1971 – Never A Dull Moment: rock’s golden year
David Hepworth

David Hepworth has started something. Mixtapes and personal playlists are nothing new, but the man who once fronted The Old Grey Whistle Test and co-founded Q magazine (and so needs to be listened to) has thrown down a gauntlet and done so with the airy erudition that has always characterised his rock writing. Even if younger readers plump for 1984 (Madonna, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Duran Duran, Prince) or 1989 (Stone Roses, Happy Mondays, “Madchester”) as rock’s golden year, they will take away a huge amount of lore, not just about a distant past defined by heavy riffs and prog pretensions, but about how an industry evolved.