Bournemouth’s Bowl of music magic

Unlike many a fondly remembered music venue – tiny, tight and wont to overheating – Bournemouth’s Chelsea Village was the bee’s knees, the height of sophistication. When it opened in 1970 it was like nothing the town had seen before and within weeks it became a magnet for revellers from miles around. ‘We thought we Read More…

At home he’s Dad; on stage he’s David

At home in Ferndown most of the time he’s just Dad to his two boys, but at least two or three nights a week – sometimes more – Laurence Bolwell dons make up, wigs and a series of outlandish costumes to become a starman; The Starman in fact, David Bowie. For 19 years Laurence has kept Read More…

Debbie Harry

They wouldn’t have realised at the time, but the few hundred or so young punks and slightly older pub rockers that gathered at Bournemouth’s Village Bowl on May 20, 1977, were witnessing the start of something huge. Some had probably gone to see an emerging London new wave band called Squeeze, although most would have been there Read More…

Remembering Malcolm McLaren

Best known as the punk svengali who masterminded the Sex Pistols’ infamous career in the mid-1970s, Malcolm McLaren lost his long battle with mesothelioma, an aggressive form of cancer, on Thursday aged 64. As his family, friends and former colleagues – including Dame Vivienne Westwood, John Lydon and respected author Jon Savage – pay tribute to Read More…