Brackstone to launch White Rabbit imprint with Cox, Nightingale and Frantz

Lee Brackstone’s new imprint for Orion, White Rabbit, will launch in April 2020 with twelve titles scheduled for its inaugural year, including memoirs from music industry legends, Carl Cox, Richard Russell, Annie Nightingale and Chris Frantz.

Brackstone moved to Orion this summer after 23 years at Faber to run the music-centric imprint and to acquire some fiction for Weidenfeld & Nicolson.

Building on the publishing he was responsible for at Faber Social with authors such as the Beastie Boys, Viv Albertine and Jon Savage, Brackstone’s titles for his Orion imprint will encompass memoir, history, fiction, translation, illustrated books and high-spec limited editions. 

"I feel blessed to have this opportunity to create what will be a radical and surprising list from scratch in a new environment. I believe we are living through a great moment for music writing, and I intend to build a list that is expansive, experimental and commercially ambitious," said Brackstone. 

Explaining the imprint's name, he added: "I wanted a name that captures a psychedelic sensibility with a literary feel. Alice in Wonderland was the first book I remember reading as a child and Grace Slick is a righteous force in the history of rock n roll. Feed your head!"

The list will launch with Mark Lanegan’s unsparing memoir of the Seattle grunge years, Sing Backwards and Weep on 30th April 2020 in hardback, e-book and audio and a soon-to-be-announced evocative project with Savages lead singer Jehnny Beth.

This will be followed on 9th July 2020 by a memoir from Carl Cox titled Oh Yes, Oh Yes, acquired from Sophie Hicks Agency for world all languages, which tells the story of the man known as ‘the three-deck wizard’ and the King of Ibiza. 

The White Rabbit team with Carl Cox

Cox, who was instrumental in the birth of dance music culture, said: "I was looking for a publishing partner who would understand how important it is for me to share my story and insights to a global audience but who could also understand and respect how I connect with people on an individual level. White Rabbit gets it. They not only have the clout and backing of a big player, but the personal touch that I need in order to fully share my life on and off the dancefloor."

In 2020, White Rabbit will also publish: Great Liberation through Hearing by XL Recording’s Richard Russell on 14th May, followed by Chris Frantz’s Talking Heads and Tom Tom Club memoir, Remain in Light, on 11th June.

White Rabbit will also publish DJ and broadcasting legend Annie Nightingale as she celebrates 50 years at Broadcasting House; a history of rock n roll by the Patti Smith Group guitarist Lenny Kaye on 3rd September; and Believe in Magic, an oral and visual history celebrating 30 years of Heavenly Recordings on 6th August.

The imprint launch and titles will be supported with a fully integrated PR and marketing strategy and a regular sessions and readings called White Rabbit Live that will run alongside the publishing schedule.

Orion m.d. Katie Espiner added: "Lee’s passion, knowledge and experience in publishing the greatest names in music is unrivalled in UK publishing. The launch list for White Rabbit, an incredible roster that Lee has commissioned in a matter of months, indicates the depth and quality this list will exemplify. We are so proud that Lee has found a home at Orion and that his books will add to our diverse list of stories for everyone."