Helen McCookerybook

Monday, May 12, 2025

Man Walking Along the Street Looking Inside a Very Shiny Guitar

The Oxford Handbook of Punk Rock

This book showed up last week, as a heavy cardboard-clad parcel. It was a long time in the making. It contains what was going to be my last ever published academic chapter and lots more besides: Lucy O'Brien, Asya Dragonova, Russ Bestley, Mary Fogarty, Samantha Bennett, Paula Guerra and many more, all edited by George McKay and Gina Arnold.

It's wildly expensive, intended as an academic library book, but will doubtless appear as a moderately expensive paperback at some point. It's caused a stir on one of my social media accounts firstly because of its expense, then later blossoming out into 'what the book has not covered, how awful'. Well once you make something intangible tangible, that's what happens, isn't it? The whole point of academic discourse is discourse. I should have said that in my responses to the post I suppose.

We could pretend that it never happened, of course, but it was a wildly influential musical/political/art subculture, and the seeds of its antiracist collaboration with Rock Against Racism planted a whole new approach to the power of young people to change things. The fact that this was so sneered at at the time, and so belittled now, proves that the power we had back then was dangerously effective. There are still a lot of festering dinosaurs around though, aren't there? Anyway, two fingers up to Reform. Should be called Retire, shouldn't it?

https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/38573?login=false

The publication triggered a request for a chapter that I wrote in 2022 about the engagement of women punk musicians with reggae music, which is quite an interesting outcome. I have had to ask to be described as an independent academic because I'm no longer at the University of East London, which does not deserve to be accredited for any progressive publication, given its practice on homophobia, racism and misogyny. All written down as being 'against', but student fees override ethics in a blatant disregard for these things. That's why I left, and the whole sorry tale is stored safely for the appropriate moment to unleash it.

Anyway, on another tack: I have a half-written piece on Joby and the Hooligans that someone invited me to write ages ago. I never heard back from them but should probably finish it anyway, just for my own purposes. I do know that my own memory of it all is completely subjective, but I also kind of owe it to Joby to immortalise him because he was such a character!

Friday, May 09, 2025

The Pop-Up Chefs Released Today!

https://thepop-upchefs.bandcamp.com/album/the-pop-up-chefs-ep

Wednesday, May 07, 2025

Busker Changeover Time

Tuesday, May 06, 2025

Golfers and Green Hedge

Monday, May 05, 2025

Stockton and Halifax

Good job I overheard a fellow-traveller on the way to Stockton: the connection at Northallerton had been cancelled so I had to travel on to Darlington and change there. Thankfully, Stephen and Wendy Harland cam to meet me. But O, the madness of gigs! The key holder of the NE Volume Bar had been held up by a fire on a train in Newcastle. Several chilly band members tried to find a sunny spot on the pavement outside the venue while we waited. What a relief when the key turned up!

The sound checks were short and efficient. Dave the sound engineer is really good and we all got a decent shot at a soundcheck before tucking in to the curry that Wendy had made for backstage- and glory be, Haribos!

I went on first. I'd been going to be a babby and beg to sit down and play, but I forgot to ask, so rock star mode it was. It was a very different experience to the last time when I played there, mid-lockdown. Chris Bartley was at both gigs and we were talking about that. Different crowd too, but I think I did Ok; I definitely enjoyed it!

Thee Strawberry Mynde went on next (see photo). They are a trio from the Hartlepool area and play psychedelic rock of the first order: good loud songs with some wacky and extraordinary guitar parts that set their music apart from the general throng. I liked their songs a lot.

I have played with the headliners, The Fallen Leaves, at one of Shelley Guild's gigs at the Green Door Store in Brighton. They too have memorable songs, and played numerous encores.

It was astonishing to see their bass-player's Hofner President bass, a year later than my old one that went to live with Martin Stephenson when we slit up. Rock star alimony! Anyway, we had a very nerdy bass player's conversation about semis.

Thanks to Stephen and Wendy not only for the gig, but also for letting me stay and ferrying me around. a few people on Saturday night said 'How can you do this, travelling around and getting up to play on your own?'. I'd never thought of it like that. I feel like I sort of blend into the general world, so I don't feel isolated or intimidated at all by it.

Anyway, on to Halifax, a much more straightforward journey. My friend Alison Ridler met me on the train at Bradford Interchange and once I'd left my guitar at the Grayston Unity, at their recommendation we went round the corner and had the most wonderful Paella in the world and talked the hind legs of a herd of donkeys.

This was such a different gig, just as good in a completely different way. It had sold out (actually a couple of extra people showed up and they let them in). I played two 40-minute sets with a break to a small upstairs room full of very friendly people. It almost felt like something we did together: it was intense, in the best possible way. I realised that it was break-time and had stopped before Let's Make Up. A man sitting close in front of me had read the set list upside down and requested it to be played when people came back in. Eighty minutes is a lot of songs, but I still managed to miss out The Ginger Line because I was dotting about the set list. A woman who came along early very kindly gave me some candles, and a chap in the audience gave me some poetry he'd written. And yes, we sang At The Bathing Pond together and I finished with Three Cheers for Toytown. 'That was a punk song', declared a man at the back. The song was very glad to be recognised.

I've got next weekend off and then I'm playing at David's Music in Letchworth. Three cheers for gigging, and my train-travellers fan!

Coming Up On Friday: Digital Pop-Up Chefs EP

The limited-edition vinyl EP of this music has been held up in Taiwan, so we've decided to release the tracks digitally on Bandcamp on Friday in collaboration with Gare du Nord records.

More news close to the day...