DAMON ALBARN is the frontman of Blur and the face of Britpop. While his peers have gradually fallen by the wayside, Albarn has survived Britpop to completely reinvent himself as the mastermind behind the global phenomenon that is Gorillaz.With his eclectic solo projects – such as the currently much-revered The Good, the Bad & the Queen – and his work with legends like Soul music icon Bobby Womack, he has proven again and again that he is one of British music's most respected, innovative and important personalities. And in 2015, with the release of The Magic Whip, Blur's first album for over a decade, Damon Albarn will take his place once more as an iconic jewel in the crown of the British music scene.This fully up-to-date book – the only available dedicated biography of Albarn – covers his multiple musical personas in depth, with first-hand interviews by those close to Albarn in his formative years, as well as social and musical context...

From humble beginning as a 1970s motoring show, Top Gear has achieved world domination. Reaching a peak in the 1990s thanks to presenter Jeremy Clarkson, the original series faced the axe in 2001 - but Clarkson and producer Andy Wilman successfully pitched a new format to BBC bosses and Top Gear returned to become the irreverent, funny and often controversial show we now know and love. The addition of Richard Hammond and James May completed the Top Gear dream team and ratings soared as viewers tuned in to see the latest Star in a Reasonably Priced Car, arguments ove the Cool Wall and Power Laps by the mysterious Stig. Recent series have been defined by their madcap challenges - with predictably hilarious results. Hour-long specials such as the 1000-mile journey across the Africa in cars bought for only £1500, and a race to the magnetic North Pole in which Clarkson and May became the first people to drive a motor vehicle to the Pole, have cemented Top Gear's reputation as...