I got (mis)diagnosed with Schizophrenia on 02.04.1997 and I’ve had 26 years of hell in the mental health system here in South Wales ever since. Initially the psychiatrist said it was ‘mild schizophrenia’ whatever that is. I have had over
Continue readingTag: clubbing
Review: We May Win We May Lose – by Jim ‘Shaft’ Ryan
Jim ‘Shaft’ Ryan is a famous house music DJ from Birmingham who along with his brothers, Mick and Dermot, and their mate Lee, responsible for the seminary U.K. and global nightclub brands, Miss Moneypennys and Chuff Chuff. Jim is also
Continue readingGroove Presents Fat Tony, Luna Springs, Digbeth, Birmingham 29.04.2023 (Alison Limerick Live PA and DJ Jim ‘Shaft’ Ryan)
I travelled up to Birmingham on the train from Wales and caught up with my good mate DJ Jim ‘Shaft’ Ryan from Miss Moneypennys / Chuff Chuff. Luna Springs is an open-aired nightclub in Digbeth, a great clubbing zone in
Continue readingReview: Life After Dark – A History of British Nightclubs & Music Venues – by Dave Haslam
I got excited when this book arrived on my doorstep. At first glance it has all the key ingredients for a great book. Hacienda DJ author, history of British nightclubs – I expected lots of gory detail and exciting anecdotes
Continue readingReview: Black Russian – by Vladimir Alexandrov
This is an exciting tale from the turn of the twentieth century of an eccentric man of the world who encountered directly some of the most important global events of that era. It is a biography of Frederick Bruce Thomas
Continue readingReview: Happy Mondays – Excess All Areas – by Simon Spence
This is the third Simon Spence book that I have read. He is a very talented music journalist from Manchester with a taste for documenting, wild, stylish cultural movements that have emerged from the Madchester craziness. Excess All Areas covers
Continue readingReview: Mister Good Times by Norman Jay MBE
I was lucky enough to be a warm up DJ for Norman Jay back in the 1990s in The Cross Nightclub, London and I think I was billed on a couple of other events with him. He was a great
Continue readingReview: Still Breathing: The True Adventures of the Donnelly Brothers – by Anthony and Christopher Donnelly (and Simon Spence)
Chris and Anthony Donnelly are two likely lads from Wythenshawe, Manchester. Growing up to a backdrop of crime, allegedly part of the the notorious Quality Street Gang, these entrepreneurs became leading figures in the birth of Manchester’s Acid House scene,
Continue reading