“Flops on 45 – The Ones That Got Away 1965- 1979″ is penned by Richard Lysons – an original look at the records that somehow got away…
It looks beyond the chart successes of everyone from Kate Bush to Suzi Quatro, from David Bowie to The Hollies, and is published by Empire Publications this month [November 2025] in paperback at £14.95.
The book has a foreword by Simon Frith, Professor Emeritus of Music at University of Edinburgh, who says: ” ‘Flops On 45’ isn’t just a fun read. It makes an important contribution to popular music history; it honours a forgotten workforce.”
Richard Lysons started buying singles in 1970 and was fascinated by the ones that did not make the charts. His first published work, “Were You There? Popular Music At Manchester’s Free Trade Hall – 1951 To 1996”, was published in 2020 to wide acclaim by music archivists. He attended his first Free Trade Hall concert in 1972.
After a career teaching English, he is now a music researcher and writer. He was chief researcher for the highly-acclaimed “Discover Amazing Women by Rail” project.
