Author to present new book on Britain's musical explosion
The author of a new book which explores the 20th-century musical explosion in Britain is appearing at Lichfield venue The Hub at St Mary’s next month.
‘Why Britain Rocked: How Rock Became Roll and Took Over the World’ by Elizabeth Sharkey (pictured), travels deep into Britain’s history to trace the events that led to its musical explosion.
Completely rewriting the history of British pop music, Why Britain Rocked argues that The Beatles’ arrival that so surprised the world, really shouldn’t have been a surprise at all.
Join Elizabeth to hear her discuss the book on 25 September (8pm).
From the Celts and the Quakers, to Ira Aldridge and Paul Robeson, Why Britain Rocked breaks out of British pop history’s twentieth century confines.
Instead, Sharkey starts the story in Celtic Britain and follows the migration of the peoples who carried their music from the British Isles to the southern States, laying the foundations of America’s folk music and ultimately, rock n’ roll.
Back on British shores, Sharkey reveals how Henry VIII ensured Britain’s art colleges became feeder schools for Top of the Pops; she identifies the Celtic inheritance of superstars from Lonnie Donegan and The Beatles, to David Bowie, John Lydon, Kate Bush, Johnny Marr, Noel Gallagher and Ed Sheeran; and completes the story with the enduring power of British balladry and the Marxists, who liberated the voices of England’s working class, inspiring a revolution of British singer-songwriters.
Elizabeth Sharkey is an actress and voice-over artist who grew up on a farm in Lincolnshire, first discovering music at the age of five when she secretly played her father’s jazz records.
But it was on first hearing The Beatles’ ‘Something’, around the same age that she was hooked.
This book is a love story, not just for British pop but for her father, for it was through his love of music that she began her own.
The Hub Creative Director, Anthony Evans says: “Why Britain Rocked reveals new discoveries and insights, challenging the notion that American blues and Rock and Roll were the root of the 60s explosion of popular music in Britain.
“This is an event serious music fans will not want to miss.”
Tickets for the show cost £14 and are available online or in person at The Hub’s box office.
