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Uncommon People
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  • Published: 16 April 2018
  • ISBN: 9781784162078
  • Imprint: Black Swan
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 448
  • RRP: $30.00
Categories:

Uncommon People

The Rise and Fall of the Rock Stars 1955-1994

Formats & editions
Paperback
16 Apr 2018
Audiobook
29 June 2017
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The definitive and most entertaining book on the cult of the rockstar over the last 40 years from one of Britain's leading music writers

As heard on BBC 6 Music with Shaun Keveny, BBC Radio 5 Live and Talk Radio with Eamonn Holmes

The age of the rock star, like the age of the cowboy, has passed. Like the cowboy, the idea of the rock star lives on in our imaginations.

What did we see in them? Swagger. Recklessness. Sexual charisma. Damn-the-torpedoes self-belief. A certain way of carrying themselves. Good hair. Interesting shoes. Talent we wished we had.

What did we want of them? To be larger than life but also like us. To live out their songs. To stay young forever. No wonder many didn’t stay the course.

In Uncommon People, David Hepworth zeroes in on defining moments and turning points in the lives of forty rock stars from 1955 to 1995, taking us on a journey to burst a hundred myths and create a hundred more.

As this tribe of uniquely motivated nobodies went about turning themselves into the ultimate somebodies, they also shaped us, our real lives and our fantasies. Uncommon People isn’t just their story. It’s ours as well.
  • Published: 16 April 2018
  • ISBN: 9781784162078
  • Imprint: Black Swan
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 448
  • RRP: $30.00
Categories:

About the author

David Hepworth

David Hepworth has been writing, broadcasting and speaking about music and media since the seventies. He was involved in the launch and editing of magazines such as Smash Hits, Q, Mojo and The Word, among many others.

He was one of the presenters of the BBC rock music programme The Old Grey Whistle Test and one of the anchors of the corporation’s coverage of Live Aid in 1985. He has won the Editor of the Year and Writer of the Year awards from the Professional Publishers Association and the Mark Boxer award from the British Society of Magazine Editors.

He lives in London, dividing his time between writing for a variety of newspaper and magazines, speaking at events, broadcasting work, podcasting at www.wordpodcast.co.uk and blogging at www.whatsheonaboutnow.blogspot.co.uk.

He says Chuck Berry’s ‘You Never Can Tell’ is the best record ever made. ‘This is not an opinion,’ he says. ‘It’s a matter of fact.’

portrait photo of David Hepworth

Also by David Hepworth

Nothing is Real
Overpaid, Oversexed and Over There
A Fabulous Creation
Rock & Roll A Level
Abbey Road
Hope I Get Old Before I Die
1971 - Never a Dull Moment
See all