Category Archives: Music

Flying in the face of fashion – the Wayne Hemingway interview

This September, Vintage by the Sea returns to the Lancashire coast, aiming to build on last year’s successful event in Morecambe, one that attracted 40,000 visitors. The two-day festival will see the resort seafront and its landmark venues transformed, the … Continue reading

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Albania to Southport, via Brighton – with Attila the Stockbroker

It’s been some journey for Attila the Stockbroker, who publishes his autobiography Arguments Yard later this year, with little to suggest he’s slowing down. This is the radical performance poet and musician who toured East Germany four times before the … Continue reading

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Picture the poet, greet the griot – the Benjamin Zephaniah interview

When I spoke to Benjamin Zephaniah earlier this week, he was between a BBC radio interview and two days lecturing at West London’s Brunel University. The Lincolnshire-based dub poet, author and activist was then heading back for another radio broadcast … Continue reading

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March on with The Stranglers – the Baz Warne interview

It’s not often a front-man is still regularly held up to scrutiny after 15 years with a band, but that’s how it often goes with Baz Warne. To put it mildly, The Stranglers’ founder member Hugh Cornwell was a hard … Continue reading

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Cathy’s Adventures in Wonderland – the Cathy Cassidy interview

In my second feature centred around World Book Day 2015, I talked about Alice, libraries, music, the power of dreams and much more with best-selling children’s writer Cathy Cassidy, in an interview a few days before her WBD appearances at Preston … Continue reading

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Finally catching up with Frank Cottrell Boyce

I won’t hold back. Lots of people who know about my love for children’s lit will have heard me talk in glowing terms about the work of Frank Cottrell Boyce, the respected film scriptwriter who turned to fiction with such … Continue reading

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One-time Goodie remains a rebel without a clue – the Graeme Garden interview

If Graeme Garden had taken up his expected vocation and become a doctor, the 72-year-old might well have had his feet up by now. The Aberdeen-born Prestonian pondered this down the telephone line from his home in Oxfordshire, in a … Continue reading

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Dances with Wolves, Belfast and Wigan – Introducing The Nouvelles

It seems odd that a band that recently recorded a song for the Northern Ireland football team’s Euro 2016 campaign should be based in Wigan. What’s more, this happening indie outfit are fronted by a singer who played a key … Continue reading

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The Race for Space by Public Service Broadcasting – a writewyattuk review

It was supposedly a happy accident that Public Service Broadcasting stumbled upon correlations between the sublime Everest on their debut LP and a mention of George Mallory’s historic Peak XV explorations while working on their second. Either way, it was … Continue reading

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When you comin’ back? The Gretchen Peters interview

Gretchen Peters is on the crest of a wave, and loving it. After all those years perfecting her songwriting craft, getting on for 20 of those as a solo artist, it seems like the critics have finally sat up and taken … Continue reading

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