WALLS COME TUMBLING DOWN

The music and politics of rock Against Racism, 2 Tone and Red Wedge

PRESS RELEASE  

WALLS COME TUMBLING DOWN
By DANIEL RACHEL

Daniel Rachel presents an oral history of Rock Against Racism, 2 Tone and Red Wedge, consisting of interviews with over 100 key figures and contributors to this musical revolution.

Walls Come Tumbling Down charts the pivotal period between 1976 and 1992 that saw politics and pop music come together for arguably the first, and last time in Britain’s musical history; musicians and their fans suddenly became instigators of social change, and “the political persuasion of musicians was as important as the songs they sang”. Through the voices of campaigners, musicians, artists and politicians, Daniel Rachel follows the rise and fall of three key movements of the time: Rock Against Racism, 2 Tone, and Red Wedge, revealing how they both shaped, and were shaped by, the music of a generation.

Composed of interviews with over 100 of the key players at the time, Walls Come Tumbling Down is a fascinating, polyphonic and authoritative account of those crucial sixteen years in Britain’s history.

Daniel Rachel wrote his first song when he was sixteen and was the lead-singer in Rachels Basement. He was first eligible to vote in the 1992 General Election and now lives in north London with his partner and three children. Daniel is the author of Isle of Noises: Conversations with Great British Songwriters, a Guardian and NME Book of the Year, also published by Picador, and a regular guest contributor on BBC Radio 5.

Walls Come Tumbling Down by Daniel Rachel is published on 8^th September 2016 (Picador)

Hardback & ebook  •  ISBN: 9781447272687  •  £25

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