It’s not surprising the sixth of seven Bevington children would be a rebel, a musical prodigy whose path to fame as a classical violinist would be waylaid by blues and prog before being terminally derailed by a name change and Come On Eileen. Helen O’Hara turns out to be a gifted writer, too, detailing pop fandom in the 1970s with a fine eye. The painstaking (and painful) creation of the band’s Gesamtkunstwerk, as a German critic refers to the ‘total art work’ that is 1985’s Don’t Stand Me Down, is compellingly recalled.
