Andy Beckett
Andy Beckett has written about popular culture and about politics since 1993, for The Guardian, the Independent on Sunday, the Economist, the New York Times magazine, and The London Review of Books. He has also published Pinochet in Piccadilly: Britain and Chile’s Hidden History (2002), When the Lights Went Out: Britain in the Seventies (2009), and Promised You a Miracle: Why 1980-82 Made Modern Britain (2015). He still buys music, with a weakness for '70s Miles Davis and '80s albums on SST Records.
14 articles
List of articles in the library
Elvis Presley, Sex Pistols: Greil Marcus: A Surfer on the Zeitgeist
Profile and Interview by Andy Beckett, The Independent, 23 May 1993
This isn't exactly life on the edge: Greil Marcus is married, nearly 50, and lives in a nice big house in northern California. But he ...
Simon Garfield: The Nation's Favourite – The True Adventures of Radio 1 (Faber)
Book Review by Andy Beckett, London Review of Books, 15 April 1999
RADIO 1 USED to sound like Surrey to me. Perhaps it was the disc jockeys they used in those days, with their creamy car-dealer's voices ...
Book Review by Andy Beckett, London Review of Books, September 2005
IN JANUARY 1978, the Sex Pistols, then and now the most famous punk band in the world, split up. Johnny Rotten, the band's singer, most ...
Dave Haslam: Manchester, England – The Story of the Pop Cult City (Fourth Estate)
Book Review by Andy Beckett, London Review of Books, 17 February 2000
ON TIB STREET in the centre of Manchester, in the part of the city keen to promote itself as the Northern Quarter, a new delicatessen ...
New Order: Peter Hook: Substance – Inside New Order
Book Review by Andy Beckett, The Guardian, 5 October 2016
The band's bassist gives full details of drugs, groupies and excesses on tour, but his account of New Order's voyage to becoming a pop institution ...
Paul Gorman: The Story of The Face
Book Review by Andy Beckett, The Guardian, 1 November 2017
This huge, rich book is a celebration not only of the style bible but of London, Manchester and Liverpool in the late 20th century. ...
The kids are all right: Jon Savage's Teenage – The Creation of Youth
Book Review by Andy Beckett, The Guardian, 14 April 2007
Andy Beckett enjoys Jon Savage's compelling and meticulous prehistory of adolescence, Teenage. ...
Graham Stewart: Bang! A History of Britain in the 1980s
Book Review by Andy Beckett, The Guardian, 17 January 2013
A study of Thatcher's era that leaves vital questions unanswered ...
Joy Division: Peter Hook: Unknown Pleasures – Inside Joy Division
Book Review by Andy Beckett, The Guardian, 19 September 2012
Andy Beckett on a raw, surprising account of the classic post-punk band ...
Bob Dylan: He's glum, he's 55 and he sang at Hyde Park. So who listens now?
Comment by Andy Beckett, The Independent, 29 June 1996
"DON'T WRITE that we're all old hippies," said the Dylan fan, short-haired, hatchet-faced and over 40. He walked off across the bookshop, handing out set ...
Jarvis Cocker, Pulp: Jarvis Cocker: Serious about songs
Profile by Andy Beckett, The Independent, 25 February 1996
Andy Beckett on the wry idol who was more than ready for overnight success ...
Manic Street Preachers: Richey Edwards: Missing street preacher
Retrospective by Andy Beckett, The Independent, 2 March 1997
LATE LAST MONDAY night, near the weary end of the televised blare called the Brits Awards, three dressed-down Welshmen — two small, one awkwardly tall ...
George Michael: Dance again, George
Profile by Andy Beckett, Independent on Sunday, 7 January 1996
He's back and he's seven-minute serious. Andy Beckett on pop's sharpest risk-taker ...
Robson & Jerome: Soldiering on to be top of the pops
Report by Andy Beckett, The Independent, 10 December 1995
Andy Beckett tells how Robson and Jerome came to rival the Beatles in the Christmas nostalgia stakes. ...
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