Going for a Song chronicles the entire history of the UK record shop: award winning author Garth Cartwright details how record shops across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland served as oracles for music lovers. And what stories these shops can tell! Liverpool's NEMS launches The Beatles on the world. A drunk, young Bob Dylan records in the Soho basement of Dobell's Jazz, Blues & Folk shop. Levy's of Whitechapel begins selling Yiddish 78s and ends representing Motown's UK operation. David Bowie, Dusty Springfield and Pete Burns all serve apprenticeships in vinyl emporiums. Mods flock to Transat Imports for soul 45s. Rita & Benny's is the UK's first ska shop. While London swings, East End gangsters use Carnaby Street record shops to shift 10,000 stolen Simon & Garfunkel LPs.

Stanley Kubrick films A Clockwork Orange in The Chelsea Drugstore. Virgin and Beggars Banquets Pounders build empires out of rock shops. Rock On fuels punk while Rough Trade, Small Wonder and Good Vibrations service I he revolution. Reggae gets heavy in the dub shops and Black Market Records rules rave with the hottest dance 12"s. Then things fall apart . Told here for the First time is a secret history of the UK as witnessed through the nation's record shops. Illustrated with dozens of "lost" photos and images from the UK record shop's glorious heyday, Going For A Song is an engaging, entertaining read. Book jacket.