Show Notes
For this episode we're joined in Hammersmith by the much-travelled Tony Fletcher as he returns to his homeland to promote his new book POW! When UK Punk Went Pop, 1980–84.
We begin by asking our guest about Jamming!, the fondly-remembered fanzine he launched in South London at the tender age of 13. He recalls the huge impact of the Jam on his adolescent life and the friendship with Paul Weller that grew out of his passion for the band.
After discussing how Jamming! evolved into a proper monthly magazine — scooping early '80s interviews with Paul McCartney, Morrissey and U2 along the way — we ask Tony about the hyper-tribalism of the period POW! covers. He ponders the way punks like Adam Ant "went pop" while other bands forged a rearguard return to rock.
A conversation about '80s "rockism" and its foes leads to clips from the late Richard Cook's February 1982 audio interview with U2, conducted in America just as the Irish quartet was commencing its full-scale ascent into the stadium-rock stratosphere.
After we hear about our guest's post-Jamming! life as an author and biographer based in Brooklyn — and then upstate New York — Jasper talks us out with quotes from (and thoughts on) Chris Bohn's 1981 NME piece about Budapest's "semi-legal" musical underground... and a great Dua Lipa interview from 2022.
More from Rock's Backpages
In this new episode we invite the splendid Tonya Pendleton to join us online from her adopted Philadelphia – in her own words "the City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection".
For this episode we invite the legendary Nik Cohn to join us from upstate New York to discuss his extraordinary career and his brilliant new book Corner Boy. Also joining us — from New York City — is the book's editor Ben Ratliff, himself the author of an acclaimed 2007 biography of John Coltrane.
For this episode we're joined by veteran music scribe and A&R man Mitchell Cohen to discuss his long career and his brand-new book.
In this episode, we invite the marvellous Brian Cullman to join us onscreen from a French farmhouse in the Dordogne.
In this episode we're joined by special guest Tim Page to trace the arc of his career from reviewing James Chance & the Contortions to winning the Pulitzer Prize.