Pop Starts: Bob Stanley & Graham Gouldman
Bob Stanley
Chair: Graham Gouldman
Pop music didn’t begin with the Beatles or Elvis; the pre-history goes back to the turn of the century. In Let’s Do It: The Birth of Pop Bob Stanley brings that eclectic, evolving world to life, from ragtime, blues and Broadway to country, crooning and beyond.
Saint Etienne star Bob’s award-winning book Yeah Yeah Yeah took us from Bill Haley to Beyoncé. Now we hear stories of Sinatra, Gershwin, Billie Holiday, Harold Arlen, Rodgers, Hart and Hammerstein and less-heralded but pivotal peers. In conversation with 10cc founder Graham Gouldman, himself a songwriter for The Hollies, The Yardbirds & McFly.
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Bob Stanley is a writer, musician, DJ and film producer. Since founding influential pop group Saint Etienne, Bob has enjoyed a parallel career as a music journalist, contributing to publications such as The Times, Smash Hits, NME, the Guardian and the Face. A former artist-in-residence at the Southbank Centre, his films have been shown at the BFI, ICA and Royal Festival Hall, and he has curated several seasons for the Barbican. He is the author of Yeah Yeah Yeah, which was the Sunday Times Pop Music Book of the Year and a Rough Trade Book of the Year. His most recent book was the critically acclaimed Excavate: The Wonderful and Frightening World of The Fall, co-edited with Tessa Norton.
As a young songwriter Graham wrote chart hits including Bus Stop, For Your Love and No Milk Today for the Hollies, Herman’s Hermits, the Yardbirds and Jeff Beck. In 1972, along with Eric Stewart, Kevin Godley and Lol Creme, he formed 10cc, who went on to sell over 30 million albums worldwide and whose No. 1 singles include Rubber Bullets, I’m Not In Love and Dreadlock Holiday. Still touring today both solo and with 10cc, Graham was inducted into the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame in 2014.
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