Today it's my turn on the absolutely colossal Blogtour for Dear Mr Pop Star by Derek and Dave Philpott. 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…Don't miss the fantastic Q&A and my review!
About The Philpotts
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.
Follow @DerekPhilpott @unbounders on Twitter
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Buy Dear Mr Pop Star
About the book
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...
Q&A with The Philpotts
Tell us a little bit about Derek and Dave Philpott (keeping your 007 noms de plume alive and kicking here!) The most obvious question is where did the inspiration for this book come from?
It's basically my dad's total ignorance of pop music. He would say the most remarkable things about songs that came on the radio and that I played at home. His lack of knowledge allowed a surreal take on lyrics that an impassioned music fan would bypass. For example, where you or I would listen to Lady Gaga singing ‘’How’d I turn my shirt inside out?’’ and equate it to a wild night at a club, he’d go ‘’Well, obviously you’ve pulled the sleeves the wrong way haven’t you!!’’, and then he’d be off on a rambling monologue about going to the launderette or something
When you started writing the letters was there any real expectation of one of the recipients sending a reply? Not because it’s an eccentric thing to do, but perhaps because it is more likely that your letter is just one of hundreds.
None whatsoever. We just built this website and facebook pages and stuck the letters there unanswered, hanging in cyberspace, and we thought that was funny enough. We did tentatively try to get responses via official channels and management but soon gave up. The answers were procured through the ‘back door of the industry’, via facebook fans who were cousins of the bass players or roadies or next-door but one neighbours of someone that knew their hairdresser. It was totally organic and took a decade. We chose pseudonyms because they are not really us, they are deranged and overblown versions.
There are quite a few letters I thought stood out, both written by The Philpotts and by the artists/stars. Have you got any favourites?
Seriously it changes with every dip, but this week I have to say that our duel with Christopher Butler from The Waitresses is a work of unmitigated genius.
Are there any replies you were genuinely surprised to receive? (Pop Stars are really busy sailing on yachts, riding their Arabian stallions and driving their expensive cars, right?)
We didn’t think we had a hope of Alannah Myles or Devo coming back. We can only guess that their Porches and dapple greys must have been at the garage and vets respectively.
Where do Derek and Dave Philpott go from here? Is there another project in the works?
Volume 3? Er.. see you in 2028 then...although, we are notorious now and it’s getting easier to get replies as the artists all tell each other and vouch for us..we’ll see how this book goes ..
Thanks for answering all of the questions! A pleasure!
When I first heard about this book I thought it was a really amusing idea. I can imagine the status of celebrity comes with the additive of being the recipient of masses of fan mail or in the 21st century receiving messages on social media. There will probably be the occasional death threat (Mr Blobby can be very divisive) and eccentric messages may even equal the semi-normal ones.
Imagine being the recipient of a Philpott speciality, actually you might be surprised or unused to the ancient medium called letter writing. Using real paper, pens and envelopes to communicate with fellow humans. A Philpott communication promises to be witty, a wee bit convoluted and filled with snark. Recipients can take it with the pinch of salt with which is was intended or call their solicitors immediately.
Luckily for the Philpotts the response has been overwhelmingly positive and a lot of the replies are hilariously funny. Talented music artists and music icons have been gracious enough to participate in the joke, and the result is rather extraordinary. Musicians and bands including Katrina and the Waves, Tears for Fears, Squeeze, The Housemartins, Suzi Quatro, Devo, Deep Purple, Nik Kershaw, T’Pau, Human League, Eurythmics, Wang Chung and EMF, to mention just a few of them.
I wonder if these artists talk to each other about the Philpott letters? What I do know is that a lot of the responses are clever political missiles, amusing anecdotes and it's definitely worth the read.
Buy Dear Mr Pop Star to Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer.
Buy at Unbound
Publisher: Unbound, Pub. date 20 Sept. 2018
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