- Published: 20 March 2017
- ISBN: 9781784162061
- Imprint: Black Swan
- Format: Paperback
- Pages: 432
- RRP: $22.99
1971 - Never a Dull Moment
Rock's Golden Year
- Published: 20 March 2017
- ISBN: 9781784162061
- Imprint: Black Swan
- Format: Paperback
- Pages: 432
- RRP: $22.99
Anyone who misses Word magazine like an old friend, has just found the perfect read.
Paul Dowswell, author of Auslander
Hepworth lifts the lid on the unrepeatable year when rock's lunatics finally took over the asylum.
Chris Adams author of The Grail Guitar -The Search for Jimi Hendrix's Purple Haze Telecaster
Fond, funny, beautifully written and fizzing with sharp and sweeping theories that instantly feel like facts.
Mark Ellen
Full of fascinating detail and obviously a labour of love, a must for anyone who can remember the Seventies or who was there.
Rosalind Miles, author of The Women's History of the World
This is no ‘my generation is cooler than yours’ nostalgia trip. Just as movements in art, jazz or TV undeniably had Golden Ages then so too with the long-playing record and its seismic effect on subsequent generations. David Hepworth’s forensic sweep of this astonishing twelve months is thoroughly absorbing and appropriately rollicking, expertly guiding us through one miraculous year in all its breathless tumble of creation.
Danny Baker
David Hepworth's argument is simple: 1971 was "the most febrile and creative time in the entire history of popular music". It's an enormous assertion but he makes his point with infectious enthusiasm . . . Whether you agree is beside the point. This is a compelling love letter to a year of timeless music.
Q
There's a bit of a fashion at the moment for books focussing on a particular year and David Hepworth's 1971 is one of the best
Choice
A clever and entertaining book . . . Hepworth proves a refreshingly independent thinker. His style is pithy and his eye for anecdotal detail sharp . . . a thoroughly provoking delight
Daily Telegraph
Scientifically unprovable but entertaining, illuminating and lipsmacking . . . a mighty fine and convincing read
Classic Rock
Near the beginning, Hepworth argues that 1971 saw the pop era giving way to rock. Even so, his own approach is much more like the best pop: never taking itself too seriously, essentially out to entertain — but also an awful lot smarter than its absence of solemnity might lead you to think.
Spectator
An engaging and thought-provoking read. It’s a dry-eyed but deeply felt love note to the date when rock was still busy inventing itself. Hepworth points out more than once that at the time he had no idea how lucky he hwas. He knows now – and so do we
Mail on Sunday
A good mix of entertainment, insight and odd facts. Hepworth’s thesis is largely convincing
Mojo
Soon every post-war year will have its own tombstone book, but this is already one of the best
GQ, Editor’s Hit List