![]() “I also got pleasure from world-building, narrative building and imagining people who weren’t real. “It would have been a bit of a stretch at times to call it an aspiration, or even a daydream, but even if I couldn’t always express it, I think I’ve always had an affinity with language,” explains Mitchell, a proud patron of the British Stammering Association – an affliction he has himself suffered with throughout his life. A further six novels followed, including his seminal work Cloud Atlas, which was adapted into a motion picture starring Tom Hanks. There, he met his wife, Keiko, before writing his debut novel, Ghostwritten, which was released in 1999 and awarded the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize. He moved to Worcestershire with his family, aged six, and later graduated from Kent University with a masters in comparative literature. In 1994, after a year in Sicily, he moved to Hiroshima, Japan, where he worked as an English teacher. ![]() Mitchell was born in Ainsdale, Southport in 1969, where he has fond childhood memories of playing in the sand dunes. Utopia Avenue is in the real world – it’s an impossible thing alongside a very mundane, suburban thing, so the band and I like the name because it’s an oxymoron.” Even if by some chance you do get there, it rarely stays that utopia for long. “It’s only really a place you can glimpse, but those glimpses are crucial and without them, you are in a dystopia. ![]() “Utopia is otherworldly,” says the 51-year-old, speaking via Skype from his home in County Cork, Ireland, where he lives with his wife and two children. This vibrant yet turbulent period in modern history is the setting of Utopia Avenue, the highly anticipated new novel by Cloud Atlas author David Mitchell, in which a band of the same name climb rock stardom’s precarious ladder. You’re making your own Middle Earth, aren’t you?’”Īlthough the counterculture revolution later drew criticism, it nevertheless helped to shape the collective consciousness and proved that creating a better society was achievable. “My Canadian editor once said: ‘I know what you’re doing, Mitchell. This new era also paved the way for political protest, set to a psychedelic soundtrack featuring the likes of Cream and Pink Floyd. ![]() The capital’s downbeat post-war image was eclipsed by the bright colours of fashion and Pop Art. Not all hardcore followers will need it - unlike Back to the Bars, it doesn't capture either Rundgren or Utopia in their prime - but it's an interesting footnote nonetheless.As San Francisco enjoyed the Summer of Love in 1967, London’s Swinging Sixties were already in motion, allowing the city’s young residents to live their utopian dream. That actually makes for a bit of a bizarre listen, since it's a time capsule out of time, but most diehard fans should be pleased with the performance, especially it balances crowd pleasers ("Love in Action," "Love Is the Answer," "One World," "Just One Victory") with cult favorites ("Fix Your Gaze," "Princess of the Universe," "Hammer in My Heart," the ridiculous "Hiroshima," presumably revived because the band was in Japan). As a matter of fact, judging from the group's performance, it sounds like the performance could have been from 1985, since it is utterly unaffected by contemporary trends. ![]() Although it had been nearly seven years since the band had played live, they sound tight and professional throughout the record. Following the commercial disappointment of 2nd Wind, Todd Rundgren decided to reunite Utopia in 1992 for a brief tour of Japan, releasing Redux '92: Live in Japan as a souvenir that very year. ![]()
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