Utopia Avenue is the great rock and roll novel – an epic love letter to the greatest music ever made and the book the music has always deserved … it will strike a mighty chord with the generation who were there, and all the generations who followed, who only wish they were there.
(Tony Parsons)
Far out and utterly groovy. A psychedelic, polyphonic adventure and a wonderful evocation of that euphoric moment in the late ’60s when it seemed music really could change the world … A beautifully rendered four-part harmony … I was enthralled.
(Jake Arnott, author of THE LONG FIRM)
In his forthcoming novel (release date July 14) David Mitchell turns his eye on the dark end of the 1960s, a story of music, dreams, drugs and madness, love and grief, stardom’s wobbly ladder and fame’s Faustian pact. There’s Gene Clark of The Byrds, for example, who admires a guitar figure of Jasper’s (“So that’s an F major seventh? … I call it F Demented”). Janis Joplin, Leonard Cohen, Syd Barrett, Jackson Browne, and Jerry Garcia turn up (as does, decades later, the brilliant band Talk Talk, acknowledging a debt to the Utopians). There’s even a highly learned if tossed-aside reference to how the Stones’ album Let It Bleed earned its name. Bone spurs and all, it’s realistic indeed and just the thing for pop music fans of a bygone era that’s still very much with us. So, don’t think twice: this seems to be the book some Manafonistas will dive into, no matter if they had been part of the ancient journey or not. Might be the right time for a parallel reading adventure, guys!