Helter Skelter Publishing is a British publisher specialising in

rock music Rock music is a broad genre of popular music that originated as " rock and roll" in the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of different styles in the mid-1960s and later, particularly in the United States an ...

. Helter Skelter was founded as a bookshop by Sean Body in 1995, who specifically chose the location of 4,

Denmark Street Denmark Street is a street on the edge of London's West End running from Charing Cross Road to St Giles High Street. It is near St Giles in the Fields Church and Tottenham Court Road station. The street was developed in the late 17th centu ...

as it had previously housed Regent Sounds Studios, which had recorded early work by the

Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the album era, rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the g ...

. The shop specialised in books and fanzines covering

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...

, which at one point accounted for 40% of its sales. It also sold

sheet music Sheet music is a handwritten or printed form of musical notation that uses List of musical symbols, musical symbols to indicate the pitches, rhythms, or chord (music), chords of a song or instrumental Musical composition, musical piece. Like ...

and music-related artwork. Despite predictions it would not appeal to a wide market and be "a boys' anorak paradise", a report in ''The Independent'' suggested that 20% of customers were women. Although the shop was popular, it was unable to cope with a 40% rise in shop rates, and it closed at the end of 2004. Body died of leukemia in April 2008. However, the name survives as a publishing company.

References

External links

Official website
Bookshops in London Bookstores established in the 20th century {{retail-company-stub