The good old daze

I don’t imagine that Hail! Hail! Rock ’n’ Roll was a very hard sell to its publishers.

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Ross Clark

Britain is living beyond its means

I don’t imagine that Hail! Hail! Rock ’n’ Roll was a very hard sell to its publishers. John Harris has been writing about music for nearly 20 years, has an acclaimed book about Britpop to his name and is established enough in the wider media world to appear on Newsnight Review. Now, he’s had the bright idea of providing a kind of Schott’s Miscellany of mostly old pop, linked by a genial Stuart Maconie-style prose, and with a heavy dollop of Nick Hornby-style fandom mixed in. Surely, the result is bound to find its way onto the shelves — or at least into the loos — of middle-aged music obsessives everywhere. After all, as both Maconie and Harris are so fond of saying, what’s not to like?

Well, as it turns out, more than you might think.