Walls Come Tumbling Down by Daniel Rachel will feature on the Radio 2 Fact not Fiction Book Club on Thursday 15 September.
The book was selected with the help of a panel made up of Reading Agency and library staff from across the UK. Find out more about the non-fiction strand of the Radio 2 Book Club.
You can win 10 copies of Walls Come Tumbling Down for your reading group – just visit our Noticeboard.
We have an exclusive extract available for you to read as well as some discussion questions for your reading group.
Walls Come Tumbling Down
Walls Come Tumbling Down charts the pivotal period between 1976 and 1992 that saw politics and pop music come together for the first 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 all shaped, and were shaped by, the music of a generation.
Composed of interviews with over 150 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.
Selection panel review
Our reading panel from libraries and The Reading Agency loved Walls Come Tumbling Down – here are some of their comments:
“Interesting topic about the history of Rock Against Racism – well written including material from leading music journalists. I thought the book was very interesting and informative. It had a nice easy writing style. I liked the structure of the book and it gave us some insight on how the music media has tackled racism throughout since the 1960s. I liked the way the author had explored all the different musical styles and genres.”
“I thought this was fascinating for charting how cultural engagement defied politics in the late 1970s and 80s, and challenged institutionalised racism, but also for being an oral history and bringing memories and voices from the time to the fore. I learned about a movement and a time I knew little about in the music scene.”
About the author
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.
A word from Daniel
I’m thrilled Walls Come Tumbling Down has been chosen by the Radio 2 Book Club. Bringing together the voices of over 100 musicians, politicians, activists and cultural agitators has been incredible. Many of the contributors you could quite readily pass in the street little realizing the tremendous impact they had on the cultural politics of the period. Their willingness to make a stand and be defined by their politics and humanity changed the social history of our country. And yet, as the narrative and themes of the book unfold – racism, sexism, gender struggles multiculturalism, Internationalism, solidarity, immigration, political civil war, right-wing extremism – they scream out, ‘This is Britain, today.’ For all that, I hope you will find, as I do, that there is much humour, hope and inspirational goodwill to offer light across the dark days of our recent past. Enjoy!
Get involved
Tune in to the Radio 2 Arts Show on Thursday 15 September to hear an interview with Daniel Rachel talking about his book.
Have you read Walls Come Tumbling Down? You can share your thoughts with us on Twitter, using #DanielRachel, or visit the book page to leave a review, or find out what other readers thought.
Want to find out more? Take a look at the Radio 2 Book Club Twitter feed or find out more on the Radio 2 Book Club website
