Digging in a box of Charity Shop records: – Here I go again with another charity shop splurge in my home town of Houghton-le-Spring on Friday and in Sunderland this morning. All in all, a worthwhile excursion to the bargain bins of the North East and where, it seems, an accumulation of budget label LP releases find their resting place.
Read More CHARITY SHOP EXCURSIONS – PART 14 – HOUGHTON-LE-SPRING & SUNDERLANDThe Clash’s Joe Strummer puts down Bob Geldof, the Police and the current crop of new bands but says things will get better. “It’s going to be better. The harder Margaret Thatcher sets in, the more benefits you’ll see for rock ‘n’ roll.”
Read More THE CLASH – SUMMERTIME BLUESLife’s a rat’s life in The Damned. Boys! Lack confidence when girls are around? Your tongue gets twisted when you stumble up to her in a disco? All your buddies seem to pull but you can never get past sticky stutter syndrome?
Read More THE DAMNED – PLAYING FAST AND LOUDSmash Hits meets Secret Affair So sings Ian Page of Secret Affair. cool, huh? In fact about the coolest, neatest way of winning a teenage street corner confrontation you could possibly imagine. A clean KO without even loosening your tie. Great.
Read More SECRET AFFAIR – SOME SECRETS YOU CAN’T HIDEDavid Hepworth meets Paul, Rick and Bruce. It’s August 1979 and this is The Modern World. The Who are back in action for the first time in years, their films are on release, and Modrophenia has taken over the capital.
Read More THE JAM – TALKING ‘BOUT MY GENERATIONJimmy Pursey talks to Smash Hits – “The more you believe in something,” Pursey says, “the more chance there is of you either going nuts or killing yourself. Because you think you can change something and the odds are you can’t. Not quickly, anyway. Half the time, the opposite happens.
Read More SHAM 69 – STOP YOUR GABBINGSmash Hits check out the great Pretenders. Thirty five feet above London’s Floral Street – where Pan’s People used to rehearse – the Great Pretender, Chrissie Hynde, is checking out her more off-beat fan letters.
Read More THE PRETENDERS – STOP YOUR GOBBINGIn which Ian Cranna tries to fathom – “I became more positive when I was in a band towards what I wanted to do, which was to be a singer and writer. Before I was in a band, I knew what I didn’t want to do – which was everything offered to me, that was available to me. And then the band just happened.”
Read More SIOUXSIE & THE BANSHEES – BALANCING THE SCALESSmash Hits meet Poly Styrene. Like a lot of females on the scene, Poly Styrene seems to be known less for her music and more for her offstage activities. When X-Ray Spex broke out of the punk pack in 1978, largely by dint of their leading lady’s very special talent, Poly became something of an overnight celebrity.
Read More X-RAY SPEX : GOODBYE TO PLASTIC ACTION DOLLIf this is Tuesday, it must be Blackburn. Dressing rooms look the same everywhere. Basement or attic, broom cupboard or spacious suite, they may try but they never manage to look clean. The Wolverhampton Civic Hall on a Monday night is no exception.
Read More THE UNDERTONES TALK TO SMASH HITS