A STANBURY teacher's book about the pop charts has become a chart-topper itself.

Rob Grillo’s book Is That The 12” Remix has hit the number one spot in the Amazon book charts.

And in true 80s pop music style the book has climbed higher in the charts as an extended-length re-release than it did on original release.

Rob, a long-time geography teacher, is best known as a sports writer after publishing several books about football and rugby history.

But his true love is music, and he regards himself as an obsessive fan of 80s pop.

Several years ago he published Is That The 12” Mix’ but the publisher went bust soon afterwards.

He said: “Feeling that it should be given another chance – just as many singles were re-issued by record labels in times past – I decided to not only completely re-edit and expand the book, but to take on the massive task of publishing, promoting and financing it myself.

“To my surprise, the new book went straight to the top of the Amazon Music Reference Book chart in the UK.

“It’s a bit like a single going to the top of the ‘Indie singles’ chart in the 1980s, before hopefully cracking the national UK singles chart.

“I’ve got some way to go to knock Bruce Springsteen off the top spot in the main book chart, but we can all dream.”

Is That The 12” Remix covers the 1980s when fanatical musical obsessives bought every record ever released by their favourite bands.

It follows the rise and rise of the old 12” single and the ‘remix’, along with topics like long-gone music magazines, record shops and pirate radio stations, and growing up in West Yorkshire.

Rob added: “There’s a big feature on one of Keighley’s long-gone establishments, the old Greenhead Youth Club where the town’s youth congregated in large numbers back in the day.”

While preparing the book, Rob was able to speak with some of his ‘80s musical heroes like Heaven 17 and Human League founder Martyn Ware.

There are also contributions from Neil Tennant (Pet Shop Boys), Rusty Egan (Visage), Stephen Singleton (ABC) Boff Whalley (Chumbawamba), and pop icon Sinitta.

Rob is keen to point out that his recently-published first novel Picture This, even though it concerns an obsessive music fan, has not yet topped the charts.

Is That The 12” Remix costs £9.99 in paperback by visiting robgrillo.co.uk or from Amazon.