Roots
In August 1973, I was appearing at The Traverse Theatre as a performance poet on The Edinburgh Festival Fringe. There and at whatever...
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Nick Toczek
- Oct 24, 2018
- 1 min
Cat Bat Matt
This must’ve been a year or so after the Millennium. I’m standing in our kitchen doing the washing-up when Matt, our eleven-year-old son,...
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Nick Toczek
- Oct 10, 2018
- 4 min
Not Meeting Bill
In a previous story (Noo Joysie n Noo Yawk), I wrote about the start of my 1986 US tour with two punk bands – fellow Yorkshiremen, The...
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Nick Toczek
- Sep 20, 2018
- 3 min
From Here To Maternity
Gaynor and I met on Christmas Day 1979. We were married on 8 September 1984 and became parents with the birth of our daughter, Becci, on...
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Nick Toczek
- Sep 12, 2018
- 4 min
The Feeding of the Seven Thousand
In the six years between 1982 and 1986 I ran weekly punk and indie gigs in Keighley, Bradford and Leeds. Often the bands I’d booked and...
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Nick Toczek
- Sep 2, 2018
- 4 min
Sitting in the Departure Lounge
It was June 2014 and I was at my granddaughter’s eighth birthday party. The youngest of the invited children was a five-year-old called...
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Nick Toczek
- Aug 21, 2018
- 5 min
A Price On My Head
During the late 1970s and early 1980s, my proto-punk band, Ulterior Motives, played several gigs in The Vaults Bar which was in what had...
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Nick Toczek
- Aug 11, 2018
- 4 min
Added Words of Wisdom
I love it when people say something fairly simple and then follow it with an extraordinary explanation. Here are three examples of that....
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Nick Toczek
- Aug 6, 2018
- 7 min
Late Room
2019 marks my fiftieth year as a performer. I first went on stage – terrified – to read a few of my poems in the main hall of the...
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Nick Toczek
- Aug 2, 2018
- 2 min
And now for the Gory Details...
Here’s an update, especially for all those of you who came to the punk and other music events I ran in Keighley, Bradford and Leeds in...
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Nick Toczek
- Jul 29, 2018
- 4 min
Confession
Whether it’s been due to a pregnancy or being gay, quitting education or having acquired a tattoo, abandoning a religion or needing help...
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Nick Toczek
- Jul 24, 2018
- 4 min
Embarrassing Body
Travelodge provides cheap overnight accommodation. There’s one of their hotels at Toddington services on the M1, about thirty miles north...
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Nick Toczek
- Jul 19, 2018
- 4 min
Offensive Parking
In June 1981 I received a letter addressed to The Occupier of 5 Beech Terrace. Written on behalf of the Head Postmaster, it read: ‘ Dear...
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Nick Toczek
- Jul 15, 2018
- 2 min
Comedy
We’re in a taxi in Gateshead, four of us, Gaynor and me and our two closest friends, Caroline and Paul. We’re up here from Bradford for a...
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Nick Toczek
- Jul 9, 2018
- 3 min
A Toast To Brevity
There’s some kudos, a certain degree of cool to being a music journalist. Obviously, it’s got more than a little to do with the fact that...
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Nick Toczek
- Jul 6, 2018
- 3 min
Chemistry
When my partner, Gaynor, was a teenager, she worked part-time at a chemist’s shop in Bradford. On one occasion, which she still remembers...
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Nick Toczek
- Jul 3, 2018
- 3 min
What People Say
When our daughter, Rebecca, was a two-year-old I was in town with her. Suddenly she pointed across the road and said: "Look, daddy....
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Nick Toczek
- Jun 29, 2018
- 3 min
Signing
I’m a successful children’s poet. Often, at the end of a school visit, I’ll sell books, signing them and adding daft jokey messages....
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Nick Toczek
- Jun 25, 2018
- 3 min
Poet
“Ey-oop, Nick. ‘Ow’s thee’n’thine?” It’s 1984 and this is the standard greeting I get from Obesa, the Barnsley bard, as he walks into The...
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Nick Toczek
- Jun 22, 2018
- 4 min
Three Festival Stories
From the first Stonehenge Free Festival in 1974 to the mega-millions invested in the current plethora of annual UK music festivals, the...
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