The Rock Yearbook

Unfortunately I threw all mine out when my parents begged me to finally get rid of the last remaining shite from my youth .. I had the ones covering 83/4 thru to 85/6, I think. Pity really, as at best they were a treasure chest of 'as it really was then' reportage of the mainly British invasion of MTV. I was also very influenced by the best/worst sleeves section. In containing the weekly top 20s on both sides of the Atlantic, it also covers one of the last periods when the chart (at least in Britain) had some genuine meaning other than marketing just for first-week sales.

I had a few of the early Rock Yearbooks, when they weren't even called that, though I can't remember what they were called. There was one for 1981 / 82 and another for '82 / '83 and they were written by one bloke on his own reviewing just about every album he could get hold of released for each year. Then the format changed slightly in that the one guy gave up reviewing every record and the reviews were just chunks out of the weekly mags' reviews, then the charts and 'best / worst' sleeves came in, but they were still rather good. Where are my books now? I think my brother inherited them so they're in Stockport.