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Welcome to the official website of record producer and writer Joe Boyd.



New White Bicycles Chapter!

During the final edit, I dropped a chapter from White Bicycles. It didn't really fit into the flow of the book, being about the events surrounding the making of the film "Scandal", which I produced in 1988 (but which was about the Sixties, which was why I wrote the chapter in the first place). Taken out of the context of the book, it still makes a good yarn, so consider it a 'bonus track' to White Bicycles, available only online!

Joe

 


News Bulletins:

UK - Clive Palmer is making a rare trip to London to celebrate the launch of Grahame Hood’s biography (which features a largish section on The Boyd Year and Clive’s subsequent trip to India) on Saturday 24th May, 12 Bar Club, Denmark Street at 7.30. Clive will be playing with a 5-piece band and featuring songs from the early ISB days onwards. 12 Bar ticket line is 0207 240 2622


France - See Video of Joe on Ce Soir ou Jamais on TV3


US - Review of White Bicycles in the New York Times

 


 


International News
(including translations of White Bicycles):

French
German
Spanish
Dutch / Flemish
Italian
Russian


My latest newsletter reports on musical and other activities over the past few months.

Below is the programme of the Syd Barrett tribute concert May 10 at London's Barbican Theatre.

Syd Barrett Program

View full programme


DEMOS!: I have always adhered to the notion that I will listen to anything once. But I am no longer seeking producing gigs, I don't have a label and I don't go to gigs involving WPSEs (White People Singing in English). Serpents Tail have been very polite about forwarding cds people want me to hear. But I urge you NOT to send demos to them. If there is something you feel I absolutely must hear, and have no need for a response from me, please send a stamped envelope to Rebecca for forwarding.

White Bicycles Book Cover

White Bicycles: Making Music in the the 1960s.
Paperback, May 2006

Buy Now

Reviews

New Reviews from Germany
 
Elegantly written and suspenseful - a masterpiece!
Christoph Wagner, Jazzthetik

Boyd's book is one of the most palatable, subtle and enlightening chronicles of the Sixties.
Hanspeter Künzler, Neue Zürcher Zeitung

White Bicycles is apart from Bob Dylan's autobiographical book 'Chronicles' the best report about pop culture of the Sixties. The chronological arch from the Fifties up to the late Sixties leads into the paradigm shift that seized the USA and Great Britain at that time. Although Boyd does not believe in the assumption that pop music was a turn for the better in the world.  
Ingo Zander, WDR 3

Psychedelic 2007 - 40 years of Summer of love:  probably the best book regarding this anniversary was written by the London based producer Joe Boyd, 'White Bicycles'.  Boyd, by the way, knows how to write really well.
Felix Klopotek, Stadtrevue Köln

Exigent and clever, funny and sad.
Ulf Erdmann Ziegler, Frankfurter Rundschau

US Reviews

"The simple brilliance of... an irresistible tale. Boyd's wit and candor are rare enough, but what truly makes his writing stand out are his insights into an era when rock 'n' roll still seemed exciting and strange."
New York Times Book Review

"Boyd tells...this thoroughly entertaining memoir....with the kind of tender precision that raises 'White Bicycles' far above the ordinary rock bio and into the realm of valuable cultural commentary."
BOSTON SUNDAY GLOBE

"One of the most balanced and engaging look-backs of the '60s yet" NY DAILY NEWS

"A deliciously detailed memoir."
David Fricke, Rolling Stone

"It's an extraordinarily entertaining book; Boyd pulls from a bottomless bag of great stories, and his understated way with a punchline catches you by surprise. The result is a rock memoir marked by the drollery of an old-fashioned show-biz memoir."
Jeff Salamon Austin-American Statesman

"Read it!"
David Kidney, Green Man Review

Compilation wins Mojo Award!

White Bicycles CD cover

White Bicycles: Making Music in the 1960s - The Joe Boyd Story 
CD, May 2006

Buy Now

Track Listing:

  1. Crossroads - Eric Clapton & The Powerhouse
  2. Way Back In The 1960s - The Incredible String Band
  3. Because It Wouldn't Pay - Johnny Handle
  4. Spanish Ladies Medley - Dave Swarbrick, Martin Carthy & Diz Disley
  5. Arnold Layne - Pink Floyd
  6. Granny Takes A Trip - The Purple Gang
  7. She's Gone -  Soft Machine
  8. If I Had A Ribbon Bow - Fairport Convention
  9. Seven Yellow Gypsies - Shirley Collins
  10. Chinese White - The Incredible String Band
  11. Autopsy - Fairport Convention
  12. The Deserter - Fairport Convention
  13. Poor Boy - Nick Drake
  14. The Sea- Fotheringay
  15. Flowers Of The Forest - Mike Heron
  16. Come Wind Come Rain - Vashti Bunyan
  17. Primrose Hill - John & Beverley Martyn
  18. I Don't Mind - The New Nadir (Previously Unreleased)
  19. Church Mouse - Dudu Pukwana & Spear (Previously Unreleased)
  20. Andromeda - Chris Mcgregor's Brotherhood Of Breath
  21. Afraid - Nico
  22. Way To Blue - Nick Drake
  23. Brazil - Geoff & Maria Muldaur

UK Reviews

"One of the most lucid and insightful music autobiographies I've read. Captures evanescent history with remarkable clarity (and) has enough of a grasp of larger issues - historical, philosophical, psychological - to be of interest to readers unfamiliar with the records Boyd produced."
Michael Faber THE GUARDIAN

"Joe Boyd's memoir of his musical adventures is as acute and natural-sounding as his record productions. White Bicycles is as good an adjunct to great popular music as any that's been written."
John Gibbens, Sunday Telegraph.

"This book made me laugh out loud on the tube. Packed full of funny, telling anecdotes and wry, insightful observation, it takes us on a fantastic musical adventure.
Elizabeth Kinder, Folk Roots.

"What a wonderful book! I was so engrossed I missed my train station. A gripping piece of social history and the best book about music I've read in years."
Brian Eno

"Terrific book. The stories he tells are so enthralling and his sense of the period and the characters are so vivid..this engaging and readable book is an important addition to the history of its time."
Hanif Kureshi NEW STATESMAN