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Rock Goes to College: Paul Sexton
The hectic, hugely entertaining, and definitive story of the wonderful & amateurish British university gig scene that launched the career of some of the world’s most famous bands.
As rock exploded around the world and the album era began, so young bands and solo acts would sling their gear into their trusty Ford Transits and bomb up and down the new motorway system to university and polytechnic campuses all over the UK, honing their sound and hoping to get signed.
A list of acts who proved themselves on this circuit reads like a who’s who of rock music: Pink Floyd, Elton John, Led Zeppelin, The Who, Fleetwood Mac, Black Sabbath, Queen, The Kinks, Dire Straits, AC/DC, Genesis and Nick Drake all did their time in sweaty and badly ventilated dressing rooms in places like Hull University and Sheffield Poly, and even Paul McCartney, after the Beatles fell apart, took his new band Wings out on the circuit to get them road tested.
Now, for the first time, veteran music journalist Paul Sexton sets out to this extraordinary moment in British music history. Tapping into his huge network of contacts in the music industry, not just with the bands but with the social secretaries who booked the gigs (lots of whom would go on to run record labels and manage huge acts themselves), Rock Goes to College is a fascinating, raucous ride of a book, crammed full of incredible, never-before-heard stories of the beginnings of some of the most famous acts on the planet.
Set in The LCR itself, this event places Norwich at the heart of that story. The LCR stands as one of the very venues that welcomed these touring artists, a space where reputations were forged in front of student audiences, long before arenas and commercial circuits took hold.
In conversation with long-time LCR staff member Gavin Hudson, whose first-hand experience brings an invaluable on-the-ground perspective, Sexton’s account will be enriched by the realities of running and sustaining a venue at the heart of this scene. The conversation will be chaired by Professor George McKay, a leading academic in popular music and culture, whose work offers a wider cultural and historical lens on the period.
Together, they will explore not just the mythology of these gigs, but the logistics, personalities and occasional chaos behind them.