Martin’s latest book is this 325 page in-depth read on American ’70s rockers Angel. Damn excited to get this, as I remember Martin talking about possibly doing this earlier this year -And here it is! Happy to have played a part in it as well.

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An interesting read the early years on the band, and the different [and sometimes clashing] recalls on how the band got signed to management and then to Casablanca [depending on the bandmember] , and then the name…. plus the various pre-Angel bands that connected the original bandmembers together. This is the usual great in-depth analysis on the band’s albums, and the personnel issues, from Martin. And with Angel, and what Angel fans will want to read is the various reasons of why these guys didn’t make it big, and sorta got cast as that underrated [and unsuccessful] 2nd fiddle to labelmate’s Kiss, as well as the management issues, the struggle to get a hit and become bigger and carrying on in to the ’80s. The ’80s [IMO] is the decade these guys would’ve been huge, given their image / outfits, and more mainstream pop-hard rock direction of their last few albums. So – many questions are answered here, regarding the band’s eventual collapse at the end of the decade with an awesome album – Sinful, an ill-timed and under promoted double live album, a ditched movie, and a movie role that would end up being a cameo and 2 new [and last] tracks [Foxes]. From there, there is a look at the bandmember’s post-Angel days, the few attempts to resurrect the band with a few members, and then on to the return of Punky Meadows & Frank Dimino, and the excellent new album Risen in 2019.

Most of this book is put together from Martin’s own interviews, particularly with Felix Robinson, Frank Dimino, and Punky Meadows [and a number of other former associates, management…]; others like Gregg Giuffria are represented in the story through plenty of press articles from the ’70s & ’80s. A full discography on the band, as well as short set of pertinent related releases. There’s a few sections of cool color shots of the band [promo and live shots], all making for an awesome package for Angel fans.

For more info / ordering, check out http://www.martinpopoff.com . Don’t hesitate if you’re interested, as these books are usually limited and go fast. *Martin also has upcoming books on Uriah Heep [A Visual History] another in his series on Rush [Driven] , and is finishing off a bio on Sweet [looking forward to that one!].

KJJ . 12/20