Rock & Roll A Level

by David Hepworth

The Rock and Roll A Level is here to rescue the pop quiz from the grip of bores who know the chart position of everything and the value of nothing.

It’s for the people who like pop music because it tells them so much about real life, the people who learned about America from the songs of Chuck Berry, about Europe from the albums of David Bowie and about all manner of things from the songs of Steely Dan.

It’s the first quiz book where the answers are as interesting as the questions.

It’s the first quiz book where general knowledge matters as much as an adolescence spent reading the NME or Smash Hits.

It's a proper education.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction

240 pages, Hardcover

Published October 17, 2019

About the author

David Hepworth is a music journalist, writer, and publishing industry analyst who has launched several successful British magazines, including Smash Hits, Q, Mojo and The Word, among many others. He presented the definitive BBC rock music program Whistle Test and anchored the BBC's coverage of Live Aid in 1985. He has won the Editor of the Year and Writer of the Year awards from the Professional Publishers Association and the Mark Boxer Award from the British Society of Magazine Editors. He is the radio columnist for the Saturday Guardian and a regular media correspondent for the newspaper.

Reviews

[Ross Cumming · Rating 4 out of 5]

A different type of book from David Hepworth in that this is basically a quiz book for music fans. The book is formatted in themed chapters with 10 questions and answers in each chapter. You don’t really have to be that clued up musically, as reading the answers, which include a lots of anecdotes about the particular artist or piece of music is highly entertaining. An A+ for Mr Hepworth while I may be being a bit generous in my marking but think I may have just scraped a pass mark !!

[Eyejaybee · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have always been a bit of a quiz junkie, and having been both a lifelong fan of rock music, and a keen reader of David Hepworth's previous books, this book was always going to be right up my alley.

Hepworth has that happy knack of imparting knowledge about his favourite subejct without ever seeming to preach. Here there is a veritabl;e compendium of questions, and some fascinating answers, each with a sagacious gloss.

Highly entertaining and informative.

[Andy Horton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun and challenging quiz. A mix of answers I knew, ones that wer etantalisingly out of reach, and ones I had no idea of. But as the author says in his introduction, the answers are usually of the kind that make you go "ah..." when you hear them, as you see a hint you missed or feel you've learned something new.

[Ben Baker · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of those rare quiz books where the answers are way more interesting than the questions.

[Simon Harvey · Rating 3 out of 5]

An enjoyable romp through some quirky bits of rock and pop trivia, the majority of which I was previously unaware of. Nicely interspersed with a selection of related photos; my personal favourite was the shot of a young Neil Tennant interviewing Paul Weller, with Pavarotti sitting alongside them. Easy to dip in and out for short bursts of infotainment.