Andrew Perry - A Celebration of a Life In Music at The Social, Saturday 11th July 2026

It was an honour to be there at The Social in London on Saturday night to celebrate the life of music journalist Andrew Perry, who very sadly, passed away from brain cancer earlier this year. Andy was one of the U.K.'s best and most respected music journalists, contributing to magazines and newspapers such as Mojo, Select, Rolling Stone, Q Magazine and The Daily Telegraph as well as writing and co-authoring books about John Lydon, Tricky and Bez. He also DJ'd with Andy Fraser under the banner Intensive Care and had a regular show on Totally Wired Radio. Andy was as Rock 'n' Roll as most of the musicians he covered but he also kept that passion and enthusiasm of a true music fan. There didn't seem to be any of the cynicism, bitterness or ego that affects many of his fellow music journalists. In fact, the amount of love and affection that poured out following his passing was quite remarkable, more so considering he was working in the field of journalism. Nobody seemed to have a bad word to say about him and that is testament to Andy's character. There were many tributes from high profile names in the music and publishing business including Bobby Gillespie, Tim Burgess, Steve Mason and Ebbot Lundberg to name just a few. Whether you knew AP well or just bumped into him at the occasional gig, he was one of those people that cheered you up immediately. His big infectious smile and positive energy will be sorely missed.

I can't claim to be a long-time, close friend of Andy Perry, we first met in the early 2000's and became mates, gig buddies and most importantly, we were both huge fans of Swedish Psych-Rockers, The Soundtrack of Our Lives. That's really where the connection was. But not only was he a fan of the band, he had the privilege of being able to write about them professionally and he did all that he could to cover and promote the so-called "Swedish Invasion" that included the likes of TSOOL, The Hives and The (International) Noise Conspiracy. I was also a big fan of Andy's writing, and the way he wrote about music was certainly one of the inspirations for when I decided to rekindle my old 1980's DIY fanzine "Out of Step" and turn it into one of these modern Blog type things. Initially when I started the Blog in 2011, it was designed solely to write about The Soundtrack of Our Lives. I chose Retro Man as it was the name of my favourite TSOOL song, and not because I was a nostalgic old git (seriously...) as some people might imagine! Unfortunately, my grand idea didn't really pan out as expected as the band were to split up a year later - I'm sure it was nothing personal. So I expanded my musical horizons to write about all the other great bands I was discovering, along with TSOOL's last shows and their various spin-offs, solo work and musical legacy. Inspired by Andy, my mantra for writing about music was to try and make sure I kept things positive and to write like the fan I was. After all, that was Andy - a music fan first and foremost. I even tried to get him on an episode of my Retrosonic Podcast as a special guest, "Blimey, thanks, I am seriously not worthy!" he replied. To my regret, sadly we never did get round to it.

At Rough Trade East for the TSOOL Record Store Day show, Andy chatting to Ebbot & Alex Kapranos

 

Despite The Soundtrack of Our Lives split, Andy and I still met up at various band related shows here and in Sweden. He was there at the Half Moon Putney for my gigs with their frontman Ebbot Lundberg, his first solo shows in the U.K. We were backstage at the Refused gig at Shepherds Bush Empire to catch up with his good friend, the former TSOOL guitarist Mattias Bärjed, who was touring with Refused at the time. Then we saw the legendary Swedish Punk band, and TSOOL forerunners, Union Carbide Productions reunion show in Gothenburg. It was a great gig but Andy moaned to me afterwards about the strange decision to hold the show at a posh all-seated theatre, especially considering the wild nature of the band. When a mutual friend from Sweden came over to London to see the Canadian Psychedelic band Elephant Stone, who's frontman Rishi had played sitar for TSOOL on occasion, Andy made sure he came along too and he turned up at The Lexington sporting his bright blue and yellow Torquay United scarf! As a supporter of a lower league club myself, we would sometimes end up chatting about football as much as music. Then, I remember at one of his birthday parties on a boat on the River Thames when he introduced me to Paul Cook of the Sex Pistols, who happened to be drumming with Vic Godard & Subway Sect, one of Andy's special musical guests on the night. It was never dull when Andy was around.

Andy backstage with Ebbot at our Retro Man Blog Night, his first UK solo show

Then our wish came true when we found out that The Soundtrack of Our Lives had decided to get back together. I tried to persuade Andy to go with me to their first reunion show at Gothenburg's Way Out West Festival and he tried to twist my arm to join him at the Azkena Festival in Spain. Then we found out that they were due to play a show at the Electric Ballroom in London on March 6th 2024. The atmosphere was amazing and Noel Gallagher, another longtime TSOOL-super fan and big supporter of the band, popped in backstage. It was just like old times, the band looked and sounded fantastic and we were all on cloud nine, it was great to be there watching the band we loved so much, it was as though they'd never been away. Andy's passing hit The Soundtrack of Our Lives hard, they never failed to acknowledge or appreciate his support for the band and Ebbot published some nice words on TSOOL's social media after the sad news broke.

"Andy had been following and supporting us from the very start. He was a true fan. One of the kindest, wittiest and most big hearted persons I’ve known in this world. Whenever we played—in San Diego, New York, Spain, or Gothenburg—he was always there. We were from the same generation and shared a lot of influences. That connection meant we always understood each other, and our exchanges were consistently inspiring and rewarding. We’ll miss him forever!" – Ebbot/The Soundtrack of Our Lives

Jim Jones & Heavy Friends, featuring Misty and Lucy

Jim Jones with David Holmes

Saturday's event "Andrew Perry - A Celebration of a Life In Music" at the Heavenly Social was an emotional yet ultimately uplifting experience and I'm sure Andy would have appreciated the great music on offer. People were sharing their stories about Andy, and the amount of love in the room was palpable. DJ's including the legendary David Holmes, Rhys Webb from The Horrors, Declan Allen and Andy Fraser provided some cool sounds. Ebbot has recorded a new E.P. of cover versions that he has dedicated to Andy and hopefully that will be released soon, he had sent them to Andy's partner Victoria to play on the night as an exclusive, unfortunately, I was out getting some fresh air and missed them. I will of course advise further details as soon as I get news on the official release. Then there was a cracking live set from Jim Jones All Stars, although tonight they were billed as Jim Jones Heavy Friends who ran through a superb selection of some of Andy's favourite songs. Jim Jones is certainly the go-to man if you want to get a set of killer covers together. I will never forget the "Lenny Kaye plays Nuggets" night at the 100 Club where he pulled together a super-star line-up including such luminaries as Lenny Kaye himself, Brian James, Rat Scabies, Cheetah Chrome of The Dead Boys, Dave Treganna of Lords of The New Church, Peter Coyne of The Godfathers, Jon King of Gang of Four and many more to deliver a stunning two hour set of 60's Garage Psych classics. Tonight Jim and his All Stars did Andy proud by thrashing through some great songs including The Damned's "New Rose", Velvet Underground's "Run Run Run", Eddie Floyd's "Big Bird", Rolling Stones "Happy", Jesus & Mary Chain's "Head On" and MC5's "Kick Out The Jams". The band were joined by Lucy Maycroft for a take on Royal Trux, and then she was joined by Misty from Tuesday's Cockroaches for a superb performance of The Runaways "Cherry Bomb". It was a perfect tribute and their charged, raw and emotional performance was as cathartic as it was enjoyable. More videos can be found at our Retro Man Blog YouTube channel here.

The tickets for the event were a donation to the Brain Tumour Charity, and if you didn't have chance to make it along but would still like to make a donation, then please do check out their web-site here. I'm writing this just as I got the news that Jennifer Finch, the super-cool bassist from L7, has been diagnosed with an agressive form of brain cancer, so it really is heartbreaking that this terrible disease is taking it's toll on people that are far too young. 

Excuse me for ending on a rather personal note but one of the last times I heard from Andy was just before my 60th Birthday gig at the Half Moon Putney last September - we were born in the same year, 1965. I had arranged some special guests to play, including The WitchDoktors with Marty Love from Johnny Moped, Nicky Forbes from The Revillos, Damian O'Neill from The Undertones and Gaye Advert DJing, and I really wished he would be OK to make it along. His reply kind of summed up his positivity and love for music despite what he must have been going through.

"Many thanks for invite, I will try..! Currently however on a nightmare oncology journey…desperately missing my Rock action!"

Our sincere condolences and thoughts go out to Andy's partner Victoria and all his friends, family and fans of his writing.

Lenny Kaye's "Nuggets Live at The BBC" - E.P. Launch, Listening Party & Movie Screening at the Spice of Life, London April 18th

Alan Blizzard, Marty Love, Jim Jones, Joe De Lorenzo, Guy Griffin and Alan Clayton

Back in 2023, Patti Smith Group guitarist Lenny Kaye played some successful and well-received shows in the States to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the release of his iconic and hugely influential “Nuggets” compilation. Lenny was backed by a stellar line-up consisiting of some of his many musician friends, playing cover versions of some of those classic tracks that he had included on the album. The U.K. based Damned aficionado Kevin Shepherd, then suggested to his friend Joe De Lorenzo, the promoter and tour manager for The Damned, that Lenny should consider bringing the Nuggets show to London. Somehow, using his extensive contacts, Joe made it happen and he assembled an impressive Transatlantic cast for a two-night stand at the 100 Club back in April 2024. The core band backing Lenny featured bassist Dave Treganna of Sham 69 and Lords of The New Church, Jim Jones of Thee Hypnotics and Jim Jones All Stars on guitars and vocals, drumming duties were shared between Rat Scabies of The Damned and Marty Love of Wingmen and the Johnny Moped Band. The other ever presents were Derek Cruz from the Jesse Malin band on Guitars, Harmonica and Percussion and Greg Rice on the keyboards, who both did a superb job considering they were in for the long haul.

Joe with Richard England, Marty Love and Jim Jones

Jim Jones on stage at the Nuggets 100 Club show from Alan Blizzard's movie

We were also treated to various special guest vocalists including Clive 'The Doctor' Jackson of Dr & The Medics, Jon King from Gang of Four, Alan Clayton of The Dirty Strangers, Peter Coyne of The Godfathers, Anita Chellamah from Cherry Bombz and they were joined by New Yorkers, Roxanne Fontana and Amanda Cross. Then we had the guest guitarists, Cheetah Chrome from CBGB's legends Dead Boys, Japanese guitarist Tsuyoshi Kitagawa, otherwise known as Go Ohgami, Billy Shinbone from The Sinclairs and Guy Griffin of The Quireboys. Most memorably of all, it also featured Brian James of The Damned with what was to be his last ever live performance before he sadly passed away. If that wasn't enough, former Clash compatriot DJ Barry 'Scratchy' Myers warmed up the crowd perfectly and Go-Go dancers Moana Santana and Helene de Joie provided some suitably 60's style atmosphere.

Nuggets promoter Joe De Lorenzo

Brian James filmed at rehearsals by Alan Blizzard for his "Nuggets: The Movie"

Then recently it was announced that Johnny Depp’s record label IN-2, in conjunction with the U.K. based Cadiz Music, were going to release a “Lenny Kaye’s Nuggets Live at The BBC” E.P. consisting of a Marc Riley session that they had recorded while they were in London for the 100 Club shows in 2024. It was a special Record Store Day release, so on Saturday, we went along to the Spice of Life in London’s Soho for the E.P. listening and launch party organised by Joe De Lorenzo and Cadiz Music. The afternoon event also included an exclusive preview of the forthcoming LP “Riot On Oxford Street: Live at the 100 Club” and a screening of Alan Blizzard’s excellent behind-the-scenes documentary "The Nuggets Movie” filmed during the 2024 London trip. There was also the added bonus of a Q&A session with Jim Jones, Marty Love and Joe, hosted by Richard England of Cadiz, and there were appearances from ‘Nuggeteers’ Alan Clayton, Greg Rice and Guy Griffin who were happy to chat to members of the audience and sign copies of the E.P. 

Lenny Kaye at the 100 Club Nuggets show on April 4th 2024

It was a thoroughly entertaining afternoon and there was some good news too, there are plans underway for some gigs later in the year to promote the release of the live LP, so please keep an eye out for more information on that. Can’t wait! You can read all about one of the 100 Club gigs in our Retro Man Blog feature here, which also includes lots of photos and videos from a truly remarkable night. More videos from the gig can be found by visiting our Retromanblog65 YouTube channel here, it's totally free to subscribe. Here's an example of one of our videos, Lenny Kaye with "I Wanna Be Your Dog" featuring Brian James it what was sadly to be his last ever live performance, Cheetah Chrome of The Dead Boys, Rat Scabies of The Damned and Dave Treganna of Lords of The New Church...

Lenny Kaye & Friends play Nuggets at The 100 Club London, Thursday April 4th 2024

Lenny Kaye with Marty Love on drums

Lenny Kaye, the New York based musical historian, journalist, author and of course, guitarist with the Patti Smith Group for an impressive 50 years, has another equally impressive entry on his CV, and that’s as the compiler of what must be one of the most influential albums of all time. "Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era, 1965–1968" released on Elektra Records in 1972, was Lenny’s painstaking labour of love, a compilation of obscure 60's American Garage Rock and Psych bands. Often these teen trash bands were one local hit wonders that might have only just made it out from their garage rehearsal to a nearby recording studio or High School gig before disappearing from view for good. However, some of the featured bands would end up clicking with lovers of raw power Rock ‘n Roll for generations to follow. The Seeds, The Sonics and The Music Machine to name but three, inspired countless Garage Punk bands all over the world. The influence of the California based Love in particular, would resonant hugely with the city of Liverpool, not just back in the 80’s with Liverpudlian Post Punk bands such as Echo & The Bunnymen and The Teardrop Explodes but on into the 90’s when songwriting genius Mick Head’s Shack ended up as Arthur Lee’s backing band on his UK tour and then later still with local bands such as The Coral. Well over half the bands I've featured on Retro Man Blog and Retrosonic Podcast owe a huge debt to Nuggets in some way or other - just check out some of our favourite contemporary acts from all over the globe such as Las Aspiradoras from Spain, The Satelliters from Germany, The Hangees from Sardinia, Vic & The Sect from Mexico, Frowning Clouds from Australia, Stompin’ Riff Raffs from Japan and The In-Fuzzed from France are just some great examples.

 

Lenny Kaye with Jim Jones

Lenny Kaye with Jon King from Gang of Four

Lenny with Moana Santana & Helene de Joie

Lenny decided to play some shows in America to celebrate the belated 50^th anniversary of the release of “Nuggets”, gathering together a stellar cast of musicians such as Peter Buck from R.E.M., Peter Zaremba from The Fleshtones, Kathy Valentine from The Go-Go's along with surviving members of some of the original bands like The Seeds, The Electric Prunes, The Leaves, The Chocolate Watchband and Johnny Echols of Love. Then came the announcement of a London show and Lenny, together with promoter Joe De Lorenzo, assembled an equally impressive Transatlantic cast for a night at the legendary 100 Club on Thursday April 4^th. Due to the huge demand, a second date on Friday 5^th was quickly added and that too sold out in lightning time, so we were grateful for the quick action in securing tickets for the Thursday, it was something I just could not have missed as the line-up looked amazing. Lenny took centre stage on guitar and vocals and it struck me that it looks like he's barely changed over the years, he’s relaxed and cheerful and looks genuinely chuffed to bits to be able to share his passion for good time Rock & Roll with us. There’s a core band backing Lenny, featuring bassist Dave Treganna of Sham 69 and Lords of The New Church, Jim Jones of Thee Hypnotics and Jim Jones All Stars on guitars and vocals, drumming duties were shared between Rat Scabies of The Damned and Marty Love of Wingmen and the Johnny Moped Band. The other ever presents were Derek Cruz from the Jesse Malin band on Guitars, Harmonica and Percussion and Greg Rice on the keyboards who both did a superb job considering they were in for the long haul. 

Lenny Kaye with Cheetah Chrome of The Dead Boys

Rat Scabies of The Damned

Lenny with Clive Jackson from Dr & The Medics

 

 

Various special guest vocalists joined in the fun - Clive 'The Doctor' Jackson of Dr. & The Medics, Jon King from Gang of Four, Alan Clayton of The Dirty Strangers, Peter Coyne of The Godfathers and Anita Chellamah from Cherry Bombz. They were joined buy the UK based New Yorker Roxanne Fontana and the New York based Amanda Cross who both have new records of their own out now. Then we had the guest guitarists, Cheetah Chrome from CBGB's legends Dead Boys, Japanese guitarist Tsuyoshi Kitagawa otherwise known as Go Ohgami, Brian James of The Damned, Billy Shinbone from The Sinclairs and Guy Griffin of The Quireboys. If that wasn't enough, former Clash compatriot DJ Barry 'Scratchy' Myers warmed up the crowd perfectly and Go-Go dancers Moana Santana and Helene de Joie provided some suitably 60's style atmosphere. We certainly got our ticket money's worth. The only disappointment was that Dave Vanian, Paul Gray and Captain Sensible of The Damned had to pull out as did Deb O'Nair, the original organ player with The Fuzztones. It was a big shame as both bands were pivotal in introducing me to Nuggets and The Fuzztones classic "Lysergic Emanations" is still one of my all-time favourites albums. I was hoping that we would see half of Naz Nomad reunited along with that classic Black Album/Strawberries (and praise be, also the current…) line-up of The Damned.

Cheetah Chrome of The Dead Boys

Rat Scabies, Jim Jones, Helene de Joie & Derek Cruz

Lenny with Alan Clayton of Dirty Strangers

Personally, I first got drawn to 60’s Nuggets mainly thanks to The Damned’s alter-ego Naz Nomad & The Nightmares and their soundtrack to an imaginary Swinging 60’s teen exploitation movie “Give Daddy the Knife Cindy”, which featured covers of prime Nuggets material. The 60's Garage Psych influence on the Damned’s superb "Strawberries" album was apparent and in the mid-80’s I could see The Fuzztones and Dr & The Medics thanks to The Damned inviting them on tour as support bands. Around that time, I also saw Australia's Scientists and Hoodoo Gurus and lapped up the Trash scene of the Klub Foot at The Clarendon in Hammersmith where The Prisoners with their Hammond organ (pretty rare at the time) conjured up not only Small Faces but Question Mark & The Mysterians iconic "96 Tears". The Tall Boys, Milkshakes, and my favourites The Playn Jayn, all mined the 60's Garage Rock and Psych sound and 1984-86 was an absolute blast of groovy sounds, yeah baby! In fact, I interviewed Dr & The Medics for my fanzine Out of Step just before they themselves became one-hit wonders and topped the charts with the now ubiquitous "Spirit in the Sky". However, before this brush with the mainstream, they were a pretty cool band, a superb live act and were responsible for running the Alice in Wonderland nightclub in London. Check out their early releases and demos, they are well worth a listen. But the disappointment of Dave, Paul, the Captain, and Deb not being able to make it was soon put to one side when you consider the quality of the assembled special guests who did appear.

Dave Treganna of Sham 69, The Doctor & Moana Santana

Peter Coyne of The Godfathers, Rat Scabies, Jim Jones & Derek Cruz

Lenny with Rat Scabies

 

 

In an immense set that stretched to well over two hours, the packed out 100 Club crowd were treated to an astonishing 33 songs including such Nuggets classics as “Dirty Water”, “Little Red Book”, “Sometimes Good Guys Don’t Wear White”, “Pushing Too Hard”, “The Witch” and “Strychnine” , “Action Woman”, “Nobody But Me”, “You’re Gonna Miss Me”, “Wooly Bully” and of course “Louie Louie”. Lenny also made the decision to include some non-Nuggets crowd favourites to suit the guests and keep it varied and there were so many highlights, it’s hard and probably a bit unfair to pick out specific moments. But if pushed I must mention Peter Coyne’s visceral attack on The Creation’s “How Does It Feel To Feel” which took me back to the blistering early days of The Godfathers. Billy Shinbone’s extraordinary guitar wig-out on Pink Floyd’s “Interstellar Overdrive” even had Lenny staring open-mouthed in awe. Roxanne Fontana in a fetching mask and outfit took on Velvet Underground’s “Venus In Furs” and Alan Clayton’s Bluesy swagger on the Small Faces “Whatcha Gonna Do About It” was ace. Amanda Cross put in a stunning performance of Bo Diddley’s “Roadrunner” and Jim Jones in bug-eyed shades was the epitome of Rock ‘n’ Roll cool personified and his version of “99^th Floor” by The Moving Sidewalks was superb.

Dave Treganna, Roxanne Fontana, Marty Love & Lenny Kaye

Anita Chellamah & Helen de Joie

Lenny Kaye with Clive Jackson of Dr & The Medics

 

The Doctor took to the stage to croon through Love’s “My Little Red Book” and The Sonics “Strychnine”, which saw the crowd going crazy. Then there was Lenny Kaye’s own obscure Nugget, a great Garage Country Rock track “Crazy Like A Fox” from his pre-Patti Smith days in Link Cromwell & The Zoo. Everyone played their part – credit to Dave Treganna on bass as he had to play on all the songs throughout the evening and he kept everything ticking over perfectly. Behind the drums, Rat Scabies was immense as was Martin ‘Marty Love’ Parrott from Wingmen, another one of our favourite surprise collaborations. Things got wild towards the end of the set with the introduction of Cheetah Chrome from The Dead Boys and Brian James of The Damned – and they powered their way through MC5’s “Looking At You” and “Kick Out The Jams” before Lenny took off his shirt and announced “I’m gonna do this Iggy style” and I unconsciously sucked my stomach in as he was so fit and lean, putting me to shame, he looks amazing for 77! The familiar guitar riff to “I Wanna Be Your Dog” started off, and in true Iggy style, Lenny dives headlong off the stage for some crowd-surfing action, it’s a great moment. For the last song, all the special guests take to the stage for a massive singalong of “Gloria” and it’s over. What an amazing night, this will live long in the memory for sure. Massive congratulations to Joe De Lorenzo and whoever else helped to make this happen – a truly special Rock ‘n’ Roll happening that sums up the wonderful power of unabashed joyful music played by people who were having as much of a good time  on the stage as we were in the crowd.

Lenny takes a break to read a passage from his excellent book "Lightning Striking" before chanelling his inner-Iggy!

Check out our Retromanblog65 YouTube channel for more videos from the show. Also, please do take the time to click on the highlighted links throughout the feature to discover what else the wonderful special guests are up to! All photos and videos copyright Retro Man Blog.

 

 

Here's some pages from Issue 4 of my old fanzine Out of Step published in September 1985...