//Richard Wernham, Nick Garvey, Robert Gotobed, Rob Smith on the front cover of Teenage Head/Lights Out by The Snakes, Dynamo Records, 1976//

I went to a good school (it was approved, as my first editor would have it in the late 70s. You had to be there).

I was taken on as a scholarship boy, one who showed enough promise for the fees to be paid by the council.

But I was lazy, not as bright as I made out, unhappy, an under-achiever. Aside from winning the cross-country race when I was 14, my life there was almost entirely undistinguished, so preoccupied was I with music, clothes and girls. I had pretensions to vast knowledge in all three areas undercut by lack of experience in the latter regard.

//Booklet with Quadrophenia, an album about "a cat with four personalities" according to me, 1973//

//School report 1975: "If Paul is as familiar with DG Mackean's Introduction To Biology as he is with the NME, he will pass his O-Level. As it is, he isn't, so I fear he won't." And I didn't//

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Tags: Ace Skudder, Acme Attractions, Bazooka Joe, Bull & Gate Kentish Town, DG Mackean, Dr Feelgood, Ducks Deluxe, Eddie & The Hot Rods, Flamin' Groovies, Hawkwind, Introduction To Biology, Keith Richards, Kickers, New Musical Express, Nick Garvey, Pink Fairies, Quadrophenia, Robert Gotobed, Rolling Stones, Royal College Of Art, Sensational Alex Harvey Band, Sex Pistols, Shakin' Stevens & The Sunsets, Stewart Wernham, Teenage Head, the 101'ers, The Motors, The Snakes, Wire

//Top: Stacia Blake weaving her magic onstage at The Roundhouse in 1975. Photo: Paul Apperley. Above: Peter Lavery's photo of Russell Hunter from the insert in the Pink Fairies' 1973 album Kings Of Oblivion. Posted on the Facebook Portobello Shuffle group by Ian Nottnotw Edmondson//

Sad to witness Hawkwind, the great British musical force which has carved out a unique position outside of the mainstream music business over several decades, dragged into a tawdry row regarding ownership of the group’s name.

The dispute has been sparked by  saxophonist/flautist/sometime frontman Nik Turner. It seems he is trademarking the group’s name as a touring entity in the US, even though he hasn’t been a member for a long time.

Turner was in the line-up during Hawkwind’s greatest period, 1970-76, and returned sporadically until a parting of the ways with Dave Brock, generally acknowledged as Hawkwind’s founder and the band’s one constant, at the helm for all 44 years of its existence.

If scans of signed US documents circulated online prove to be authentic, Turner’s registration in the US – where he has just toured under the banner Nik Turner’s Hawkwind – denies the existence of any other entity of that name operating in the field of live performance. This undercuts his claims in the American press that he wants to spread peace and harmony by invoking Hawkwind’s name and has enraged a section of the fan base.

Brock meanwhile has cancelled his Hawkwind’s American tour on the basis that he – at 72, a year younger than Turner – is suffering from a stress-related illness as result of the dispute.

//Barney Bubbles poster for Sunday bill at The Roundhouse, 1975//

//I went with my friend Matthew Cang. He kept his ticket//

This is all a long way from the relative harmony in the ranks when I fell under their spell as a teenager. I saw Hawkwind a few times, at the Edmonton Sundown or the Dagenham Roundhouse in north-east London and at a free festival in Harlow New Town, Essex, but one particular concert in February 1975 when the ensemble played Camden Town’s Roundhouse with the Pink Fairies stays in the memory.

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Tags: 1975, Andy Dunkley, Andy Summers, Camden Town, Dave Brock, Duncan sanderson, Groupie, Hawkwind, Jah Wobble, John Lydon, Kings Of Olivion, Lady June, Larry Wallis, Lol Coxhill, Matthew Cang, Mick Jones, Nik Turner, Peter Lavery, Portobello Shuffle, Roundhouse, Russell Hunter, Shane Magowan, Stacia Blake, The Police, Twink

“The black gay community has given kids with holes in their trousers the opportunity to look as glamorous as mannequins on a Paris runway.

“By imitating the Great White Way of success – Vogue magazine, the profiles of glamour, the poses that intimate that…we’re not gonna criticize it, we’re gonna celebrate it, because that’s the Great White Way…

From Fashion TV 1989.

Tags: 1989, Deeper In Vogue, Fashion TV, Vogueing

//Laurie Cunningham aged 17, at Brisbane Road, home to Leyton Orient FC, 1973.//

In 1989, footballer Laurie Cunningham’s life was cut short by a car crash on the outskirts of Madrid. He was 33 years old.

By that time Cunningham had notched up a series of sporting firsts which resonated through the wider culture: a teenage signing to east London team Leyton Orient, Cunningham was the first black player to represent England (in 1977 as an under-21, scoring a winning goal against Scotland) and the first Englishman to play for Spanish giants Real Madrid (in 1979).

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Tags: 1977, Archway, Brian Glanville, Dermot Kavanagh, Fred Astaire, George Petchey, Islington, Laurie Cunningham, Leyton Orient, Real Madrid, Sunday Times Magazine, West Bromwich Albion

This is just damn exciting; Damo Suzuki kicks off his suitably frenzied performance with some amazing free-form legwork.

It’s got the lot: Suzuki’s pink crushed velvet sleeveless pant-suit and, at one point, a middle-aged bloke in a penguin suit juggling pots and pans. All the while Can blaze their trail through the 70s.

All together now: “Monte Cazazza, Monte Cazazza…”

Tags: Can, Damo Suzuki, Monte Cazazza, Spoon

1990 was a highpoint year for British pop as dance infiltrated almost every musical genre.

And BBC2’s Dance Energy was fabulous pop TV, taking the format from Soul Train and showcasing the audience as the stars.

Here dance diva Eve Gallagher – dressed to the pervy nines + signed to George O’Dowd’s sorely-underrated label More Protein – provides an opportunity for the Dance Energy crowd to demonstrate the full range of moves and styles from that great year: Funki Dredds, B-Boys and Daisy Agers shift a gear amid an array of Raiders garms, Po’ Boy caps, knapsacks, pendants, Baggy tops + jeans, leotards, MA-1-style jackets, dungarees, blunt-cut fringes, etc.

Tags: B-Boys, BBC2, Daisy Age, Dance Energy, Eve Gallagher, Funki Dredds, George O'Dowd, LA Raiders, Love Come Down, More Protein, Soul Train

Australia’s Daddy Cool scored a big home hit in 1971 with sub-Stones strut Eagle Rock, which soon became a wedding party staple.

Four years later when they headlined The Australian Concert For Bangladesh at Melbourne’s Myer Music Bowl Daddy Cool were about to be consigned to the oldies bin by the band which was sixth on the bill that day, AC/DC.

AC/DC had been propelled locally by teenage Sharpie fans, a group of whom are seen here stepping out with a mickey-taking version of the Eagle Rock boogie which mutates into their dance, The Melbourne Shuffle.

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Tags: 1971, 1975, Australian Concert For Bangladesh, Daddy Cool, eagle Rock, Greg Macainsh, Melbourne, Michell & Ferrett, Myers Bowl, Tadhg Taylor, Top Fellas

My favourite reading of this rockabilly racket is by Carl Mann, as released by Charly in 1976.

There have been many other versions; Warren Smith’s notably, and also a fabulous live rendition by Alex Harvey following the dissolution of the Sensational AH Band.

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Tags: Alex Harvey, Carl Mann, Charly Records, Midem, Ubangi Stomp, Warren Smith

This is a favourite of mine + Mrs G’s for a bit of a mid-to-late evening shape-throwing.

First because it’s a great song.

And then mine because every listen to my copy in the paper sleeve on Fast Product brings back the awe I felt on hearing the delivery of yet more true new music in that strange and wonderful period post-punk – and the befuddlement over the general lyrical drift and the particular reference to sericulture (look it up).

And then Caz’s because a) she likes it and b) her friends threw a party and Martyn Ware DJed and danced with us to it.

He’s a great bloke, and a great DJ.

Tags: Being Boiled, Fast Product, Martyn Ware, Mrs G, The Human league

This is Lee Perry really mixing up the medicine with his dub of The Heptones’ 1976 song.

It’s billed as Party Time 2 on the great Arkology 3-CD set from quite a few years back. I was given my now tattered, battered, partied + cherished copy by the much missed Rob Partridge.

Wherever you are: TURN IT UP!

Tags: Lee Perry, Party Time 2, Rob Partridge, Scratch, The Heptones