1. Foreword from the book Review by IAN CLAYTON

   Bradford has always been a bit unsung. But not anymore, thanks to this work of breathtaking scholarship. Its scope, reach and minute attention to detail mean that just about anybody who ever joined in with a tap room sing-song or whistled along to a pop tune on their way down Great Horton Road is included. The authors Gary Cavanagh and his mate Matt Webster both deserve a medal as big as a dustbin lid or at the least the freedom of the metropolitan borough. The text is lively, well researched and very readable and it had me reaching to find my own Bradford musical memories.
   
   I saw Thin Lizzy at the St Georges Hall sometime in the 1970s and after that gig ate my first proper curry, meat and peas, I shovelled it down with half a dozen chapattis for about eighty five pence and the girl I'd gone with told me that I should grow my hair like Scott Gorham. That never happened, but an affair with that grand old venue did start that night, I saw Elvis Costello there and was mesmerised by Mary Coughlan who gargled in between songs with honey and whiskey, to fight off the flu. But my favourite Bradford musical memories are of the festivals of the 1980s when bands played live in front of the city hall. A big band called Loose Tubes came one year and in teeming rain gave a mad brass band concert of salsa tunes full of sunshine while hundreds of wool city rockers danced and splashed in the puddles. It was glorious and I didn't dry out properly until I got back to our house, two trains and a bus ride away.
   
   Books like this do that to you, they send you spiralling back through the landscapes of your memory to find the lovely days when we danced and sang. A lot of work is being done now on intangible heritage, the history that is not in the guidebooks, not in the listed buildings, but in the people, the stories and yes, the songs of our own personal and collective memories.
   
   The authors of this book have tapped into that rich tapestry and woven a bonny book. One that encompasses Charlie Watts and Ray Davies's wedding days, the psychedelic“ happening” that was Moonkyte and a potted history of Britain's longest running folk club. How good is that?
   (Posted on 15/10/2009)

2. Local newspaper review Review by Bradford Telegraph & Argus

   Bradford rock city
   
   
   By Jim Greenhalf »
   Bradford Telegraph & Argus
   
   
   Bradford’s Noise Of The Valleys
   by Gary Cavanagh & Matt Webster (Bank House, £19.99)
   
   If you’re a fan of family trees, you’ll like this book, which is more of a compendium really, because there are lots of them.
   
   You can follow the evolution of Bradford bands such as Fresh Garbage, Poppy Factory, The Mekons, Smokie, and many others.
   
   Gary Cavanagh, a founder member of Bradford’s 1 In 12 Club, a former textile worker, university tutor and local historian, spent seven years compiling and chronicling the two decades covered by the very detailed book.
   
   Apart from family trees of bands, there are excerpts from newspapers, photographs, the odd cartoon, posters and other memorabilia.
   
   In his introduction, Little Old Textile Town, Gary Cavanagh credits the T&A’s Rock On column as one of his sources – a more detailed list of sources for particular stories in each of the seven chapters is a commendable inclusion.
   
   However, for personal reasons, I wish the acknowledgements listed the writers of those Rock On columns in the 1970s and early 1980s – former T&A journalists Nick Keyhoe, Alan Whitaker and John Mahoney.
   
   This book is full of rich pickings for the curious browser. For example, I happened to pause at an item about the original Bradford (Arts) Festival, which ran from February 22 to March 1 in 1970.
   
   Look at the line-up – Mike Westbrook, Ewan McColl and Peggy Seeger, John Williams (the classical guitarist) and Manfred Mann. The Incredible String Band didn’t turn up. On the last day there was a screening of the Bob Dylan documentary Don’t Look Back.
   
   There was even a stripper called Estelle and the late Jeff Nuttal, author of Bomb Culture, reading his poems in that Dylan Thomas voice he cultivated.
   
   After the third Bradford Festival, the organisers accused the local authority of not providing enough money and of wanting to get rid of the festival team and take it over themselves. Sounds familiar?
   
   At that time, Bradford had a discernable middle-class arty fraternity. The late Peter Holdsworth and Roger Suddards, T&A theatre correspondent and lawyer respectively, were part of it. They met regularly at various watering holes around the city centre.
   
   Simultaneously, Bradford had an alternative arts scene populated by characters such as Kenny Thomas, lead singer of punk band Complete Disorder, Dirk Spig, Wild Willi Beckett, local poets Ranters, and Seething Wells, all of whom appear in the book.
   
   Seething Wells always fascinated me. He was never a person to me, not with a name like that. I thought of him as a hot spring, a geyser.
   
   This is also a book of places, most of which no longer exist. For example, The Fourth Idea independent bookshop was in the block behind Sunwin House (now T J Hughes) demolished to make way for, well, for something; The Talk Of Yorkshire, Annabella’s discotheque and Gatsby’s in Fountain Street.
   
   You can either read this book from cover to cover or, like me, turn the pages and pick what takes your fancy. If it doesn’t evoke memories, it is bound to make you curious about what Bradford used to be like – before the improvements.
   
   (Posted on 15/10/2009)

3. Best Bradford music book ever Review by The Master

   Bradford's early musical history has been covered in the brilliant book Bradford's Rock and Roll by Derek AJ Lister and Gary and Matt this continue the story through the sixties and into the eighties. An absolute masterpiece of research and the 'family trees' are an incredible piece of research in their own right ! If you want the last word on Bradford's musical heritage then I can recommend no better book. (Posted on 12/10/2009)

4. stunning research Review by joolz

   Anyone who's even vaguely interested in music is going to love this book. Over a thousand bands that started out life in Bradford and environs - household names and others that are virtually forgotten - are included. The research is mindblowing. There's an incredible variety of illustrations as well. It's the kind of book you lose yourself in for hours at a time.
   Check out www.bradfordnoise.com and order the four CDs that are the soundtrack to this book. They're a bargain too.
   Hugely recommended. (Posted on 09/10/2009)

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