At Cambridge I’m doing something slightly different to the normal book festival interview. David Hepworth (signing books next to me in this photo) and I discuss “Politics, Pop and Passion” under the Chairmanship of Tom Gatti of the New Statesman. David is a proper musicologist having edited pop magazines, interviewed music legends (including Bob Dylan and Paul McCartney) and written some of the best books about music of the last 50 years.

 

One of these was his book about the music of  1971 which David describes as the annus mirabilis of the rock album. Music is subjective which makes it such a wonderful subject for debate and congenial disagreement.  David was born in 1950, ten weeks after me, and as he says in his book this means we won the winning ticket in the lottery of life.

 

We spent a wonderful hour on our passion for pop but (as someone complained to me afterwards) never once diverted into politics.