Dear Mr Pop Star by Derek & Dave Philpott #BookReview #BlogTour


A collection of hilarious letters to iconic pop and rock stars with fantastic in-on-the-joke replies from the artists themselves: Eurythmics, Heaven 17, Deep Purple, Devo, Dr. Hook and many, many more…

For more than a decade, Derek Philpott and his son, Dave, have been writing deliberately deranged letters to pop stars from the 1960s to the 90s to take issue with the lyrics of some of their best-known songs. They miss the point as often as they hit it.

But then, to their great surprise, the pop stars started writing back... 

Dear Mr Pop Star contains 100 of Derek and Dave's greatest hits, including correspondence with Katrina and the Waves, Tears for Fears, Squeeze, The Housemartins, Suzi Quatro, Devo, Deep Purple, Nik Kershaw, T’Pau, Human League, Eurythmics, Wang Chung, EMF, Mott the Hoople, Heaven 17, Jesus Jones, Johnny Hates Jazz, Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine, Chesney Hawkes and many, many more.

I'm delighted to be taking part in the blog tour for Dear Mr Pop Star today, many thanks to the authors for inviting me and for my advance copy of their book.

I have a bit of history when it comes to mishearing or misunderstanding song lyrics; I thought The Stranglers, 'Golden Brown' was about bread and included the line, "lays me down with my man cheetah," that the Dukes of Hazzard were in Pink Floyd's classroom, Cupid bought arsonists Valentines in Terence Trent D'Arby's 'Wishing Well', Spandau Ballet were concerned about a hard prisoner of war and Prince sang about a kitten in 'Cream'. So I can only thank Derek and Dave Philpott for their years of dedicated letter writing as they aim to get to the bottom of just what various artists have been singing about for years, along with some salutary advice where necessary.
Thankfully many pop stars have written back and as a result learn that we owe Clark Datchler of Johnny Hates Jazz an enormous debt of thanks for his time travelling exploits, that Cutting Crew's Nick Van Eede almost died in a hair spray related work incident and back in 1980, Devo performed a heartfelt ode to one of my favourite dog breeds, the whippet.
While many artists have taken the time to respond - and quite frankly why would they not after receiving a missive that includes such pertinent details as Derek's wife, Jean's ability to make an outstanding success of a meal even though she was forced to substitute Loyd Grossman Tomato & Chilli sauce with Dolmio thus proving that second best can still result in Perfect? - some stars haven't yet responded to some of Derek and Dave's pithier questions or comments. Nevertheless, I hope Elton John takes to heart their admonishment about no night being suitable for an altercation. I'd also be interested to know if Billy Joel will apologise for ruining Tony Shoesmith's first date with his ill-conceived advice to "tell her all your crazy dreams"and if Ultravox have yet fallen foul of Austria's tourist board due to their rather dismissive attitude towards the country's capital city? And I'm definitely with the Philpotts when it comes to avoiding sharing lift space with Aerosmith...
Dear Mr Pop Star is a joyous collection of letters and notes with as much pleasure to be derived from the Philpott's (and particularly Derek's) unique way of asking questions as from the responses from the pop stars themselves which range from apologetic to philosophical to slightly belligerent. There are so many songs referenced here that some will naturally have more resonance than others but most people with an interest in pop music from the 60s to the 90s will find something here to elicit a laugh - or more likely several laughs. I can only hope now that the Philpott's turn their attention to more modern artists - I'd love to know Derek's thoughts on Nicki Minaj's Anaconda for instance...
Dear Mr Pop Star would be an inspired gift for any music lover this Christmas, I recommend it to everybody but particularly those who want to know a bit more about the disputes regarding ownership of the suspended airborne precipitation (fog) frequently encountered in the Newcastle area - especially on the River Tyne.

Dear Mr Pop Star will be published by Unbound on 20th September 2018 and can be purchased here.

Don't forget to check out some of the other stops on this mammoth blog tour, details are below.


About the Authors
Derek and Dave Philpott are the noms de plume of two ordinary members of the public, working with help from a worldwide social networking community.
Twitter  Facebook

Comments

  1. Oh Karen, don’t know where to start! Thank you!! It’s been a joy to bat emails back and forth over the past few months like a literary Wimbledon, and you have been polite and encouraging throughout. Just massive appreciation not just for diverting your valuable time and resources, but also for such a stupendous review that cuts right to the essence and heart of our mad little world… sadly, or perhaps happily, we can't get past Minaj's 'people' to solve that elongated reptile montrosity riddle. Best and Highest, Dave and Dad Philpott (shaking off the pseud temporarily)

    P.S. We always thought it was 'Gordon Brown, text ya' like son'

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  2. It was such a pleasure! I LOVEd your ACE book, I had a BALL reading it so it wasn't a DEUCE of a job at all to review! And perhaps it's just as well that the snake is kept under wraps...

    P.S. You could be right actually, The Stranglers may well have predicted the former PM's over familiar style of text messages to other heads of state asking for a lend of a few quid if he promised to do the washing up for a week?

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  3. I shall resist a joke about new balls plea- oh too late. Who'd have thought that so many many punks were soothsayers.. What next? A Nicky In The UK?? As long as it's not Knowles as PM! Bless you

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