Published by Pavilion Books, UK, Autumn 2003/Billboard Books, USA, 2nd February 2004

Format: Hardback book, 192 full-colour pages, full-colour cover.
 
Available to order through these links: US/International, or UK/elsewhere, or France, or Germany

Described as "an authoritative guide to one of the fastest growing collector's markets of the 21st Century", the book is written by two experts in the field, with significant experience in valuing and selling rock and pop items for Christie's London office. Peter Doggett is also well known for his contributions in such publications as Record Collector Magazine.

The book takes an in-depth look at a broad range - autographs and manuscripts, rare recordings, guitars and other instruments, costumes and personal effects, posters, printed materials, merchandising, memorabilia, awards, and artwork, amongst other things. And naturally, includes some Floyd items amongst the other fascinating things in the book!

First off, you are struck by the quality of the book. Well presented and shot pictures accompany the illuminating (and crisp) text, which gives a feel of being given a tour around Christies with a truly authoritative and honest guide.

Throughout each clearly defined section, full historical context is given to the area under discussion, and the importance and significance of items is covered. Surprisingly, the text is candid over what, too, is NOT worth much, and why certain items may not appear at auction - either due to issues of legality and ownership, or due to being extremely specialised items, of interest only to very select groups of collectors.

With the introduction comes the first tasty piece of Floyd related memorabilia - a superb Winter Tour 1967 Hendrix/Move/Floyd/Amen Corner poster signed by Jimi! This is an item that so rarely appears, even in an unsigned state, and the picture shows it completely unblemished, too!

Whilst Hendrix appears fairly often, the lion's share of coverage seems to be The Rolling Stones. Fans of Mick's gang will find plenty to interest them, as will Dylan fans; it is clear that a core of artists command the most interest (and best prices) at auction. The Beatles figure surprisingly infrequently... possibly due to the lack of unusual, one-off items coming on to the market. Thanks to intelligent decisions made during the editing process, even those indifferent to some of the artists featured will find the items displayed and discussed of interest. Personal correspondence here (in Chapter 1) is particularly absorbing, and provides insights into the development and history of key bands from the 60s.

The second chapter covers recordings. The authors discount the value of most items on vinyl and CD due to the mass production of most titles, or, as mentioned before, the narrow range of interest in some cases. Certain exceptions prove the rule, of course, such as The Beatles "Yesterday And Today" 'butcher' cover, which commands high asking prices even if covered with the sanitising sticker! The more interesting part of this segment covers tapes and demos which appear with rare recordings on them - and these are fraught with issues of ownership and provenance, as explained in depth.

Chapter 3 covers guitars and other musical instruments, including Eric Clapton's sale of over 100 guitars for the Crossroads Centre for drug rehabilitation. Guitar specialists and collectors will love the detail in this chapter, covering the minutae of items sold at various auctions over the years. The more casual reader may find this chapter heavy going with dates and serial numbers of seemingly similar guitars being discussed.

Next up, costumes and personal effects. Madonna, with her elaborate stage shows featuring many changes of clothing, has naturally been responsible for many items that have appeared at auction. Elton John, Elvis and David Bowie also figure heavily in this part, with some nice illustrations of the costumes.

The fifth chapter covers posters - in particular, the many fine examples of the psychedelic 60s finest artists, and displays posters for a number of key events and artist. There are some lovely festival and multi-artist sheets here, including the UFO club, Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, and the highly collectable "14 Hour Technicolor Dream" concert poster, which included Pink Floyd playing as dawn broke.

As is seen here, the Sex Pistols are one of the few post-60s artists to have really collectable posters which feature at auction.

The book then moves on to printed artifacts. The majority of items here are such things as concert programmes and tickets, along with a handful of publications such as OZ, The International Times, and Ink. The chapter ends with a special section on backstage passes, and has a nice full page shot of a signed Division Bell 1994 tour programme surrounded by VIP passes from various nights of that tour.

This leads nicely on to merchandising. Here, the rise of The Beatles is shown in parallel to the relentless tide of "fab four"-related merchandise - official AND unofficial. The text reinforces the point of keeping packaging intact - so if you've bought a set of The Wall figures issued last year, keep that box safe! This section also covers such items as record company promotional items. Whilst the book doesn't mention them, Pink Floyd's releases have resulted in many interesting promo items - most of which are variations on pyramid or pig themes.

Chapter 8 covers awards - be they record company presentation discs, Oscars, Grammys, or other trophies. There's some interesting text on record company awards in particular, and what you should be wary of. Mention is made, too, of when The Beatles took apart a gold disc award to check the music on the platter - and found that it was an album by their rivals at the time, The Rolling Stones! The book illustrates some nice examples of these discs - the eight-platinum award for Travis's "The Man Who" is especially striking.

The final chapter covers artwork. Via a couple of Andy Warhol prints (Jagger and Velvet Underground), a Stuart Sutcliffe canvas, and Ronnie Wood in action with a canvas, we get coverage of The Wall animation art auction (with a nice shot of the marching hammers, too).

To end the book is a very useful and informative look at what they call "Collectors' Information". It sets out clearly what to look out for, and what to beware of if you've got your eye on something special. Coupled with a full glossary of terms used, its really all you need to know to get started on REAL collecting properly and fairly safely. Finally, there's a look at various items in the form of top ten lists - ranking items based on the amount they sold for at auction. There's some mind-boggling sums that have been paid for things over the years. Unfortunately, the stories behind these items aren't told - I was at the auction when Hendrix's guitar was sold to an Italian collector bidding by phone, for £198,000 (including auction fees). The story just after the auction was that the collector made an error converting between pounds sterling and Italian lire - and thought he'd paid £19,800! A lesson here to be careful at auction...!

Definately a book any music fan will find fascinating, and a pleasure to look at, and may even provide some food for thought. Will YOU be checking out those things hidden in the depths of your collection, armed with the information from this book?