As suggested by John W on The Yachts thread. Here’s your opportunity to address the broad church that is Powerpop. What a broad church it is too. For me it could be anything from certain Beatles tracks, to The Jam to Fountains Of Wayne and then onto things like Marshall Crenshaw, The Smithereens, even some XTC. Many will disagree I suspect! Anyone prepared to argue the point and make their own definition? Any modern examples?

Inspired by the “I wish I’d seen this band” thread, I thought I’d ask what is the most unlikely gig you have actually seen? Mine would have to be when I saw TC&I back in October at a small local arts centre in Swindon. Who are TC&I, you may well ask? If you didn’t already know, or hadn’t already realised, it will all become much clearer when I say (for those unaware) that the TC stands for Terry Chambers and the “I” refers to Colin Moulding. Yes, we’re talking about half of XTC, who famously stopped playing live in 1982 due to singer and writer of the bulk of their songs Andy Partridge suffered an on-stage breakdown and subsequently decided to stop touring or indeed playing live at all. He pretty much stuck to it too. As a result I never thought I’d get to actually see any of those fabulous songs played by the people who wrote them. TC&I (an inspired name I thought) had released an EP in 2017 which had been well received if a tad under-publicised. So when back in July a week of dates all at the 200 capacity Swindon Arts Centre was announced, tickets » Continue Reading.

Having been born in 1967 I became a teenager in 1980. I didn’t suddenly get into music at that time because I already had. However I did most of my growing up in that much maligned decade and I do get rather fed up of the received wisdom nowadays that the eighties is only about Duran Duran, Wham, Princess Diana, Phil Collins, Live Aid, big hair, crap production, Yuppies and “Greed Is Good.” That stuff had a lot of fans for sure, but it isn’t just how I remember it! Sure, there was some awful stuff around but you ignored it. I remember new wave, post-punk, Billy Bragg’s first album, (whether you like him or not it was fresh, raw and different) the rise of REM/Sonic Youth/Pixies, the birth of The Smiths, some decent soul, innovative early hip hop, pre-gentrified festivals and a real dissenting voice that resulted in protests. Lots of them. In 1984 I left school. In the six years that followed I went to loads of gigs, played a bit of music myself, drank quite a bit, protested about a lot of things, calmed down a bit and by the end of the decade realised I should » Continue Reading.

I see on another thread there is a mention of football! Hope it’s OK to start a specific one. Does anyone else follow the beautiful game? Although I was raised as a West Ham fan I’m a non-league sort of guy these days. My team, Hampton & Richmond Borough of the National League South, are having a (cough!) “transitional” season in that we lost our manager and the backbone of the side to another club in the summer. All a bit depressing as we made the playoff final last season. Who are your teams and how are they doing at the moment?