It’s time to take a holiday from reality. William Seaward Burroughs did, and his holiday lasted 83 years. Along the way he fantasised about a place called Interzone. Well, we all know why … inter this, inter that – and definitely inter a bit of the other. And here I am, 50 years later, and… Continue reading Codename Kiki on the road to a naked lunch
The book they tried to kill … send us your photographs of the Six Towns!
The Preservation Society is publishing the book they tried to ban after it remained in the wilderness for more than four years. Journalist, editor and broadcaster Leigh G Banks was commissioned by a leading publishing house to write a small book on Staffordshire’s Six Towns … then, at the last minute it all fell apart.… Continue reading The book they tried to kill … send us your photographs of the Six Towns!
When the CSA decided my ruined life was worth £75 …
What is life really like when they knock on your door? Here one man reveals his own traumatic story and how having the CSA in his life for almost two decades destroyed his health, left him in debt and drove him to the brink of suicide. Names have been changed to protect the identity of… Continue reading When the CSA decided my ruined life was worth £75 …
‘No secrets, no lies – this is my life’, Andrew’s abuse shocker as we challenge the bullies
The ‘sad’ war between factions who should be working together to end the tyranny of parental alienation, is rearing its ugly head again… Social media – instead of being the world platform for free speech and the dissemination of ideas – is the new untamed wild west, a prairie blistered by vitriol, anger, viciousness, lies… Continue reading ‘No secrets, no lies – this is my life’, Andrew’s abuse shocker as we challenge the bullies
Brady’s killing streets… what it was like growing up in shadows of evil
There was a Saturday morning ritual in the northern suburbs of Manchester in the 1960s. Kids and dogs were thrown out onto the streets while the moms did the shopping and the dads waited for the pubs to open again. North Manchester, museum of bleachers, dyers, poets, pimps and perverts. My family lived there on… Continue reading Brady’s killing streets… what it was like growing up in shadows of evil
Good, bad and ugly of the new Wild West where we are all expected to bite the cyber-bully bullets
As Sir Tim Berners-Lee – known as the inventor of the World Wide Web – launches a plan to save the internet, Leigh G Banks and the Preservation Society look at the hell created for us all by bullies prowling what should have been a global platform for freedom… The internet has become the new Wild West where… Continue reading Good, bad and ugly of the new Wild West where we are all expected to bite the cyber-bully bullets
DYLAN: Don’t look back … or his paths to glory?
Some bash Bob’s 80s gospel period as God-awful but a recent retrospective shows it was a spirited time of passion and drama… At the age of nearly 80 His Royal Bobness of Dylan is still creating controversy as his latest album Trouble No More: The Bootleg Series, Vol. 13, 1979-1981, is released Almost 40 years down the… Continue reading DYLAN: Don’t look back … or his paths to glory?
WHY I AM STILL PROUD TO BE A RED-TOP WRITER OF WRONGS
The day I stepped into my first national newspaper office at the beginning of my life as a journalist I was told something I would never forget… That doyen of the Red Tops Derek Jameson had just taken over as editor at the Daily Star and he saw me as one of a new breed… Continue reading WHY I AM STILL PROUD TO BE A RED-TOP WRITER OF WRONGS
Welcome aboard the Ponderland Express
I know it has recently become a great British pastime to bash the media, and newspapers in particular. But everybody needs the Press at times … so how do you get it to work for you? First, if you’re going to pitch your events then it’s useful to understand how the market-place works: Understand what… Continue reading Welcome aboard the Ponderland Express
For the true godfather of punk… my mate Brendan
(First published 2010) This morning I had a shock, a very good friend of mine, Brendan Mullen, the real Godfather of Punk, died in California last October. We’d been later-day Beats, but the vast expanse of sea that grew between us, meant that for the last twenty years we hadn’t so much as written a… Continue reading For the true godfather of punk… my mate Brendan