Author: Leigh Banks

We should take a few moments to remember Lesley Anne Downey, the young girl kidnapped, raped, murdered and dumped in a shallow grave at Christmas. If she had been allowed to live, she would have been 69 years old. The season of goodwill was in full swing in the background – music, laughter and families… Continue reading Tragic legacy of Lesley Anne Downey’s lonely trip to a the fair

Dripping with ivy and memories, the early-closing city with style and a certain sadness A rainy night in Paris is like no other. For one thing most of the back-street bars are shut by 7.30pm. The Left Bank is boarded up and the noise from the road that killed Diana is beginning to cool. If… Continue reading Drinking in a rainy night in Paris

Angry young man to protesting pensioner? Or is Dylan spot on about new music? As he released his third album – this one triple – of grand old American lounge-lizard ballads His Royal Bob-ness attacked new bands, saying they are just fake when it comes to the blues. He was performing on his 6,000 date… Continue reading Modern rock’n’roll is fake, says that ol’ crooner called Bob…

 (At ‘diggers’ ball…a ‘catch-all’ of the latter 1960s… and it’s release’s thru the 70s)   TEN YEARS AFTER AT WOODSTOCK: 50,000 MILES BENEATH MY BRAIN… BY ERIC LASTICK Numerology a decade long…miles of rocky country…rough roads. Peace-nick and drumsticks—off to the Catskill highest of hills. Take towards these terrains. Brains big as the acid trips… Continue reading THE PAPER MACHETE & MACRAME… STRING PATTERNS OF THE 1970s

Robbie Robertson has died. He was 80 years old. He was an ol’ rock’n’roller, a fabulous song writer, king of the choppy guitar, chat show story-teller, charmer and joker. But more than anything, I remember him as the leader of The Band… the man who stuck it out with the amphetamine, howling, thin white clothes-horse… Continue reading Farewell to Robbie… somewhere down his own crazy river

Demolish part of your home or   we’ll tax you on your granny ..! People with a back door are potentially being forced to knock down part of their homes to avoid paying Britain’s outrageous ‘granny flat’ tax. The Society today focuses on a Government method of swelling its ailing coffers by charging more than 30,000… Continue reading FORGET THE BEDROOM TAX AND THE MEDIEVAL WINDOW TAX – THIS NEW ONE IS A REAL-LIFE KITCHEN SINK DRAMA

Narcissists are sick people, alright… sick as people can get. And they are on every street corner and in your bed… A Greek youth was so taken by the reflection of his own face he was scared to ever look away again. Narcissus had found the true love he was willing to die for. But… Continue reading MIRROR MIRROR IN THE LAKE, WHO IS THE CRUELLEST OF ALL THE FAKES?

When Andrea and I moved to Shropshire in 1989 we were the proud owners of a black Jaguar, a black cat, and an Albino golden Retriever. The car might have been a bit of an overdraft-hungry wreck but when we reclined its big leather seats it became a large double-bed, room for the dog and… Continue reading MYSTERY OF THE WOMAN OF OXBOW LAKE

I washed up in Central and Eastern Europe as an itinerant travel journalist in the blistering summer of 2015 … I remember Mr Vlad ‘Action Man’ Putin was still, daily, baring his chest and his teeth after annexing Crimea. Mr Putin was obviously emboldened by his new war of attrition. After all, he’d got noticed… Continue reading STORIES OF HEARTACHE, HORROR, FEAR AND LOATHING IN THE BOMBED AND BLEEDING LAND OF THE SLAVS

It would be so easy to go with my tabloid mates and write a short eulogy to Sinead O’Connor headlined Nothing Compared to Her … And it would be true. I met her once, on a dark rainy night in a dingy back-street pub in Birmingham. And nothing did compare to her, way back when,… Continue reading Remembering the incomparable Sinead O’Connor