Excellent

Really enjoyed the story of the British music invasion of America read by the author

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Hepworth does it again.

You always know that David Hepworth will deliver a entertaining informative listen while managing to find a new angle on a supposedly well know subject. Next one please and soon

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2 people found this helpful

Hepworth nails it again

This is a comprehensive history of British Pop music and its impact on the US public.
Very well written and narrated.
Insightful and interesting.

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Fantastic!

Another brilliant book from David Hepworth, charting the British invasion of American popular music, from the 60s, into the 70s and again in the 80s with synth pop. All told in his characteristically droll way, it's a joy from start to finish.

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Informative, enjoyable and wonderfully nostalgic

Thoroughly enjoyed this and will be listening to the albums listed at the end that I don’t know already.

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So much insight

Think you know about the sixties, and the Beatles and the Stones etc taking over the USA? Forget it and listen to this! Another large slice of info about popular music from Mr Hepworth……you can only marvel at his insight…….

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Another Hepworth chart topper

This is a book for all US and English, and wider British, and perhaps even wider music and social history fans. David Mr Hepworth’s books are so well written and read (by the Author) they are accessible, fact-filled, full of ‘I was there anecdotes’ and hypotheses (not thrust down one’s throat) that they never fail to hit the target. This one is know different. Focussed on a particular period of just after the US rock and roll invasion of the British Isles, the reciprocal ‘counter-attack’, and even the counter-counter (such as U2) and the welcoming of black music - more than in numerous parts of the US - to the UK.
Chiefly though, quite rightly, this is about the English Dave Clark 5, the Beatles, and Herman’s Hermits. And then the enduring invaders, such as the Stones and the Who, as well as the secondary wave, such as Elton John, and those fell at the first hurdle. You may well have read about all these artists separately, but seen as a whole is also an interesting perspective in its own right. An excellent ‘listen, I’ll definitely be returning. Stuart

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Hepworth is always good company

I purchased this after enjoying '1971'; which I've subsequently played again after I got through 'Overpaid, Oversexed...'.

Again, it's a thoroughly enjoyable canter through music's 'Golden Age' with the usual Hepworth enthusiasm for the subject. As always, it's as much about the social history of the time as the bands that heavily influenced the period, which focuses very much on the '64-77' period. The early 80s MTV inspired era is given less comment.

In summary, DH is great and knowledgable company, especially for winter/lockdown walks and I'm moving straight on to 'A Fabulous Creation'.

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Another fabulous listen

As usual, David's new book is beautifully paced, funny and occasionally incisive. While he may not tell you any information you haven't heard before (probably from him!), his books are always well reasoned and well researched - he is fabulously well read on his chosen subject. Just as you are beginning to drift along on a haze of nostalgia, he'll make you sit up and take notice with a perceptive piece of reasoning or a brilliant one liner.

As generally happens with David's books, he builds to a central thesis in the last half hour. Here, he focuses in on why British bands were so successful in the USA from the early 60s to the early 80s - and why they aren't now.

It's all brilliantly entertaining and - as always - wonderfully read by the author.

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Entertaining but too much on the Beatles

I enjoy listening to the Word Podcast, so was looking forward to this book. David Hepworth writes well, combining stories about the artists with analysis of cultural and social trends. I did think that this was a bit overdone at times. I don't think the musicians he described in the book thought they were part of any great social movement. Most of them just wanted to play music and thought they had a limited time in the business. While I realise the importance of the Beatles in showing that a British band could be big in America, many of the Beatles stories have been heard before. I was more interested in the bands that followed the Beatles, and wished that there was greater emphasis in the book on those. I learnt a lot from the chapters on the Hollies, Hermans Hermits and the Animals, and wished there were more stories about 60s bands. I also thought that he rather skipped over the Police, who were massive in America in the 80s and even played at Shea Stadium. Overall, it could have been shorter but was still an entertaining and informative listen.

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