Utopia Avenue might be the most curious British band you’ve never heard of. Emerging from London’s psychedelic scene in 1967, folksinger Elf Holloway, blues bassist Dean Moss, guitar virtuoso Jasper de Zoet and jazz drummer Griff Griffin together created a unique sound, with lyrics that captured their turbulent times. The band produced only two albums in two years, yet their musical legacy lives on. This is the story of Utopia Avenue’s brief, blazing journey from Soho clubs and draughty ballrooms to the promised land of America, just when the Summer of Love was receding into something much darker – a multi-faceted tale of dreams, drugs, love, sexuality, madness and grief; of stardom’s wobbly ladder and fame’s Faustian pact; and of the collision between youthful idealism and jaded reality as the Sixties drew to a close.
Utopia Avenue
€10.50
Description
‘ONE OF THE MOST BRILLIANTLY INVENTIVE WRITERS OF THIS, OR ANY, COUNTRY’ Independent
The Number One Sunday Times Bestseller
‘Wildly entertaining’
Spectator
‘A stand-out triumph’
Sunday Times
‘Superb’
Literary Review
‘Impressive’
New Yorker
‘Highly entertaining’
Times Literary Supplement
A story of music and dreams, drugs and madness, love and grief, from the acclaimed author of Cloud Atlas
The year is 1967 and word is spreading about a new band on London’s psychedelic scene – an unlikely combination of a female folksinger, a blues bassist, a jazz drummer and an electric guitarist. Strangers to each other and from widely different backgrounds, together they create magic. Meet Utopia Avenue.
This is the story of a unique band’s brief, blazing journey from Soho dives to chart success and on to the promised land of America, just when the Summer of Love was giving way to something much darker – a tale of dreams, drugs, sexuality, madness and grief, and of fame’s pitfalls. Capturing a time when youthful idealism collided with jaded reality, this bewitching novel celebrates the power of music to connect across divides, define an era and thrill the soul.
PRAISE FOR DAVID MITCHELL
‘A thrilling and gifted writer’
Financial Times
‘Dizzyingly, dazzlingly good’
Daily Mail
‘Mitchell is, clearly, a genius’
New York Times Book Review
‘An author of extraordinary ambition and skill’
Independent on Sunday
‘A superb storyteller’
The New Yorker
Additional information
| Weight | 0.4 kg |
|---|---|
| Dimensions | 19.6 × 12.8 × 4.6 cm |
| Book_author | Mitchell, David |
| Publisher | Sceptre |
| Imprint | Sceptre |
| Cover | Paperback |
| Pages | 561 |
| Language | English |
| Edition | 1st paperback ed |
| Dewey | 823.92 (edition:23) |
| Readership | General – Trade / Code: K |
