The Strokes arrived on the scene surrounded by rumour and myth but they also made a blistering album - Is This It - and left no one in any doubt that rock 'n' roll is alive and well and living in New York City. Their album subsequently wom the NME Album of the Year Award. Julian, Fabrizio, Albert, Nick and Nokolai had built the group painstakingly the way their 70s and 80s heroes used to and after a few false starts, The Strokes proved themselves to be a band with the look the sound, the attitude and the talent. In this first biography of The Strokes, Martin Roach lifts the lid on a phenomenon that the media raved about but didn't create. As manufactured pop idols multiply, The Strokes are the real deal.