The Adventures of Thin Lizzy
The Adventures of Thin Lizzy – a promotional ad for the band’s 1981 album
2011
Read More
Ghost Town – my ska 2tone optioned drama
Ghost Town is a ska 2Tone drama set in Coventry and optioned by author Tony McMahon based on real-life stories from the 1980s
Bands playing Northern Ireland during The Troubles
Bands often avoided Northern Ireland during The Troubles so the province generated its own punk scene as Tony McMahon discovers
1980s Rockabilly and the Teddy Boy revival
1980s Rockabilly fused rock’n’roll and punk but traditional British Teddy Boys were not amused as Tony McMahon discovers
Birmingham – punk breaks the heavy metal stranglehold
Heavy Metal reigned supreme in the English city of Birmingham in the 1970s until Punk came along as Tony McMahon discovers
The Special Patrol Group and the 80s riots
The Special Patrol Group was a Metropolitan unit that became very unpopular in the 1970s and was blamed for the 1981 riots in Brixton
Walthamstow – Mecca of Punk and New Wave
Walthamstow in north east London has a proud Punk and New Wave history centred on Small Wonder Records as Tony McMahon reports
Berlin and the 1980s German pop craze
In the early 1980s – British indie kids got into German pop especially the so-called Neue Deutsche Welle as Tony McMahon recalls
Robert Plant on Tiswas
In 1981, Led Zeppelin front man Robert Plant found himself on children’s programme Tiswas as Tony McMahon discovers
Kraftwerk releases Computer World
In 1981, Kraftwerk released the Computer World album at a time when synth pop was dominating the charts and Tony McMahon was there