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Wrecking Ball Music and Books is an independent retail outlet that sells new and used vinyl, the entire Wrecking Ball Press catalogue and an extensive range of books from independent publishers. You can also purchase music and book related merchandise and gig tickets from us.
Our mission is to place the perfect vinyl and books into the hands of music lovers and readers. We appreciate the tactile and tangible feel of books and records, the best words on the page and the unique sound of vinyl.
We stock an extensive range of books and vinyl crossing all genres and we specialise in items not normally found in high street chains. Our friendly and knowledgeable staff can offer advice and also track down rare items for you. In-store events include readings, appearances by musicians and authors, as well as book and record signings.
The independent retail outlet is a joint venture between Wrecking Ball Press founder, book lover and music fan Shane Rhodes and concert promoter and music junkie Gary Marks. The success of the enterprise is down to the decades of business experience, enthusiasm and knowledge of both partners.
The children’s novel “Black Beauty” was written by Anna Sewell in her fifties and she sold it outright for GBP20. She did not live to know of its success. This work chronicles her extraordinary life from the tragic accident that left her lame at the age of 14 to the writing of her novel from her death bed.
An accessible introduction to the life and work of this trailblazing pioneer of early modernism, published to coincide with a major exhibition at the Royal Academy, London.
Paula Modersohn-Becker is today hailed as one of the great pioneers of modernism. When she died in 1907 at the age of just 31, she had completed more than 700 paintings and 1,000 drawings and prints. Despite selling only a few paintings during her lifetime, her distinct style, daring subject matter and perseverance in overcoming barriers to women left a significant artistic mark on the brief epoch between the old and the new, and paved the way for the German avant-garde.
Uwe M. Schneede, one of the foremost experts on Modersohn-Becker’s work, shows how the artist translated her life’s experiences into her own, very distinctive, pictorial language. He focuses in particular on her time in Paris, where she absorbed the luminous palette and expressive brushwork of the French avantgarde, and which so strongly impacted her ambitions and artistic trajectory. Schneede’s lively narrative is supported by some 120 illustrations, and peppered throughout with quotations from Modersohn’s letters and diaries.
Virga is the third book of poems by Zimbabwean poet Togara Muzanenhamo, following on from his acclaimed collections Spirit Brides (2006) and Gumiguru (2014).
Set in the twentieth century, Virga features historical events woven together by the weather. From the spiritual silence of a sundog during the 1911 Japanese Antarctic Expedition, to the 1921 World Championship chess matches in the Cuban heat, to the final hours of a young Bavarian mountaineer in the Bernese Alps in 1936 and strange white clouds decimating whole villages in northern Cameroon in 1986 – the poems capture stories of a rapidly evolving century beneath an ancient, fragile sky.
The title relates to the meteorological phenomenon in which a column, shaft or band of rain or snow is seen falling from a cloud but never reaching the earth – evaporating before touchdown. Like Gumiguru, which has so much to do with weather, Virga continues with it, its impact on our daily lives. But, here, his geography broadens out to include wider worlds and different histories artfully strung together by the poet’s fascination with the elements.
Togara Muzanenhamo was shortlisted for the Jerwood Alderburgh First Collection Prize and the Glenna Luschei Prize for African Poetry.
Dense, rich and satisfyingly complex, this collection draws on a fertile heritage of myth and legend, evoking lands long forgotten and landscapes rendered new by this most modern and lyrical of voices.
Showcases some of the most compelling parts of the J. A. Baker Archive, containing previously unknown details of Baker’s life as well as extracts from his own personal writing. It provides an invaluable new insight into both the sensitive, passionate character of J. A. Baker, and the state of late twentieth-century Britain, a country experiencing the throes of agricultural and environmental revolutions.
Hetty Saunders was first introduced to J. A. Baker and the Baker Archive as a literature postgraduate at the University of Cambridge. She was instantly captivated by the astounding prose of Baker’s first book, The Peregrine, and the mysterious life of its author.
The first sightings of newly discovered work from Saul Leiter’s abundant archive of colour slides.
Now widely acclaimed as one of the world’s greatest photographers, Saul Leiter (1923-2013) remained relatively unsung until he was rediscovered by curators and critics in his early 80s, and his work has been drastically re-evaluated over the last two decades. Leiter’s images evoked the flow and rhythm of life on the mid-century streets of New York in luminous colour at a time when his contemporaries were shooting in black and white. His complex and impressionistic photographs are as much about evoking an atmosphere as nailing the decisive moment.
Saul Leiter was born in Pittsburgh and moved to New York City in 1946. He pioneered a painterly approach to colour photography starting in the late 1940s and produced covers for fashion magazines such as Esquire and Harper’s Bazaar before largely withdrawing from public attention in the 1980s. The publication in 2006 of his first monograph, Early Color , inspired an avid ‘rediscovery’ of Leiter’s work by contemporary audiences.
His studio in New York’s East Village, where he lived from 1952 until his death in 2013, is now the home of the Saul Leiter Foundation. The Foundation has begun a full-scale survey and organization of his more than 80,000 works, with the aim of compiling the ‘complete’ archive. This volume contains works discovered through this process, specifically colour slides, never before published or seen by the public. Meticulously curated by Margit Erb and Michael Parillo of the Saul Leiter Foundation and supported by texts that explain how Leiter built the slide archive and how it is now being explored, catalogued and restored, this new monograph will be a must-have for photography fans worldwide.
Cherry Pie is a collection by Hollie Poetry, inspired by her grandparents’ advice on newspapers, war, sex and tinned cherries. The poems collected in Cherry Pie hold personal meaning for Hollie as well as being those which are most often requested by audiences in theatres, pubs and at festivals up and down the UK. The book is illustrated by a selection of artists from across the globe.
A complete look at the extensive, ageless, unparalleled filmography of Woody Allen.
Writer, actor, director, comedian, author, and musician, Woody Allen is one of the most culturally and cinematically influential filmmakers of all time. His films – he has over 45 writing and directing credits to his name – range from slapstick to tragedy, farce to fantasy. As one of history’s most prolific moviemakers, his style and comic sensibility have been imitated, but never replicated, by countless other filmmakers over the years. In The Ultimate Woody Allen Film Companion, film writer Jason Bailey profiles every one of Allen’s films: from his debut feature, What’s Up, Tiger Lily, through slapstick classics such as Take the Money and Run and Sleeper; Academy Award-winning films such as Annie Hall and Hannah and Her Sisters; and recent gems such as Midnight in Paris and Blue Jasmine.
Bailey also includes essays on the fascinating themes that color Allen’s works, from death and Freud to music and New York City. Getting up close and personal with the actors and actresses that have brought the iconic films to life, this book’s behind-the-scenes stories span the entire career of a man whose catalog has grown into a timeless cornerstone of American pop culture. Complete with full cast lists, production details, and full-color images and artwork, The Ultimate Woody Allen Film Companion is the ultimate, indispensable reference to one of cinema’s most beloved and important figures.
Wrecking Ball Music & Books at 15 Whitefriargate, Hull, is also home to the Wrecking Ball Arts Centre.
Ideally located and the perfect space for arts and cultural events, this first-floor city centre venue, with a licensed bar and capacity of 110, hosts book launches, spoken word, poetry, theatre, performance, live music, quizzes and film screenings. Wrecking Ball Music & Books also plays host to arts events in our fully accessible ground floor venue, in-store book signings and launch events and the store’s ground floor is also home to the Wrecking Ball café.
Tickets: £15 The Marrakesh Express deliver a note perfect live performance of the music of Crosby Stills Nash & Young. Remarkable music from a remarkable time and some of the […]
Join us to celebrate Record Store Day , hundreds of exclusive limited edition vinyl to browse, lots of bargains in the shop on the day we open at 7am in […]
“A powerful rock band steeped in the primal intimacy of the Blues” CLASSIC ROCK Deborah Bonham, over the course of an impressive career, has established herself as one of […]
Wrecking Ball Music & Books also has a ‘shopfront’ at bookshop.org, the online bookshop with a mission to financially support local, independent bookshops.
Bookshop has created an easy, convenient way for you to get your books and support independent bookshops at the same time. By purchasing your books from the Wrecking Ball Music & Books bookshop.org shop, you will be supporting us, as we will receive a percentage of the cover price. Your order is sent straight to your address, and all in-stock items arrive in 2-3 days.
Our bookshop.org shop includes recommendations by the team at Wrecking Ball, along with lists of the books that have inspired our writers. While we shine a light on the books that we stock in our ‘bricks and mortar’ bookshop and Wrecking Ball Press titles, readers are also able to purchase books that we don’t stock, and support us, and other independent bookshops, at the same time.
Visit out bookshop.org bookshop at https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/wreckingball or search for a book below. Happy shopping!
