Today, Tamworth is a market town in Staffordshire with an old castle and an indoor snow dome. It's also famous...
Music
80s popstar draws himself Dave Wakeling was front man of ska combo The Beat alongside the late and great Ranking...
Aged fourteen, I went on the huge Anti-Nazi League carnival in east London in 1978. Pictured above is me in...
Punk was born in 1976. Punk died in 1977. Or so it kind of felt at the time. Apart from...
Two big reasons I chose Liverpool for university in 1981 and they were: politics and music. The city was bubbling...
1979 and 1980 were the glory years of the so-called "second wave" of ska music - first wave in Jamaica...
Ranking Roger of The Beat in Record Mirror Terry Hall of The Specials in Record Mirror
Ten years ago I co-wrote the biography of Neville Staple - vocalist in The Specials. An entire generation came of...
Neville Staple is still touring with The Neville Staple Band and I filmed this gig on my iPhone in Chelsea...
Well, for most of the time it was adulation in the 70s and 80s but Bowie wasn't immune to criticism...