Years ago a friend of mine visited a dour and grey 80s pre-glasnost Moscow. Taking shelter from the icy rain he wandered into a threadbare and gloomy cafe. Imagine his shock when he spotted a customer slumped […]

Everyone was perfect in The Wizard of Oz. Especially Toto.

A friend of mine back in the 80s was very much into industrial music. I think a lot of that stuff was meant to scare the listener. Coil,SPK,Whitehouse and Throbbing Gristle “pushing, then destroying the […]

Always been Franco. It’s my real name. Sicilian parentage. Feel about as Sicilian as a bag of pork scratchings.

I was beaten up by a drunk Dwarf in a Wakefield pub while waiting for a first date who never turned up.

The Adicts. Sound of Music.

I think my gateway into music was the test card soundtrack played during BBC TV downtime in the early 70s I particularly remember I Was Kaiser Bill’s Batman by Whistling Jack Smith. It probably led to my lifelong […]

During the early 80s during my tragic Psychobilly phase I was constantly told that I resembled Rowan Atkinson’s gormless first incarnation of Black Adder. Having a jet black flat top hairstyle didn’t help as it […]

The Face. Blue Rondo a La Turk and zoot suits springs instantly to mind.

An old Slinky spring, dangling forlornly from a telephone pole cable. Every housing estate had one.

The original Human League.

Good old Black Lace. Back in the 80’s during their imperial phase a guy who used to roadie for them lived two houses down from my gran. I used to see them both regularly, always wearing those bright red and […]

The world of Industrial/EBM seems to have more than its fair share of rubbish band names. I give you. Apoptygma Berzerk Cultivated Bimbo E_Rection Fektion Fekler X-Marks The Pedwalk. Cat Rapes Dog Genital A-Tech

I’ve got a lot of the Sparrer’s stuff. Brilliant band.

Back in the mid eighties I sat next to Alice Nutter on a National Express coach bound from Leeds to Liverpool. She was lovely.

You didn’t work at the Farmstores at Lofthouse Gate did you?Your recollection echoes my own 80s experience. Gary Davies was on before Steve Wright. I remember a lad in the warehouse who would regularly throw pots […]

Tommy Emmanuel and Molly Tuttle. Names more suited for couple of turns from a 1970s working mens club.

There used to be a punk band called The Velvet Underpants. Actually that’s quite a good name.

Mike Campbell & The Dirty Knobs. I mean, Mike Campbell. Ridiculous.

Are there many independent record shops left in New York/ Manhatten?