A local author is set to release a new book about a legendary post-punk band.
Martin Hutchinson will launch his second book, which is about the music of The Stranglers, in May this year.
Martin, who is from Horwich, is known for the quizzes he wrote for The Bolton News in the 1990s, as well as having written liner notes for almost 300 albums and winning on TV quizzes such as The Chase.
Now, following his first in the series on The Kinks, he is releasing the next edition: 'The Stranglers On Track: Every Album, Every Song'.
He said: “The books go into detail of each release an artist has done, I needed bands of which I own everything they have put out.
"The book is coming out this year, which is the 50th anniversary of the band's formation."
It has seen success in the book charts on pre-orders alone, having achieved #5 on the Music History charts, #12 on the Music Criticism and History charts and #18 in the Rock Music charts.
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Martin said: "I am amazed to be honest, The Kinks book did okay according to the publishers, it is a difficult environment out there for books.
"But this one is doing much better. Apparently, I do not say punk for The Stranglers, new wave from the 70s and 80s in this format tends to sell better.
"I have been writing for newspapers and magazines for years now, going back to the 90s, I had a weekly quiz in the Bolton Evening News as it was."
The book discusses every album, every track on each album, and every non-album track released by the band.
To pre-order it, visit this link: https://www.wymeruk.co.uk/webshop/books/punk/the-stranglers/the-stranglers-on-track-every-album-every-song/
Martin told of some of the challenges in writing it, saying: "Particularly their later albums, all the reference material applies to their 70s and 80s output, whereas into the 90s and 00s, there is not much out there.
"Luckily, Baz Warne, The Stranglers' guitarist now, was very helpful, and he also wrote a foreword to the book. It wouldn't have got finished if it weren't for him.
"Every track was credited to 'The Stranglers' so they would get an equal cut of the royalties, but then it is harder to know who wrote which songs."
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