2021 Music Roundup

by Pete Clemons

2021 an overview

If 2020 was a catastrophic year for the music industry then 2021 was equally as difficult. If not more. So for those involved in it – Massive thanks to all for keeping our spirits high…………..

With music venues in the U.K. remaining closed until July 19 live activity hit promoters hard and resulted in fewer performing opportunities for bands and artists alike.

Ongoing restrictions meant a whole raft of ideas being floated including drive in gigs. But none really came to fruition. It also appears that the imitative for livestream gigs didn’t exactly capitalise on the absence of the real thing either. Extensive technical issues seemed to mar many of the events.

Yet despite the problems on the live circuit Coventry bucked the trend with the opening of two new outstanding music venues. The HMV Empire and Drapers Hall. And both, very quickly, began to attract big names. Along with venues like The Arches in Spon End, which again battled every obstacle set before it and The Assembly in Leamington Spa which appears to be booking a whole host of bands for 2022 then Coventry and Warwickshire must be in a favourable position as far as the future of live music is concerned.

Live music

How wonderful it was to see the return of the Godiva festival. And what an unforgettable weekend it turned out to be. Yes there were teething problems with ticketing and entrance. Overall though a great experience. But that was during the early part of September.

By then though we had seen the stop start opening of the HMV Empire. Blues 2 Go take the honour of being the first band to grace its stage on its opening night. They were quickly joined by The Session, Candid and Stone Foundation on that prestigious occasion.

This was quickly followed by a series of indoor and outdoor gigs at the old cathedral and the Assembly Festival Gardens that included Hazel O’Connor, The Session and Candid.

August saw Roddy ‘Radiation’ Byers in conversation at the Cathedral Ruins and Callum Pickard make his long awaited live debut with his latest project Tarragon at Jephson Gardens in Leamington Spa.

Soon after the Godiva weekend we were graced with a gig by The Specials at the CBS arena. And it really was very good. Old songs and new both greeted enthusiastically. No denying that the pandemic had affected gig goers confidence by way of many none showers. But with no adverse affects afterwards it was deemed a total success. As was the whole of The Specials 2021 tour.

October 1st at last gave Barnabus the opportunity to play their last ever gig. And what a performance that was at the Nelson Club, Warwick. The trio of John Storer, Keith Hancock and Tony Cox pulling out the gig of a lifetime. They were incredibly good. Yep, it really was that impressive. Local charities benefited also.

October also saw Peter Knight’s Gigspanner perform at St. Bartholomew’s Church Hall on the Binley Road. Peter of course was once violinist for Steeleye Span. And this was Gigspanner’s first outing for a good while. The enjoyment of all, particularly those performing, was infectious.

Paul Weller graced the Empire during November. This was a monster of a gig. 30 plus songs in a set that lasted going on for almost 3 hours.

Finally December when I saw Jethro Tull, The Skabilly Rebels, Two Whole Quails, Moonbears, The Session, Danny Ansell and The Institutes all perform in various venues around the city.

From an audience perspective I do feel as though we are seeing a rebirth. Musicians just cutting loose after a long period of being shackled. No longer do some look like they are simply going through the motions. Genuine pleasure at doing what they were born to do has been obvious.

Music released by local artists

The Spon End Opera by Mary Courtney and Christopher Sidwell – Odd Sock: History and merryment all on one disc.

Eddie Mooney and the Grave: Includes Coventry drummer Rick Medlock. Have quietly released a series of quality 45s and on line singles.

The Kidda Band: Nuneaton’s finest. Born around the time of punk rock and have recently collected all their back catalogue onto CD. These formats were new to me at least.

The Specials – Protest Songs 1924 to 2012: A celebration of the protest song. And very good it is too.

Albums – Wider Afield

Steven Wilson – The Future Bites: this album had been ready to go for some time. But the pandemic delayed its release. My initial thought were that it had Grammy written all over it. It has since been short listed for two.

The Pineapple Thief – Nothing But The Truth: I mentioned above that livestream gigs had, overall, not been a success. This one bucked the trend. It has since been released on CD and DVD and what an absolute delight it is.

Daniel Wylie – Atoms and Energy: Songs about relationships. Great harmonies too. A real delight.

Plenty – Enough: A lock down project. Covers the first ever releases and early demos by Tim Bowness and his band Plenty.

John Fiddler – Warriors of Love: Attention grabbing blues album with songs about love at the heart of it.

The Fierce and the Dead – Part One: Early EP’s together as one CD for the first time. Attention grabbing.

Caravan – It’s None of Your Business: the bands first studio release for 8 years. Songs influence by the event and restrictions of the last 2 years. A very good listen.

Lynyrd Skynyrd – Knebworth 76: a long overdue release of one of the finest concerts I ever witnessed.

Losses during 2021 included amongst many others……….

Gerry Marsden

Tim Bogert

Sylvain Sylvain

Hilton Valentine

Chick Corea

Bunny Wailer

Alan Cartwright

Jim Steinman

Les McKeown

Florian Pilkington-Miksa

BJ Thomas

Dusty Hill

John Lawton

Nanci Griffith

Don Everly

Charlie Watts

Ron Bushy

Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry

Alan Lancaster

John Goodsall

Graeme Edge

David Longdon

John Miles

Michael Nesmith

Apart from the above I will also remember 2021 as the year Adele single handedly clogged up the music media manufacturing plants and the Sex Pistols imploded once again. This time, however, in court. On the plus side, 2021 proved to be one of the best years for British bands and music in the UK charts in over a decade.

 The Skabilly Rebels at the Arches December 2021

by Pete Clemons

If Jerry Dammers is credited as the architect of The Specials, by way of his vision of reviving and reinventing past styles of music and fashion, then Roddy ‘Radiation’ Byers was the guy who brought a touch of originality to that band. Roddy also provided the edge that a band requires.

The pulsating rhythms of The Specials have since found a solid niche within popular music history and beyond. And Roddy is quite rightly recognised, by the Ska music fraternity, as one of the pioneers of that whole 2 tone movement.

Today, Roddy Radiation continues to lead an original band. The Skabilly Rebels play a blend of music repeated rarely. And after many years in the business the Skabilly Rebels have fostered and thrived on their mix of Ska and Rockabilly.

Rockabilly and vintage fashion are not only a statement but they are also a lifestyle. Rock ‘n’ Roll is your life and your love. It is clear, that no matter the size of gig, Roddy is meticulous in his appearance. His attention to detail is clear for all to see. For every Skabilly Rebels gig Roddy is immaculately turned out without a hair not being in place.

Roddy still has that sharpness and edge to him and through his writing he has brought us songs like Hey Little Rich Girl, Rat Race and Concrete Jungle to the proceedings. And these were performed at the recent gig at the Arches Venue. Despite an obvious cold and the fact he was struggling a little Roddy and the band who tonight are: Joe Harcourt on guitar, Connor O’Connor on bass guitar, Adie H Dee on Sax and an Australian called Jeff who is standing in for Matt Hart on drums, put in a remarkably decent shift.

The swingbeat continues with interpretations of Do Nothing, Judgement Day, Bonediggin’ and many others. Overall a tremendous performance and an extremely enjoyable evening. The songs that Roddy provided are still amongst the most popular in The Specials live repertoire.

Roddy wears his heart on his sleeve and has a conviction and charisma that adds to his compelling stage presence.

Mouldy Old Music

by Pete Clemons

Muriel Young was both a radio and television presenter having worked for commercial television since its inception during 1955. And during the 1960s and 70s she worked behind the scenes on many of the more influential pop music programmes.

And it was Muriel, who originated from the north east, that saw the potential in Coventry band Stavely Makepeace during 1970. After several singles Stavely Makepeace, with the addition of pianist Hilda Woodward, became know as Lieutenant Pigeon, and went on to have a hit with ‘Mouldy Old Dough’ during 1972. The note below, from Muriel, is taken from the reverse of the Lieutenant Pigeon album, ‘Mouldy Old Music’ released February 1973,

‘It’s three years ago since a couple of round faced lads, Rob and Nigel, came into my office with a disc. Stavely Makepeace was the name and I was knocked out with the sound, partly because it was different – fresh and sort of kerpow !!. Also because I was intrigued that the discs had been made in Rob’s front sitting room. This had been handed over to him willingly by his Ma and fitted out as a sound studio. ‘What a super Ma’, I said to myself, and what a super Ma she turned out to be when I met her in Lieutenant Pigeon. Along with Rob and Nigel (not so round faced three years later) and Steve, Mrs Woodward at piano, added another fun dimension to the sound which to me is still different, fresh and loaded with kerpow !! Thank you Lieutenant Pigeon.’

A review of the album, released on the Decca label SKL5154, has been reproduced below.

‘This will do. Despite the awesome threats that it was all a one hit wonder gimmick and destined for an early grave, the gallant Lieutenant’s music has gone on to do well in the charts. Nigel Fletcher, Rob Woodward, Steve and ‘Ma’ open here with Mouldy Old Dough, then into a fairground sound on Jumping Jack and, on side two Desperate Dan makes a predictable appearance. They plunge into the martial beat on Opus 300, and its organ cranking stuff on The Monkey Song. There’s the odd break for piano, and the odd extra curricular bit of vocalising – in short don’t expect no musical miracles and you’ll enjoy the exercise. It’s happy go lucky, enthusiastic stuff, and the group has done well to get so many variations of style and sound especially considering the smallness of the personnel. On the sleeve note, Muriel Young opines: its a fun dimension to the sound which to me is still different, fresh and loaded with KEPOW!. Perhaps that’s the word for which we’ve been searching…….’different’.

‘Unusual stuff not without its charms from a band who were rather difficult to pigeon hole. Its not an obvious style of music from any era and at times it appears to hark back to the old days of the music hall although the piano is largely dominant’.

Sadly the Lieutenant Pigeon album never fared as well as the single. But one thing is for sure, almost 50 years on, and Lieutenant Pigeon left us with one of the most recognisable tunes ever released…….To a certain generation at least.

Rob Woodwood of Lieutenant Pigeon as Shel Naylor at 17 on the Decca label with a song written by Kinks member Dave Davies in 1964. Jimmy Page on guitar.

 Urge (Part 1)

By Pete Clemons

To attempt to put together a potted history of Coventry band Urge I have plagiarised notes from a past John Shipley interview and those of Kevin Harrison which appeared to have long disappeared from the internet thus leaving little about this particular band. I also used appreciated input from Nigel Mulvey.

During 1978, and after splitting from a band in Brighton called ‘Les Squares’, guitarist John Shipley and vocalist David Wankling both returned to Coventry from Brighton, where they had spent the previous few years. After a period of resettlement they began the formation of a new band. And, along with the additional talents of John Westacott on bass, and Billy Little on drums they formed Urge. Kevin Harrison, on synth, organ, tapes joined The Urge slightly later during January 1979.

Kevin ‘I get invited to do a support spot at a birthday party at the Rockhouse in Coventry, The Urge are playing, later they ask me to record a rehearsal session. After a few weeks I join them, I play guitar, electric piano and EMS synth and start to introduce some of my songs to the group. I employ Burroughs ‘cut-up’ techniques for some of the lyrics. We decide to dispense with the definitive and we are now just called Urge’.

Urge began as an imaginative and experimental band. Nothing like Coventry had seen or heard before. Combining both rhythm and noise. Their early performances were relative to the environment and atmosphere and how they were feeling at the time.

Urge have had their problems which was unusually due to a bad P.A. Or insufficient time to soundcheck. Other things which they felt were problematic was a lack of visual image and meaningful communication between band and audience. Due in part to their uniqueness they felt there was not really the audience out there to communicate with.

John Shipley, however, was not destined to remain in Urge for too long. He had noticed that people didn’t dance at their gigs even though the songs were, by and large, danceable. He was also very keen to create a more rhythmic groove with more visible audience participation.

Dramatically, during August 1979 and in the middle of a set at the Lanchester Polytechnic, John walked off the stage, never to return. Seeing the Coventry Automatics perform at Mr Georges nightclub only confirmed the direction he now wanted to take.

After John Shipley’s departure, and during September 1979, Lynda Wulf joined the band on vocals. The whole feel of the band had now changed. Shortly after her arrival Urge were involved with U.K Subs and were invited to join them on their national tour.

The first Urge single, ‘Revolving Boy/Revolve‘. was recorded at Spaceward Studio, Cambridge on 1st November 1979 and released shortly after on the groups own label ‘Consumer Disks’. Kevin and David created the sleeve and label design and with the sleeves being printed at the Lanchester Polytechnic.

By now David Wankling and Kevin Harrison were writing much of the bands material. David the words and Kevin the music and production. Urge finished 1979 on a high when they performed in front of a home crowd at Tiffany’s where they supported The Beat and UB40.

During January 1980 they Urge were invited by The Specials to support them on their European tour. Urge subsequently played dates in Hanover; Hamburg; Cologne in Germany and Arnhem; Sittard; Waalwijk in Holland.

A new track, ‘Nuclear Terrorist’, was recorded at Woodbine Studios in Leamington during March 1980 and was included as a track on the compilation record ‘Sent From Coventry’.

Mid 1980 was spent recording. Firstly a session that included tracks such as ‘Revolving Loop’, ‘New Sex’, ‘Inkman’ and ‘Minutes to Go’ were recorded at Woodbine Studio during June. Soon after and, on the strength of those demos, Urge signed up to Arista (Ariola) Records just weeks after Arista’s A+R executive, Tarquin Gotch, had heard them.

In July, the band recorded ‘Shadow Man’ with Dennis Bovell at Surrey Sound who produced and engineered the song. And during late late July it was back to Woodbine Studio to record ‘Teach Yourself Dutch’ a song written by Urge, engineered by John Rivers and produced by Kevin.

August saw the recording of another new song, ‘Bobby’ written by Wankling/Harrison, engineered by Pete Buhlman and produced by Nigel Gray. Once again this was recorded at Surrey Sound. During the same session a new version of ‘Revolving Boy’ was also recorded.

It was back once more to Surrey Sound, for a third time, during the early part of October for the recordings of ‘Sea Of Storms’ and ‘Megadeath’. Not long after this session John Westacott was replaced by Nigel Mulvey (ex-Squad).

During October 1980 Urge played in a bullring in Barcelona with The Specials. Nigel Mulvey confirmed that the Barcelona gig had only been his second or third with the band. But ‘What an experience that was’ for Nigel. There is a permanency of this new line up in the form of two tracks recorded at Woodbine Studios. These were ‘Nowhere to Go’ and ‘Marching’.

February 1981 a second single was released on ‘Consumer Disks’ through Arista ‘Bobby/Teach Yourself Dutch’ (arist 382), followed by an appearance on BBC T.V ‘Look Hear’. Look Hear was filmed at Pebble Mill in Birmingham and The Beat were recorded at the same time although the bands songs went to air on different days. Urge performed ‘Revolving Boy’, which is on YouTube and ‘Bobby’.

During March 1981 Urge toured England supporting Selecter on their ‘Celebrate the Bullitt’ tour with new member Steve Teers – keyboards/trombone. During April 1981 Urge played Marquee Club in London’s Wardour Street. However shortly afterwards the group split up ‘due to difficulties with Arista and internal wrangles’.

Urge were resurrected between 1981 and 1982. This line-up utilised the songwriting abilities of Kevin and David. And after one abortive gig with Lynda Novak and bass player Dave Gedney along with a rhythm-box Urge added a real drummer in the shape of John Hill and a conga player.

After a few weeks John Hill replaced by Rick Medlock (ex-I) and Pete Jordan – on alto saxophone (ex-L’Homme de Terre) joined. This line-up best known for residency on Sundays at The Whitley Abbey. Coventry. Initial record company interest from CBS; Warner Bros and EMI amounted to nothing. And soon after Urge split once again.

Soon after Kevin Harrison released his solo L.P ‘Inscrutably Obvious’ for Cherry Red Records and a 12″ single ‘Fly/Inkman/Views of the Rhine’ for Glass Records. ‘Fly’ featured Horace Panter – bass guitar, Rick Medlock – drums, Kevin – vocals and all other instruments and Lynda – backing vocals.

1983 saw a third Urge line up. The new version included Kevin Harrison – guitar, bass and keys, Kendell Smith – Vocals, Lynda Harrison – vocals and Rick Medlock – drums. This line-up recorded one session at Woodbine Studio during September 1983. Songs completed were ‘Pressure Drop/Style & Fashion’. ‘The chemistry had gone so Urge, once again, called it a day’.

Links to some of Kevin Harrison’s earlier bands on the Hobo sites.

Whistler – Avant garde Jazz Rock band c 1970 

Zoastra – Experimental elctronic band c 1974 / 5 (a bridge between Whistler and Urge) 

Urge – more about Urge

Urge Reunion 2010

Kevin Harrison’s YouTube channel

Bobby – The Urge

Teach Yourself Dutch

Ink Man – Kevin Harrison

Below – Kevin Harrison c 1969

Below Lynda Harrison (Wulf) c 1969

 Urge – Part 2

By Pete Clemons

October 1980 – Source unknown

(Stop Press – Nigel Mulvey is 99% sure that the article is from the NME, by Chris Salewicz who went with them to Barcelona with photographer Joe Stephen’s.)

“Really we should have gone from Luton airport, but the only flight to Barcelona that night was from Heathrow.

And so, two days before they were due to play a concert in a bloodstained bullring. The Specials and new Arista signing – Urge and all their aides-de-camp picked up 36 tickets from a Coventry travel agent…

Urge is a group of many paradoxes. 

A major Urge paradox is that their music consists of clear-visioned, witty pop songs. Yet Kevin himself, often as ascetically insecure onstage as only a Fripp-like guitar anti-hero may be, seems far more comfortable sitting at home in his Coventry council flat releasing the tapes he makes with his Revox and synthesizer. ‘New Eastern Electric’ is how Kevin waggishly describes what he is creating on such sound collages as ‘On Earth 2’. an NME Garageland featured cassette

He denies, though, that he’d prefer working on his own – his solo work, he claims, is just one of the elements that go towards making up the Urge sound. “Philip Glass meets The Kinks at the grassroots of. . whatever…” he succinctly sums up their music. “We’re doing The Shangri-la’s ‘Past. Present And Future’ on our first album”

“I’m very fond of the intertwining of fact and fiction,” continued Kevin as we sat in the back of the Spanish cab making drunken attempts to recall the name of our hotel. “For example, on our original record company biography we were listed as ‘five former supermarket managers’. And now Nigel Mulvey joins us on bass and that was what he really did once do.”

Much of this makes more sense, of course. when you appreciate that our Kev is a former art student. After twelve months at Nuneaton Art School. Kevin applied for a course in communications at Leicester University. “They didn’t seem to be able to handle it when they discovered my portfolio wasn’t visual, but audio. It was made up entirely of tapes of sound.”

So Illuminatus-fan Kevin went to work instead at British Leyland as a systems analyst, which maybe he was destined to do all along: Eighteen months ago, as a victim of cut-backs within the car firm, he picked up £1,500 redundancy money and bought the Revox and synthesizer with which he makes his tapes

Kevin Harrison, in fact, is a fully paid alumnus of the Coventry Scene: the last group he was in before Urge was Transposed Men, which also featured Special John Bradbury, Selecter Desmond Brown and Selecter main man Neol Davies. It was Kevin’s long-standing friend Neol Davies, in fact, who first brought Urge to my attention, playing me the group’s tapes when I visited his home last summer. Although a different urge line-up was already established when Kevin joined in January of 79, he quickly became a central force and in September of that year, his wife Lynda was added to the group to share vocals with the less willful David Wankling, who writes the lyrics and founded the band

Whimsically having decided in 1976 to quit his native Coventry, David had moved to Brighton where he quickly found he was combining his job of croupier (“Casinos don’t have to be fixed: they always end up winning”) with singing in a punk band with flat-mate and guitarist John Shipley, later of the now defunct Swinging Cats.

The pair returned to their home-town in 1978 to form the first edition of Urge, which included the group’s current drummer, rockabilly fan Billy Little, who’d previously played behind Special Terry Hall in The Squad. When Shipley departed for the Swinging Cats, it was Kevin who came in as replacement

January of 1980 saw Urge releasing their first 45, ‘Revolving Boy’, an independent single that the group is re-recording for release by Arista. Under the terms of their new deal, urge have already been in the studio with Dennis Bovell at the production helm. They have decided, though, against working with Bovell on their imminent album. “He’s a helluva nice guy,” says Kevin, “but I think the problem is that half the time he’s too stoned to actually get anything together. It’s his own studio and it’s not really fully equipped yet. It makes studio work very expensive.”

At the same time as ‘Revolving Boy’ came out, Urge endured for their first national tour an ordeal by mutant gob when they supported The UK Subs. At the Marquee date on that tour Billy Little’s kit was so covered in plastic beer glasses that had been chucked at the group that he was actually unable to make contact with his drum-skins

Also, this Barcelona bash is not the first time that the group have trod the European boards. Picking up their passports in Coventry Post Office late last winter for a couple of Dutch dates, Lynda ran into Jerry Dammers. “Oh, come along to Germany with us when you’re finished in Holland,” offered the generous Jerry, and urge ended up as support act to The Specials on their European tour.

At least those dates were not as disaster-prone as this Spanish trip: perhaps it was something to do with the karma of attempting to put on a pop show in a place normally reserved for the unnecessary slaughtering of inoffensive animals. As Kevin remarked at one point “there’s an awful lot of bullshit about this gig.”

Only 2.000 Spanish punkettas show up – which may have bean caused by rival promoter having taken a TV ad the previous evening to announce the concert had been cancelled!

This left the German promoter, a man whose finances came from the buying and selling of exotic snuffs, to lose his shirt. and nearly his life – this particular bullring being apparently controlled by the Spanish mafia

As Jerry Dammers and Urge manager Ian Foster were departing their hotel the next morning to travel back to London by road, the promoter suddenly appeared out of the shadows, to request a ride to the border. He’d also been busted in Barcelona some days previously, and he only had one of his four passports left. Dammers and Foster made their excuses and left.

 The Rise of Two Tone 1979

by Pete Clemons

17 Dec 2021 The Primitives – A homecoming gig the Empire

Coventry’s very own, The Primitives, are playing a gig at the Empire in Hertford Street on December 17th during the run up to Christmas. It is being billed as a ‘homecoming’ concert. Supporting acts include The Session, who have had a wonderful few years themselves, Watermark and Danny Ansell.

But that phrase ‘homecoming’ had me thinking back to 1979 when Coventry experienced a couple more homecoming concerts. They were at Tiffany’s nightclub, they were on December 20th and these gigs featured The Specials. And those homecoming gigs were remembered fondly in Horace Panter’s book ‘Ska’d For Life’ where he described them as ‘some of the most fantastic shows I have ever played in my life’.

The tail end of 1979 was a time when the whole 2 tone scene was exploding nationally. The foundations had been laid and The Specials had just completed their own headlining major tour. Suddenly, from playing local pubs months earlier, they were now playing dance hall sized venues.

A quick run down of some of the key events included certainly indicates how things were snowballing for the 2 tone scene. The bands involved had suddenly found themselves in an intense and demanding time. And for several months either side of Christmas 1979 Coventry really felt like the centre of the world. This is only a snapshot. Other TV appearances etc were also happening:

October 1979

The Specials, The Selecter, Dexys Midnight Runners/Madness are on their 2 tone tour

The Specials release the single ‘A Message to You Rudy’

Madness perform ‘The Prince’ on top of the pops 11 October

The Specials debut album is released 19 October

Madness’s One Step Beyond album is released 19 October

The Specials perform ‘A Message to You Rudy’ on top of the pops 25 October

The Selecter perform ‘On My Radio’ on top of the pops 25 October

November 1979

The 2 tone tour continued

The Beat appear at Tiffany’s

The Specials perform at The Lyceum in London which is recorded

The 2 tone tour concludes at Tiffany’s on 29 November where The Specials are again recorded. The Selecter and Dexys Midnight Runners also appear.

So in demand was the November Tiffany’s gig forged tickets were rumoured to be circulating the city. The concert organisers, Lanchester Polytechnic Students Union, were aware and warned that the tickets were ‘a very professional job’. A representative for the union stated that ‘they have used orange dayglo card and imitated the Poly logo. We always use of a side strip. But these tickets are not numbered and stood out a mile’. Organisers had been tipped off by a student who had bought a forgery at the full price of £1.75. A further warning was issued: ‘Students with forged tickets will be turned away from the doors’.

December 1979

The Selecter, The Beat and UB40 appear at The Lyceum in London

Footage is recorded of the Specials at their Earlsdon HQ for a TV documentary

The Beat and UB40 appear at Tiffany’s

The Beat perform ‘Tears of a Clown’ on top of the pops

The Specials and The Selecter both appear on BBC Radio One In Concert

The Specials and The Beat appear at Tiffany’s on 20 December for 2 homecoming shows

Within the December 19th issue of the Coventry Telegraph it mentioned that ‘The Specials, one of the top rock bands, are putting on a charity show for children at Tiffany’s in Coventry tomorrow afternoon. It is a matinee event and will start at 4pm. The concert is in aid of the Community Education Project in Coventry. Additionally, it will be followed in the evening by a sold out gig in aid of the Cambodia Relief Fund.

January 1980

The Special AKA live EP is released 11 January. The B Side are live takes from the November 79 Coventry and Lyceum gigs

And here we are again 42 years on. I am not comparing the two events. But, in The Empire, we have just had a major music venue open, Christmas is fast approaching and Coventry suddenly feels in demand again. The venue has hosted sold out shows featuring Tom Grennan, Ed Sheeran, Paul Weller. So the analogy feels similar. It has been an awful long time.