Irish Blood, English Heart: Second Generation Irish Musicians in England [Paperback]

The book draws on extensive archival research of print and audio-visual media as well as original interviews with the key figures, including Shane MacGowan, Johnny Marr, Kevin Rowland and C??it O???Riordan. Combining its assiduous research with fresh critical insights, the book offers new analyses of the musicians, as well as previously undocumented accounts of their lives and work. The book highlights the diversity and complexity of second-generation Irish identities and experience and details the diverse ways in which this generation has shaped popular music in England. Accessible and original, Irish Blood, English Heartwill be of interest to students and scholars in the fields of popular music, media/cultural studies, and ethnic/migration studies. It will also appeal to a wider audience of those interested in the musicians with whom it deals. [The author Sean] Campbell pays close attention to lyrics and instrumentation, noting Irish influence where many maight not have otherwise seen or heard it....Irish Blood, English Heartprovides a wonderful addition to the academic examination of both English and Irish music. It is certainly one of the more perspective-shifting pieces of writing to come along in ages. ???This is not just a subtle and sophisticated scholarly contribution to popular music and Irish studies. It is also a fine and exciting account of how music can be used to make sense of the complexity, anxiety and exhilaration of contemporary cultural identities.??????The role of the second-generation Irish in shaping British pop has, until now, been all but overlooked. Sean Campbell looks deeply and thought-provokingly at the second-generation Irish ???in-betweenness??? of Kevin Rowland, Shane MacGowan and, perhaps, most surprisingly, Morrissey and Johnny Marr of The Smiths, that seemingly most English of pop groups. He sheds new light on their songs and on the strategies of protest, resistance and assimilation articulated therein. &lc2