David Hepworth

David Hepworth took over Smash Hits as editor in 1981 and went on to launch Q in 1986, Mojo in 1993 and The Word in 2003, alongside Just Seventeen, Empire and Heat. He co-presented The Old Grey Whistle Test for the BBC and anchored its Live Aid coverage from Wembley in 1985. The Professional Publishers Association has given him its Editor of the Year and Writer of the Year awards, and the British Society of Magazine Editors its Mark Boxer award. Uncommon People, published in 2017 and subtitled The Rise and Fall of the Rock Stars 1955-1994, is built as forty year-by-year chapters, each turning on a single performer at a decisive moment. Hepworth's case is that the rock-star era lasted for those four decades rather than becoming a permanent feature of popular music. An earlier book of his, 1971: Never a Dull Moment, was adapted by the director Asif Kapadia into an Apple TV+ series in 2021.