arranging concert tours clearly delighted him. In the late '70s, Copeland smelled a revolution and invented the no-frills nightclub tour so that the mostly British punk and new wave bands could build an audience in the States. It's unlikely that anyone will dispute the credit Copeland takes for introducing America to A Flock of Seagulls, but he also helped launch the careers of Squeeze, R.E.M., and the Police, whose drummer was the third Copeland brother, Stewart. (Like his brothers, the author named his company in wry homage to his father's government career: Frontier Booking International, or FBI.) Copeland has had more than his share of unusual experiences and describes them with some wit, but as a booking agent, he can't provide enough of an inside look at bands and the world of rock to capture most readers. (Author tour)
Pub Date: Oct. 20, 1995
ISBN: 0-684-81508-7
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1995
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
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