Nick Toczek's Wool City Rocker

Nick with the new Wool City Rocker book.

The pilot issue of The Wool City Rocker was published forty-six years ago this month. And now, all fourteen issues plus the unpublished fifteenth issue are brought together in this large-format, 332-page book.

Beginning as a Bradford-based local zine, it steadily expanded to cover West Yorkshire, then the whole of Yorkshire, and eventually the north of England.

The book features a foreword by Bradford musician and activist Aki Nawaz (of Violation, Southern Death Cult, Getting The Fear, Fun-Da-Mental, and Nation Records). There’s also a comprehensive introduction by another Bradfordian, Simon ‘Nogsy’ Nolan, who was the singer with Anti-System and Morbid Humour, and guitarist in Zed and other bands, and more recently appeared on two albums by Nick Toczek & Signia Alpha. In addition, Wool City Rocker’s regular cartoonist, Stan Engel, has produced a set of brand-new cartoons that feature throughout this book.

There’s a preface by Nick Toczek that gives the magazine's backstory. Nick also writes an informed and informative introduction to each of the fifteen issues reproduced in full in this book.

WCR featured gig reviews of The Clash, Elvis Costello, and the first Futurama all-dayer, alongside interviews and reviews of crucial northern newcomers such as Soft Cell, Def Leppard, and Sisters of Mercy.

Within these pages, we encounter the precursors of hugely successful bands, such as The Hustler Street Band (New Model Army), The Elements (Skeletal Family), Violation (Southern Death Cult), Japanese Soldiers (Zodiac Mindwarp and The Love Reaction), etc. There are also the highly regarded nearly-bands of northern rock, such as The Negatives, Radio 5, and Knife Edge.

The Wool City Rocker captured, in minute detail, the frenetic and vital northern live-music scene of the early 1980s. This book is therefore a great read for those who were there at the time, and also provides a fascinating record of those hectic and halcyon times for those who weren’t there.       

Available to order from all good bookshops and online outlets including Amazon worldwide.

To order a signed copy from nicktoczek.com press HERE.

Published by LS Arts Books, 2025.