Letts' chat involves film clips as well as the normal stories, some of which are well rehearsed (hanging with Marley, DJing at The Roxy, hanging with Debbie Harry and The Clash, singing/chatting with Mick Jones
Wolverhampton Literature Festival
Various Venues
February 2022
If you’re around here’s an actually inspiring bunch of live chats at the Wolverhampton Literature Festival for less than a couple of pints each. See the whole list here:
https://www.wolvesliteraturefestival.co.uk
An Evening with Peter Paphides
Wolverhampton Art Gallery
Fri 4th Feb 19.30-20.30

A chance to spend an hour with Peter Paphides who has spent a long time writing about pop music for a living, with all that comes from that. What do I mean? Expect a lot of pop knowledge - you don’t get to thrive in that job unless you pick up the details of who did what when and where. Most long standing music journos I’ve met tend to have great stories, less self-belief than your average doubting vicar and a well honed self-defence mechanism from dealing with endless streams of pissed off bass players wanting to know why they got slagged/didn’t get reviewed whilst standing at the bar of an intimate London venue. So he should be entertaining. His autobiographical book about growing up above a chip shop and loving pop sounds like fun and is
on my list. He worked for Murdoch at The Times so I don’t trust him completely but I’m not sure he would give a toss about that.
Pete Paphides Festival Event →
Don Letts
There and Black Again
Newhampton Arts centre
Sun 6 Feb 7-9PM.

Another autobiography I haven’t got round to yet (so many lives). This chat involves film clips as well as the normal stories, some of which are well rehearsed (hanging with Marley, DJing at The Roxy, hanging with Debbie Harry and The Clash, pressing play on the Portastudio and singing/chatting with Mick Jones’s B.A.D.) but he’s had a busy life and it would also be interesting to hear about his experiences at the BBC (I’d be interested anyway) considering where he’s from, it’s odd that he, along with peanut butter abuser Iggy Pop should be absumed by the Great Institution that once abhorred punk rock. Letts is a great champion of new music, although you’d be hard pushed to discover exactly what kind of thing he’s into in particular; it seems to be more about a certain spirit and this he has in common with other punk survivors.
Don Letts Festival Event →
Others at the festival:Get up early for razor setting number 2 face shaver
Paul Mason to explain How To Stop Fascism (that’s easy, teach ethical wanking to teenage boys).
Where French hippies meet snookering music lovers, Medical Grade Music sees Steve Davies and Gong-ster Kavus Torabi chatting about a ‘shared love of cult experimental music’ and their ‘new band’ The Utopia Strong. Nothing unlikely will ever be unlikely again.