Sit Down! Listen to This!

Featured in a BBC Radio 4 Documentary on New Year's Eve 2012! The hour-long documentary, hosted by Mark Radcliffe, featured interviews with many of Roger's protegees and admirers, as well as close friend Bill Sykes, author of 'Sit Down! Listen to This!' Roger Eagle was a towering figure in British popular music. Uniquely his influence straddled the cultural divide separating Manchester and Liverpool. The task of unifying the musical talents of these two cultural hubs has proved beyond almost everyone. The sole exception is the subject of this book -- a man whose influence can still be felt today. In any scene there needs to be a personality capable of leading a generation towards a new sound and consequently new tastes and fashions. What is unusual about Roger Eagle is his formative role in the development of at least three and arguably four such music scenes that altered the course of music in Britain between the mid-sixties and early nineties. From the Blues explosion of the mid-sixties, via the birth of Northern Soul to the pioneering Beatles defying spirit of Merseyside's New Wave and the re-birth of Manchester music, close friend and former neighbour Bill Sykes charts Roger's continued influence on the music scenes in both cities and talks to some of the main figures who were inspired by him.