Category Archives: Music

Renewable Power in the Darkness – back in touch with Tom Robinson

As I may have mentioned on these pages before, few TV shows of yore hold as much magic as Top of the Pops re-runs for this nostalgic, and recently I was digging among the online archives for the October 1977 … Continue reading

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Stepping back into Daylight – the Pauline Black interview

You need only take a couple of listens to the new album by influential ska favourites The Selecter to be convinced this is not a band content to sit back on past endeavours. What’s more, vocalist Pauline Black doesn’t do … Continue reading

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Returning to Heaven on Earth – the Belinda Carlisle interview

I already had a decade and more than 200 live shows under my belt by the summer of 1990, yet never got to see a headline gig in the North West until that June at Manchester Apollo, out with my … Continue reading

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Blancmange: Unfurnished Rooms – a writewyattuk review

While Blancmange will always remain a two-man entity in the hearts of much of their loyal fanbase, it’s worth noting it’s now been six years since Neil Arthur was largely left to his own devices in the engine room. Carrying … Continue reading

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Wind and Rain and Shine – the Graham Gouldman interview

Perhaps I should open with a few stats, seeing as today’s interviewee is associated with plenty that make for impressive reading. For starters, 10cc, the band Graham Gouldman formed with Eric Stewart, Kevin Godley and Lol Crème in 1972, have … Continue reading

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Mary Casio’s 2017 space odyssey – checking in with Hannah Peel

Space – the final frontier. But in this case we’re talking the voyage of Mary Casio rather than Star Trek’s Captain James T. Kirk, boldly going where no woman has gone before – via a garden shed in Yorkshire. Last … Continue reading

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Regarde le chou: getting a taste for Cabbage with Joe Martin

Performance poet turned guitarist/singer Joe Martin was between a band rehearsal and a couple of train rides that would take him over the North Yorkshire border when I called him. But when I let on that a version of our interview … Continue reading

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Believe Me Him – back in touch with Blancmange’s Neil Arthur

Based in Gloucestershire since leaving London a dozen years ago, Blancmange mastermind Neil Arthur continues to divide his time between the Cotswolds and old haunts in the capital. “I really enjoy it, including walks when I finish work or early … Continue reading

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Reprising the Roachford Files – the Andrew Roachford interview

After his latest successful tour with Mike + The Mechanics, Andrew Roachford is back on the road with his band this autumn. Know the name but struggling to place the back-catalogue? Well, his biggest hits came with his first collective in the … Continue reading

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Talking ’bout that Who generation – back in conversation with Richard Houghton

Did you happen to catch a band called The High Numbers in Greenford, West London, in 1963? They were regulars at the Oldfield Hotel around then, still playing there the following year, by which time they’d changed name to The … Continue reading

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