Author archive: Tony Fletcher

The Beaverkill Creek from the Esopus Creek, February 15 2010. Continue reading →

Continued from Part 1 and Part 2 I will say this for a serious sports injury. Far better you get it at the end of a season, when you’ve achieved your goals and have little else to aim for, than at the start of the year, when the competitive calendar is laid out before you. Continue reading →

Continued from part 1 Looking back on my incredible twelve month period of running successes from November 2009-October 2010, I realize now that the high point was the mid-point – my first Boston Marathon in April 2010. This came at the end of a devoted winter running schedule, based around a series of Saturday morning Continue reading →

Between November 2009 and October 2010, I enjoyed the best year’s running of my life. I broke PRs (personal records) in just about every distance, in most cases exceeding my previous pace by as much as ten seconds per mile. On the roads, those PRs numbered the 5k, 10k, 15k, half marathon and full marathon Continue reading →

As if it’s not bad enough that we had to close the iJamming! Pub due to hackers and spam merchants, the front page of iJamming! itself has recently come under attack from what computer nerds call a “Trojan Horse.” I have attempted to fix the problem though in doing so, I seem to have messed Continue reading →

While in London in November, I went over for dinner with one of my closest childhood friends. He was influential in my musical tastes when I was a kid, and my football loyalty too. In adulthood, he’s as much into wine as I am, so it’s always good to get together, crack open a good Continue reading →

The list of 75 songs below comprises the second MP3 disc I put together to celebrate the 150 Best Songs, or Top Artists, or simply the most representative music of my 2010. As with the first MP3 disc of 75 songs, they are not in any order of personal preference, but they have been sequenced Continue reading →

As somewhat promised last week, when I posted my Top 10 Albums from 2010, here’s the first MP3 disc of my 150 from 2010 that I put together on my iTunes over the holidays. For me, this was a great use of the downtime between Christmas and New Year, a chance to gather up as Continue reading →

It’s that time in the calendar when the Village Voice gears up to publish its annual Pazz and Jop Poll, and as one of the 1500 odd journos whose opinions they solicit, I finally get round to compiling my Top 10 Albums and Singles of the Year. I don’t freelance much anymore, and I’m certainly Continue reading →

Read this post in its entirety here:There’s No Christmas!

I don’t expect you to srart queuing up to download videos of me talking about my recent book All Hopped Up and Ready To Go: Music from the Streets of New York 1927-77 for your iPod/iPad/other portable device. However, it is possible that you’d be interested in some of the people I interviewed to promote Continue reading →

Shine Again Manchester. Two landmarks intersected by a note of optimism. (Click on image for larger picture.) November 17, 2010. The entrance to the former Hacienda nightclub – “iconic” it may be but it sits vacant during a recession. November 17, 2010. Continue reading →

Shine Again Manchester. Two landmarks intersected by a note of optimism. (Click on image for larger picture.) November 17, 2010. The entrance to the former Hacienda nightclub – “iconic” it may be but it sits vacant during a recession. November 17, 2010. Continue reading →

Brighton at night. 4:53pm, Tuesday November 23rd. Bexhill-on-Sea by day. 1:38pm, Saturday November 25th. Continue reading →

What’s Britain without a pub? The Woolpack, Beverley, Bonfire Night, November 5. Good old-fashioned beer (on tap). The Woolpack, Beverley, Saturday November 20th. Good modern-fashioned beer (on tap) at microbrew pub the Marble Beer House, Chorlton, Manchester. Most commonly heard phrase at the bar: “A pint of Pint, please.” I didn’t step inside this one. I just liked Continue reading →

Eating vegetarian in Britain has never been that difficult. The nation is, after all, the spiritual home of the chip butty, the egg roll, the cucumber sandwich and, so it often seems, the vegetable curry too. Eating vegan, though, is something else entirely. Whether it’s a desire to over-compensate for perceived absence of meat, or Continue reading →

1) The Hull Choral Society singing Verdi’s Requiem to a sadly sparse crowd at Hull City Hall, Thursday November 4. My mother is somewhere in the middle row, right hand side. (Hint: she’s wearing white.) The “Sanctus” section was epic horror movie soundtrack prog rock, and the sheer size of orchestra and choir put Spiritualized Continue reading →

Bexhill-on-Sea, Saturday November 27, 1:38pm. Click on photo for larger image. Continue reading →

I’ve been in the UK for almost a week now, enjoying a lovely balance of work and pleasure that leaves no time for lengthy iJamming! posts. If you want to keep up to date, you can follow my tweets that run down the right hand sidebar of the iJamming! front page, or over at twitter Continue reading →

Californian Chardonnay is big, bold, typically tropical, and overly oaked. Right? Well, not always. Though many Californian Chardonnays (and especially the more expensive ones) do indeed lean towards this somewhat aggressive style, and though it’s true that much of this is due to the State’s relentlessly hot climate, there are exceptions to the rule. The Continue reading →

Some of the costumes seen in Woodstock this Halloween. Including our own. Click on small image for larger one. Continue reading →

The USA hasn’t been the greatest country to live in the last two years. Despite the historic election of a black President, a President that seemed to embody the hopes and aspirations of, well, at least a majority of voters in the last Election, the nation has remained mired in the Great Recession. Now it’s Continue reading →

Read this post in its entirety here:I Witness: Harvest Season

Announcing my next project: an extensive biography of The Smiths, to be published by William Heinemann in the UK and Crown Books in the USA. Though there are several books available about this greatest of British bands, there has not been a serious attempt at a biography other than Johnny Rogan’s “The Severed Alliance” back Continue reading →

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