EP43 - Daniel Rachel - Musican-turned-award-winning author - "Governments crack and systems fall, 'cause unity is powerful..."

My guest this week is the fabulous musician, turned award-winning
author, Daniel Rachel.


He wrote his first book, Isle of Noises: Conversations with Great
British Songwriters after spending his twenties as the
lead-singer in Rachels Basement. The book featured interviews
with the likes of Paul Weller, Jimmy Page, Robin Gibb, Ray
Davies, Annie Lennox, Noel Gallager and many more.


His 2017 Book Walls Come Tumbling Down: the music and politics of
Rock Against Racism, 2 Tone and Red Wedge - which won the
Penderyn Music Book prize - charts the pivotal period between
1976 and 1992 that saw politics and pop music come together for
the first time in Britain's musical history; musicians and their
fans suddenly became instigators of social change, and 'the
political persuasion of musicians was as important as the songs
they sang'.


The follow up in 2019 Don't Look Back in Anger: The rise and
Fall of Cool Britannia was an Evening Standard and Metro Book of
the Year.


Daniel and I dig in to these incredible historical documents to
talk about some key periods in the career of Paul Weller with
stories of Red Wedge from the 1980s and Cool Britannia and his
return to the top of the charts in the 1990s.


You can buy these brilliant books and support independent
bookshops here https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/danielrachel or head
to Waterstones or Amazon. 


 


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