Cor Blimey Guv! It's All Happening!

So, the plan was to carry on catching up with my adventures in Cambodia. I posted the first part and then went off to Vietnam for some ca phe (coffee with condensed milk) and pho bo (beef noodle soup). I know it seems a bit pretentious not just saying the bits in brackets but I love both of these things so much I don't want to trivialise them, so I use the correct Vietnamese words too. But then I don't want to be a prat so I translated them. 

Anyway back in the world. While I was away I got an email telling me that if I really, really, really wanted to make my solo Edinburgh Fringe debut, I had until next Wednesday (16/03) to fill in my registration form and hand over the 'discount' price of £300 for the pleasure.

As hopped up on caffeine and bovine bliss as I was, my hotel in Saigon was not the place to be carrying out such an endeavour. So I saw the sights, had a fabulous mani/pedi that still looks new almost a week later, and did what people do in that fantastic city.

Friday (yesterday) was my to do day. I was too knackered when I got home Thursday night to do much of anything, except load the washer (God I love having a washing machine when I'm away!). 

I was up bright and early, and did everything I could possibly do to distract myself from just sitting down and filling out this bloody form. All my fears about performing at the Fringe kept bubbling up like the worst kind of indigestion, and after all I had errands to run. 

Finally I ran out of distractions, so I switched the laptop on - this was no job for the iPhone no matter how advanced it was - and clicked on the link in the email.

It opened up the page and at first - for about a whole 30 seconds - it seemed simple. Then I began to do things other than type my name. The lovely man who is enabling this show to happen is currently in Adelaide where he's producing other shows, but I had no idea who else to contact when the fifth, or sixth, or was it the seventh hurdle brought me to a complete stop. 

He was actually in a show so couldn't do much to help, I posted a plea on Facebook and the only reply I got was from my good mate Martin Mor who had got himself in a bind with it all the other day. Nothing else to do, I clicked on the 'contact us' part of the page and within seconds an amazing person called Alix at the Fringe Office had remotely accessed my details, asked me for the info that I wasn't able to enter, and in the time it took me to have a wee, s/he had done it all for me! 

All that was left was to click on the 'pay us the money' page, and once that was done and my payment went through. I was spent. It'd taken me the best part of four hours to fill in this sodding form and my brain - still full of soup, coffee and sunshine - was burnt out. So much so, that I fell asleep about 9.30 last night and woke up about an hour ago, at 5pm! 

Then I noticed another email telling me to check and accept the proof, so I've just completed that and sent it off. All done.

Just time to write the show now!

Here's the first of many plugs folks

JoJo Smith

I Was Mick Jones' Bank Clerk

Upstairs at Cabaret Voltaire

18.45pm

15-28 August (inc)

David Bowie

What dreadful news to wake up to. The last few weeks have seen an epidemic of much loved celebrities and musical heroes pass on, but I never in my wildest nightmares expected this one to happen.

Seeing what looked like a flippant post on Twitter, I quickly went to the BBC News app on my phone and there is was for real. 

David Bowie. Dead.

Given my rock and roll history, I've had an anecdote to post on social media for most of the recent passings. My Bowie stories deserve more than 140 characters, so here I am blogging for the first time in forever.

As you can see from the bit of paper above, the first one came in 1979. The venue was The Nashville, a music pub in West Kensington. It's now called the Three Kings I believe. It was one of my favourite places to see bands and I've so many fond memories of seeing people like The Cure, The Specials, Madness, even Joe Jackson there. My fondest memory of all was of this particular night.

It was a Friday and the second day of The Human League's two night stint at the club. This was them in their original form. Four fellas, some dodgy trousers and a slide show. I absolutely loved them back then and with my pal Heather we'd got to know the band fairly well, in a purely "Ligger" sense of the word.

As we were leaving the show on the Thursday night, Bob Last - their manager and boss of Fast Records - said to me to be sure to come back on the Friday night and that he'd leave our names on the door. He was grinning when he said it, but I didn't pay much heed. I was 18 and had no skills at all when it came to interpreting human behaviour.

Friday night, me and Heather turn up, watch the show - which was brilliant - and then went to go backstage to say thanks. There was extra security at the door, but Bob spotted us and waved us through. When we got into the grotty dressing room, there he was with an aura that lit up the shitty brown carpet and grotty nicotine-stained walls, David Bowie. 

At that point in time I would have to say I "liked" David Bowie, rather than loved him. In 1972 when he came to play at Preston Guildhall, I chose to spend my money on a Bay City Rollers ticket for the week after, but I liked his tunes, and of course his image which was always exceptional.

He was with his assistant Coco, though she was standing off to one side. DB was in the centre of a group of people who were hanging on his every word. He was discussing 'snuff films' with the band and talking of his time in Berlin. Heather was star-struck to the point of speechlessness, she really was a Bowie fan, and so once there was a lull in the conversation I launched into my spiel.

"Hi David, I'm Gaye Abandon and this is Ann R Key and we have a fanzine called The Ligger, and we'd love it if you would do an interview with us". He fixed his gaze on mine and said "I don't really do interviews at the moment, but if you give your address to Coco, I'll send you my thoughts on tonight". 

Now we didn't really use 'guest' reviewers in The Ligger, but fuck me what a coup! He asked about the fanzine and what kind of music we liked, and offered us a Marlboro Red. I didn't smoke at the time but a few years later when I started those were my fags of choice for no other reason.

As you can see from the scrap of paper, I was uncool enough to ask for his autograph and somehow it's survived 37 years and endless moves. I gave my address to Coco, but that review never arrived. I didn't hold it against him.

After that meeting I really began to explore his back catalogue. There were certain periods I loved more than others, but if I had to pick my all time favourite album it would be Young Americans. I've always been a bit of a soul girl, and this one - introduced to me by Kevin Rowland when I was working for Dexys Midnight Runners - I really got into. 

To this day it's the one I play most, so when he released the soulful Let's Dance I was bang into that too. Not to mention how fabulous he looked in those videos. So when, in 1983 it was announced he was going to be playing at Milton Keynes Bowl, myself and my flatmates got tickets and went. 

Now one of my flatmates at the time seemed to have access to all kinds of pharmaceuticals and our drug of choice that day was acid. I can still feel the warmth I felt laying on the grass in the Bowl, the sun beaming down and me tripping off my tits listening to IceHouse (god help me) and watching cruise missiles fly overhead. 

It'd mostly worn off by the time DB came onstage but there was no comedown, we soared higher and higher as he did his wonderful thing onstage. That was the first and sadly only time I ever saw him play truly live, but what an amazing experience it was.


My final DB experience came a year later. By now I was doing PR for a small, very small Ladbroke Grove record label called Trouserwear, run by a mate. He'd made a sampler LP called Blatant, featuring lots of local talent, including yours truly. It was set up like a game where the listener got to be an A&R man. The idea was you would wear the cardboard Ray Bans and attach your 'Backstage Pass' and listen to the tracks to try to pick a winner. Thinking about it now, it was an excellent idea!

Anyway, a pal of mine was telling me how his girlfriend was rehearsing with a choreographer - David Toguri - for the new David Bowie video. There were at Pineapple Studios. I grabbed a copy of the album, dolled myself up and headed over there. The girlfriend came out and introduced me to the choreographer and I explained about the album and was there a way to get a copy to DB because he was name checked on the record. 

He took it, and went back inside the rehearsal room. I was just about to leave when the pal's gf came running after me. 'David (Toguri, not Bowie) loves your look and he wants you to be in the video!' I almost fainted.

My phone number was taken and later that day I got a call telling me to be at the Roof Gardens in Kensington two days later. I'd get paid (£20 I think I got), and I had to be there at 8am wearing what I was wearing that day. 

I was there with bells on. As with all things filmic, the day dragged on for an eternity, with an awful lot of sitting around doing nothing, but when DB came out to film his bits, time evaporated. 

Julien Temple was directing the video, and while the choreographer loved my look, he wasn't so keen, I can still hear him telling me to 'move back, move back' the fucker. I made the final edit though and if you can be arsed to watch it here's the video 

https://youtu.be/DXvAaNcXNzI

I'm in the 'concert' part of the video and wearing a white jacket.

After a 14 hour day, they finally called a wrap. DB was standing out on the stage and I seized my chance. I said hi, took a fag this time, and asked if he'd received the album. I told him I was one of The Serious Sisters who featured on it. What I'd forgotten was that in the fictionalised biog I wrote for my group, I'd claimed we'd sung backing vocals for him when we were only 12 years old or something. As I said 'Serious Sisters' he broke out into a huge grin and said 'Oh yes, my backing singers'. He pretended to be annoyed but I just said 'showbiz innit?' and he laughed. He then went on to say how much he loved the idea of the album and some of the music too.

Now obviously a gazillion people will have a gazillion stories about David Bowie and many, many words will be written about him today and in the coming weeks, months, years. This is my contribution. 

Of all the "stars" I've met over the years, he always stood out for his sense of humour, his lack of condescension, his elegance, charm and good nature. He was also very generous with his cigarettes.

What a diamond.

The Dexys One...

So there I was about this time 32 years ago. Sitting in a cafe just off Duke St., W1, round the corner from EMI’s iconic Manchester Square offices. As I sipped my tea and read Honey magazine I was aware that I was kind of a part of rock and roll history. 

At my feet were two carrier bags. Inside those carrier bags were the master tapes to an album. Actually not just any old album, the eagerly awaited debut album from Dexys Midnight Runners. It was gonna be called Searching For The Young Soul Rebels, and it was gonna be a classic in years to come. 

Why did I have them? Why weren’t they in the safe keeping of EMI? Well it’s a long story and one I’m probably not allowed to go into detail about for legal reasons. Suffice to say, Kevin and the rest of the band had been talking to people, including the producer of the album Pete ’18 With A Bullet’ Wingfield and they’d realised that their contract with the record company was really shit. Like really, really shit.

If my memory serves me, I do believe attempts were made to renegotiate in the usual ways, but these came to zero, so instead we ‘liberated’ the tapes on the final night of recording and now suddenly EMI wanted to talk.

While Kevin Rowland and Steve Spooner thrashed out a better deal for all concerned I sat there waiting for my cue to deliver the album. After a couple of days, thankfully a deal was done and as we all now know it was a classic.

My association with the band came to a bit of a messy end not too long afterwards, but I stayed on fairly good terms with most of them. I even lived at Kevin’s house for a bit while I worked out what I was gonna do with my life now that my days as a trouser ironer were over. 

Over the years I lost touch gradually with all of the original line up. A few years ago I reconnected with Pete Williams via my stand-up career. He came to a couple of gigs and we would occasionally meet up when I was doing The Glee Club in Birmingham. In fact it was through The Glee Club that I last had any dealings with Kevin too, but that was over the phone, I’ve not seen him since the mid-80’s.

So here I am 32 years later, listening to the newest work by Dexys. Not all of the old members are involved unfortunately, but Big Jimmy is, Pete is, and although I never worked with him Merton Mick Talbot from Dexys Mk2 is there too.

The reviews have been spectacular - ‘album of the year’, ‘album of the century’ - and the little iTunes previews promised much. They’ve definitely got the look right, Kevin suits the 40’s be-bop chic style so much more than the white frock from the ‘Concrete and Clay’ days.

Much has been made about it being a concept album. It’s certainly got a theme, but to me things like The Who’s ‘Tommy’ are concept albums. This reminds me of Marvin Gaye’s ‘Here My Dear’ in feel. 

There’s a little bit of the past Dexys in the songs, there’s a bit of 70’s disco going on in I’m Always Going to Love You and I’m loving the addition of Madeleine Hyland as well as Pete Williams on vocals. Pete’s voice has just got better and better with age. Free would sound even better with a ton of brass blasting out but that’s just me I guess.

The lyrics have the feel of someone who’s spent an awful lot of time in self-contemplation, and now that Kevin’s in his late 50’s you’d hope he would’ve done a bit of that. I think they really speak to those of us who’ve grown up with Dexys. I’m not sure how your average 16 year old would take to it, but fuck them they’ve got The Saturdays and One Direction.

As for me, their old trouser ironer, I love it.

Broooooooooooooooooooce!!!!!!!!!

So my second non-comedy Saturday night was spent watching mainly Bruce Springsteen night on BBC4. There was a fabulous documentary on the making of Darkness on The Edge of Town which just had me spellbound.

It also took me right back to a very special point in time in my life. Darkness was the first Springsteen album I bought and I bought it because I had heard two tracks - Prove It All Night and Candy’s Room - and fell in love with them on first hearing. The fact that it was Mick Jones from The Clash playing them for me in his hotel bedroom at the Holiday Inn in Liverpool back in 1978 may have influenced me. I know it influenced Pete Wylie who was there at the same time!

For the record, there were no shenanigans taking place! I was there to see The Clash play at Eric’s and having already interviewed them for my fanzine The Ligger, had been invited to the hotel to chill out before the gig.

As I was typing those words it hit me how mad that sounds! It really was innocent. I was 17, a virgin, and drank a diet coke and nobody made any untoward suggestions - bastards!

Anyway, Mick had got a copy of Darkness and played us those two songs, and that was it for me. When I got back to Preston I hit Brady’s record store and bought myself a copy. I played it to death, over and over and loved every single track. From there of course, I went back and bought Born To Run, The Wild The Innocent and The E Street Shuffle, and Greetings From Asbury Park NJ. I found Born To Run very easy to love and Jungleland was just a mini movie in my head as I listened to it.

What helped as well I guess was that Mr Springsteen was never too shabby on the eye. He still isn’t! So I listened to the albums, swooned over his photograph and waited for the day he might come to the UK and play beyond London.

Over time, I moved to London, then to Birmingham and onto Canada for a brief post-Dexys spell. It was there that I got my chance to see him. In the Toronto Star I spotted and advert for a trip to Buffalo, just over the border in the US, to see Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band on The River tour. This was 1980 and that double album was driving my aunt mad as I played it at every opportunity. I dashed to the tour company’s office and handed over about $100 for the bus and the gig ticket.

It was a long old schlepp but my god it was worth it. It was one of those big old enormodomes that are common even here now, but at the time it seemed as big as my old hometown of Preston. I think the local ice-hockey team played there most of the time. We were in our seats at least an hour before showtime and I was entranced by this noise that reverberated around the entire stadium. It sounded like boo-ing but of course, it was 10 or 15 thousand people all chanting Brooooooce! Amazing.

I knew very little about what to expect. I had heard that they did long shows, but after years of punk gigs anything over 45 minutes was long! I was wondering who the support act would be, and as the lights dimmed got the biggest shock as I realised we were straight into the main course, no support for Bruce!

Four and a half hours later he left the stage for the final time, after a series of encores. I was spent. It was deep winter outside but I was soaked in sweat from dancing and singing along the entire time. It was magical

I saw Bruce Springsteen many more times after that, in Toronto, at Manchester Apollo (!), Birmingham (where I even got to meet him and get a much prized autograph) and several Wembley gigs, and they were all awesome experiences, but none of them really came close to that very special first time.

Thank you BBC4 for rekindling those memories!

Oh My Days!!!!!!!

If you are really eagle-eyed you will spot me dancing at the side of the stage in this old TOTP clip of Dexys!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJc_q8eH2ng&feature=player_embedded#!

The Ligger Years... Part 4 ... More Clash

So a couple of weeks after the Manchester Apollo gig, The Clash were playing at King George's Hall in Blackburn. A group of Preston punks (actually all the punks in Preston!) had organised a mini-bus to take us there and back, but Peggy and I went earlier than the others.

I'd written up the interview and done a copy for Joe Strummer to read - copy approval even before there was such a thing! - he hadn't asked for us to do that, it was basically just an excuse to get on the guest list again!

As if getting to see The Clash again wasn't exciting enough, there was an extra-special treat awaiting me in Blackburn - now there's a sentence you never thought you'd see! There was an extra guitarist playing with them that night and I literally bumped into him backstage. It was none other than Steve Jones from The Sex Pistols!

He was the reason I'd become a punk in the first place. I can still remember seeing his photo in the NME in what was probably the first ever feature on the band, and thinking 'if that's what punk men look like, I'm gonna be a punk!' Shallow I know, but there ya go, and bear in mind that the time I was "into" 10cc!

I can still remember how my legs turned to jelly when I saw him close up. He was so handsome in those days and smelled amazing! He was wearing a Vivienne Westwood Seditionaries T-shirt that was an open letter to Derek Jarman slagging off the movie Jubilee and a pair of black jeans. Goddam he was hot!

Luckily for me, my pal Peggy aka Anne R Key, was on the ball and told him who we were. I was mute with virginal teenage desire! Eventually I recovered enough to tell him about the fanzine and ask for an interview. He said he'd happily do one after the gig. Peggy then said 'she's your number one fan, why don't you give her a kiss?' Jesus! I am cringing now just thinking of it! But, it worked, he kissed me on both cheeks and said he'd see me after the show.

That gig was one of the best times I ever saw them play, they were on cracking form and Steve Jones' guitar added an extra kick to the tunes.

After the show, we went backstage, and met one of the many seminal characters of punk rock - a former Sex Pistols roadie called Steve English. He asked Steve Jones if he planned to fuck me (I know!) and Steve Jones said 'No, she's a good girl', before disappearing off to shag two sluts in the orchestra pit!

It has to be said that while I was flattered that he didn't see me as 'just another groupie', as a 17 year old virgin, had he asked I probably woulda fucked him! What a slut! We hung out with The Clash for a bit - wooohooo another can of Coke! - and then Steve Jones reappeared minus the girls. He handed me a sweaty bit of black cloth and a piece of paper, saying we'd do the interview another time.

The cloth was the Seditionaries t-shirt and the bit of paper was the address and phone number of Glitterbest in Denmark St - Malcolm McLaren's office!

The Ligger Years... Part 3

Emboldened by the successes of interviews with Ian Dury and Glen Matlock, Gaye Abandon (that's me folks) cast the net wider still, and got the big one.

We blagged tickets to see The Clash at Manchester Apollo and got there early enough to catch them coming in for a soundcheck. Their tour manager - Johnny Green - told us that we could do the interview when they came back later to do the gig.

I remember it was pissing down that day and poor old Peggy or Anne R Key as she was now known had used some kind of temporary black dye on her hair. The rain showed just how temporary it was as the colour ran in rivulets down her face! We nipped into the pub that used to be next door to the Apollo - I dunno if it's still there, I'm guessing that whole area has been re-developed by now, it was like a bombsite in '78! - and she wiped the black streaks off her face and we prepared for our big interview.

The Clash were like my all-time favourite band in the punk rock days - and probably still are if the truth be told! - so the thoughts of getting to sit down with Joe Strummer and Mick Jones was incredibly exciting for me.

True to his word, when Johnny Green saw us waiting outside he slipped us in through the stage door and up to the band's dressing room. I was introduced to Joe Strummer and offered a drink. I remember only having the balls to get a Coke!

Joe was a great interview - once I'd calmed down enough to talk to him properly. I remember being impressed by his intelligence and articulacy (is that even a word?????). Anyway, it was quickly becoming apparent that none of these "punks" were illiterate yobs! After Joe, we sat down with Paul Simenon who was far less chatty, Topper had nowt to say really, and Mick Jones was second only to Joe in the chatty stakes.

Interview over, we were asked if we wanted to watch the gig from backstage, but as this was our first time seeing the Clash properly, we wanted to be out in the audience. As it turned out, we shoulda stayed backstage! We'd missed Suicide who were the support act, but as The Clash walked onstage all hell let loose. We were sat near the front, but no-one was sitting! Soon no-one had the choice, as the seats began flying over our head and landing in the orchestra pit!

The whole gig passed in a bit of a blur, but even to this day i can remember the energy that just powered the whole experience. All of us, the band, the crowd and the poor, useless security men, were on fire!

Best of all, we even made the bus back to Preston!

I saw The Clash play over 30 times and most of those gigs are still alive in my memory, so if you enjoyed this on, there's plenty more Clash stories to come, believe me!

JoJo Smith...The Ligger Years Part 2

So yesterday I posted about my meeting with Ian Dury and the feedback has been amazing! Not to mention to huge amount of hits to my site!

As a result, I've decided to stop hanging onto all my little rock and roll stories for the mythical autobiography, and start recounting them here. Let's face it, I'm not famous enough for the 'big budget in the shops for Christmas' type book deal, and thank god my life hasn't been tragic enough to make a bomb on one of those "misery books".

In yesterday's blog I explained that in order to legitimize my meeting with Mr Dury I said that me and my mates had a fanzine called The Ligger. At that point it was nothing more than words, but as we sat on the train back to Preston, it dawned on me that actually doing a fanzine would be a great idea.

Kosmo had given us tips on being real liggers, useful tips such as:

1. Never pay for a gig ticket, always ring the record company press offices and blag them

2. Never pay for records, always ring the record company press offices and blag them.

3. Never pay for anything much at all if you can help it, blag, blag, blag!

Those words resonated in my head and have stood me in good stead for almost all of my adult life!

As you might imagine, Preston wasn't exactly Punk Rock Central, so we had to travel for our ligging. One trip we took was to Blackpool. Glen Matlock - the Sex Pistol who was sacked for 'liking The Beatles' had formed another group called The Rich Kids and they were doing a gig in what I recall was the function room of a hotel somewhere in the seaside town.

This time it was just Peggy and I that went. By now we had proper Punk Rock pseudonyms - just like Poly Styrene and Sid Vicious - Peggy was Anne R Key and I was Gaye Abandon! I'd contacted the record company - EMI ironically given Glen's previous band's troubles with the label - and got us on the guest list, and we were off!

Guest List - two of the most incredibly wonderful words in the world ever put together!

Now strictly speaking of course the Rich Kids weren't punk rock, dear god they had an ex-member of the teeny-bop group Slik in them! I speak of course of Midge Ure. At the time we went to see them, they'd had one record out, also called Rich Kids (I got a free copy!). We were more interested in seeing the ex-Sex Pistol on bass then what he was today.

The gig itself has faded from my memory, but I do remember it was great! Exciting, so different to the Blockheads one in that the room was tiny and we were really close to the band. Up until then we'd only ever seen bands in massive venues like the Guildhall, and the Manchester Apollo and the Liverpool Empire, so to be in somewhere about the same size as one of those venue's toilet was enthralling.

After the show we sat down with Glen and did the interview. He was happy to talk about the Pistols tho of course preferred to talk about his new band, but he was happy to talk. So much so that we missed the last train back to Preston! Bless him, he gave us £20 which in those days was plenty to get us a taxi home. Luckily, he'd also given us an address for his management offices and I'm proud to say we did actually send him a £20 postal order when we got back!

As a footnote to this tale, I actually saw Glen on the tube a couple of weeks ago. I thought it'd be way to weird to try and remind him about this incident from 32 years ago. I have to say that of almost all the people from those days he's worn the best, he was looking hawt for a man in his 50's!

One More Movie! AKA The Ligger Years...Pt 1

Soooo today I revisited a bit of my history.

I went to see Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll, the Ian Dury biopic starring Andy Serkis. I had a little investment in it being good, apart from the £7.80 it cost me to get in. Thirty-two years ago Ian Dury and The Blockheads came to Preston to perform at The Guildhall, and me and my mates Peggy and Lynn had tickets to go see them.

I was a huge fan, I had one of the limited edition copies of Sex & Drugs on Stiff - I also had an "If it ain't Stiff, it ain't worth a fuck" t-shirts which I got free just by writing to them at 32 Alexander St and asking for one!

The afternoon of the gig, a Saturday, Lynn and Peggy met me for lunch - I worked Tuesday to Saturday at the Lancashire Evening Post - and we tried to work out how we could get backstage and meet Ian Dury. I said "Let's say we've got a fanzine and wanna interview him". The girls agreed it was a good idea, so we went over to the Guildhall to see if there was anyone around we could try blagging with. Oh man! The arrogance and fearlessness of youth eh? I was 16 and invincible!

This guy Kosmo Vinyl appeared. He worked with the band and said that if we found him after the gig we could go meet Ian Dury and maybe do our interview. He asked what the fanzine was called and I just blurted out "The Ligger". It was a brilliant name as it was something I'd always aspired to be. I never wanted to fuck the bands, but I did wanna lig - hang out with em and drink their beer!

Anyway, we went to the gig and we did go backstage. Unfortunately, so did half of Preston. These were the days of punk rock and "no more heroes". We got our photo taken with Ian Dury, and were all set to scarper when Kosmo found us. He said that there was no chance of doing the interview tonight, but if we turned up on Sunday lunchtime, we could go with them to Liverpool and do the interview on the bus!

How could we refuse? Of course we told minor fibs to our parents. No halfway respectable parent would say yes to their 16 year old daughter asking if it was OK to go to another town on a tour bus with a "punk rocker".

Anyway, off we went. We met up with Kosmo outside The Crest hotel and he led us onto the bus and introduced us to Ian! He remembered us from the night before, so he was cool. As this whole scam had been my idea, I was selected to ask the questions (to be fair I had written them!) and Peggy and Lynn were gonna write down his answers. No tape recorders or shorthand for us!

I also took him a present. At the time he had a Union Jack on his front teeth and I had a pair of Union Jack socks, so I gave them to him. They were ankle socks and while he thanked me for them, he explained that he couldn't wear them, and rolled up his trouser-leg to show me why. I'd never seen a caliper before or indeed met anyone with polio, but as he showed me his leg he said that he only wore the thick fisherman's socks cos they stopped the caliper from rubbing. Talk about an ice-breaker!

Somehow, I managed to come up with enough interesting questions to hold his attention all the way to the Liverpool Empire. We were escorted in through the stage door, and got to watch the soundcheck - god it was so exciting! Like a dream come true!

We had to leave halfway through the gig to get a train back to Preston, but that was and still is one of the most magical days ever!

So that was my Ian Dury story. That interview was written up and eventually led to me getting a proper gig as a journalist a few months later when I moved to London.

The movie really was fantastic, Andy Serkis's portrayal is incredible, and while Kosmo Vinyl seems to have been totally written out of the story, it was reasonably accurate. If you're of a certain age, go see it, what a remarkable man.