Alley Theatre to host conversation event with best selling author Elizabeth Sharkey

The wife of former Undertones frontman and solo artist Feargal Sharkey will be discussing her best selling book ‘Why Britain Rocked: How Rock Became Roll and Took Over the World’ at the venue on October 12.

She will be joined in conversation with Beatles’ author Dr Richard Mills and live music will be by Chyan Davidson. In the Amazon best selling book Elizabeth travels deep into Britain’s history to trace the events that led to its 20th century musical explosion and argues that The Beatles’ arrival that so surprised the world really shouldn’t have been a surprise at all.

From the Celts and the Quakers, to Ira Aldridge and Paul Robeson, Why Britain Rocked breaks out of British pop history’s 20th century confines. Instead, Sharkey starts the story in Celtic Britain and follows the migration of the peoples who carried their music from the British Isles to the southern states, laying the foundations of America’s folk music and ultimately rock n’ roll. She then brings the story back to the British Isles, identifying the Celtic inheritance of superstars from Lonnie Donegan and The Beatles, to David Bowie, John Lydon, Kate Bush, Johnny Marr, Noel Gallagher and Ed Sheeran and makes the bold claim that without Irish musicality, there would be no British pop. A trained actress, Elizabeth’s previous career was working extensively in television and film and she is recognised as one of the UK’s leading voice-over artists.

Dr Richard Mills is an Associate Professor in English and Popular Culture at St Mary’s University, London, and has been programme director for the Film and Popular Culture, Cultural Studies and Irish Studies degrees. He has published extensively on popular music, Irish literature and culture, film, fashion and British television. Mills is co-editor of Mad Dogs and Englishness (Bloomsbury, 2017), the author of The Beatles and Fandom: Sex, Death and Progressive Nostalgia (Bloomsbury, 2019). He is also the author of the recently published The Beatles and Black Music: Post-colonial Theory, Musicology and Remix Culture (Bloomsbury, 2023) and The Beatles and Humour (Bloomsbury, 2023).

Richard is a regular contributor to BBC 4’s Last Word, Sky News, RTE, Portobello Radio and BBC Live. He is also on the editorial board of The Journal of Beatles Studies.

Chyan is a Shetland fiddle player who started performing from a young age, winning the traditional section of the Shetland Young Fiddler of the year competition in 2014 and performing as part of the ‘Hjaltibonhoga Shetland Fiddlers’ in the Royal Edinburgh Military tattoo.

Tickets are priced at £10 and are available from the Alley Theatre website www.alley-theatre.com or call the box office on 028 71 384444.