132 - The Jam, Paul Weller, Madness, Fanzines, The Face & more with Tony Fletcher

Tony Fletcher joins us to talk about his new book POW!: When UK Punk Went Pop, 1980-84. Starting with his Jammin’ fanzine at age 13, by the time he is 14 Tony writes a letter to Paul Weller & receives a reply.  He is invited to RAK Studios in London whereThe Jam are making what becomes All Mod Cons. He begins a relationship with The Jam & amongst other tales nearly ends up with the famous WHAM! Roy Lichtenstein guitar from the Start! video, his band Apocalypse open for the band air their final gigs at Wembley Arena & in Brighton.  Concurrently Tony is also writing for The Face magazine & is dispatched to Nottingham with Madness, the thinking being they may open up to a 16 year old rather than an established music writer.  Tony puts on early gigs for his band Apocalypse along with other bands including The Birthday Party at The Africa Centre in Soho.  He has a ringside seat for the end of The Jam & shortly after Paul Weller simply gives him the Jamming record label they had founded together.  **It takes anything from 5 to 40 hours to prepare each episode of Music Maps - if you’d like to make a contribution to help us cover the costs & time of producing these episodes for you, you can do so at this link:** ko-fi.com/musicmaps **It is hugely important for us to get positive reviews & star ratings - if you have enjoyed Music Maps & can spare the time to do either we would hugely appreciate it.**  **You can see our upcoming live events here:** https://rocknrollbookclub.co.uk/events Instagram: @rocknrollbookclube17 X: @simonmusicmaps Facebook: E17rockbookclub **Hosted, Produced & Edited by Simon Cardwell** **Music by Andy Maxwell** * * * Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.