ON THIS DAY – 5 January 1976Bob Dylan – Desire Released fifty years ago today, Desire still feels like one of Bob Dylan’s more reckless decisions. And I mean that as a compliment. This was Dylan swerving hard when most people would have played it safe. No easing you in. No gradual transition. Just a sharp turn and… Read More »
ON THIS DAY – 23 November 1970Cat Stevens – Tea for the Tillerman Fifty-five years ago today, Cat Stevens released Tea for the Tillerman. I was seven months old at the time, so my biggest achievement that year was probably not being sick on anyone. Meanwhile, Cat quietly put out one of the most enduring albums of the… Read More »
Some years slide by without leaving anything except a couple of receipts and a hangover. 2025 was not one of those years. This was a year of gigs, chaos, rail disasters, pints that tasted like regret and friends and family who turned every trip into something worth remembering. Music mattered, but the cast around me mattered more. As… Read More »
Norwich UEA – Saturday November 15th Another gig with Jimmy, another adventure derailed by public transport. Tickets were booked, trains booked, plans made… and then the dreaded Rail Replacement announcement. The rattler from Felixstowe rolled into Ipswich a full ten minutes after the coach to Norwich had departed, which meant only one thing: two pints in The Station… Read More »
By the end of the eighties the football comic was on its last legs. Gary Lineker’s Hot Shot was meant to be the rescue act. Big name on the cover, slicker paper, a bit of shine. But this was issue 14 of what ended up being just 28 before it quietly merged into Roy of the Rovers. I… Read More »
Nine pence. That’s what Saturday cost.A walk to the paper shop, breath in the air that smelt like chip fat and damp leaves, and there it was – Roy of the Rovers. Thirty-odd pages of glory, mud and moral certainty. Cover – “Racey’s Rocket!” Roy in full flight, red shirt flashing, a blur of hair and optimism. Racey’s… Read More »
IPC Magazines Ltd | 3 1/2p | Edited by Wilf Prigmore Not one I read back in the day — I was only three! But chances are my sister had a few copies of Tammy or Sandie scattered around, and maybe I flicked through one between climbing furniture and watching Rainbow. Reading it now, more than fifty years… Read More »
D.C. Thomson & Co. Ltd | 24p | Edited by Bill Graham I’ll start with a confession — Warlord was never one of mine.By 1985, my weekly haul was more likely Tiger, Roy of the Rovers or any other sporty comic. But Warlord? Not really. Even at fifteen, I wasn’t drawn to tales that made war sound like… Read More »
IIPC Magazines Ltd | 14p | Edited by Barrie Tomlinson Back in November 1980, this issue of Tiger and Speed hit the shelves — and I was ten years old, sprinting (well, walking fast) to the paper shop between TISWAS and the start of Grandstand. Forty-odd years later, it’s part of my ever-growing digital archive — one of… Read More »
Adam Ant – Roundhouse, Camden – November 2nd 2025 Tickets were bought back in 2023 for a gig meant to happen in 2024, which of course got kicked into 2025. Typical. By the time it finally rolled around, Hammy was the designated driver so off we went to Colchester to pick up the train into London. It was… Read More »