‘The Final Revival of Opal & Nev’ by Dawnie Walton

[H]ow did I not just let life run me over? I’m sorry, I don’t usually use this word, but it’s because fuck that. I believe in myself above all.

‘The Final Revival of Opal & Nev’ by Dawnie Walton is set in the 1970s and the mid-2010s. Written like an oral history, it chronicles the musical journey of the unlikely punk duo, Opal and Nev.

A few weeks after finishing ‘Utopia Avenue’ by David Mitchell, I stumbled upon this book and simply had to read it. I had unfair expectations of this book that it did not meet. But I’m glad it didn’t. Opal & Nev is its own story, and it's good!

Opal and Nev performed together in the 1970s. Opal is fierce, eccentric, and Black. She speaks—and sings—her mind. Nev is a successful British singer-songwriter who is very ambitious. In 2016, a reunion seems possible, so the narrator, a journalist, seizes the opportunity to write a book about them.

And can there be music without queer folks? Of course not!

CW: racism and police brutality, violence, sexism and misogynoir, grief and loss, trauma, references to suicide