When in Cheltenham I got caught up in a bit of 80’s nostalgia. Whilst enjoying my traditional “full English” in the hotel, an article on The June Brides by American writer Dave Eggers took my eye. Now for many people the music of The Junes Brides won’t mean much. However when Orynthia and I got married (19 years ago next weekend since you ask), their album “There are eight million stories” was one of the ones that we both had copies of, there were a few others, feel free to guess.

Mr Eggers piece perfectly captured the strange hold that the work of a band can have over you. The way that years later, you can still find yourself looking for news of a performer, who moved onto a more secure way of earning a living many years ago.

Later whilst trying to finally spend some of my Xmas / birthday book tokens, I picked up the Simon Reynolds book “Rip it up and start again – post punk 1978 – 1984” it does sound more like someone’s specialist subject on an episode of Mastermind than an exciting read. But that’s exactly what a book covering the music of that time should be titled. A mixture of knowing reference and dry fact, which our bible of the time the NME would have revelled in.

Much like Simon Reynolds my real musical obsession started in 1978, previously I’d taken an interest in prog and heavy metal and strangely bits of jazz. However, the combination of spending money (having started work), and a burgeoning addiction to the John Peel show saw me throwing my money at any number of soon to be forgotten guitar bands. What a treat then to turn randomly to page 222 to find a top ten consisting of bands such as “Prefects” “The Cravats” “Notsensibles” “Spizzenergi” “Family Fodder” “Fatal Microbes” “(And The) Native Hipsters”. Should be a good read, before I get into that I’m going to spend my time with the latest book from Ian McEwan “Saturday.