Be More Stanley

I went away to Rome last month for a weekend city break.

Not only did we take in the Lazio v Roma derby match - or rather a firework display that was interrupted by a football match - but we did the full Roman experience. 

We went on a movie tour of the city, where our guide Bruno took us to the places where iconic films were shot in the glory days of Italian cinema in the 1950s and 1960s as the country and the city got its mojo back after the dark days of fascism and war.

It’s an important part of the whole Italian style, easy, elegant and graceful. Living the good life and appreciating quality.

Also central to any visit to the Eternal City is food. In fact any visit to anywhere in Italy has to be about food.

So when you through all of these elements together, there’s one cultural signposter and influencer who sticks out at my time of life: Stanley Tucci.

The Italian American actor and writer lives in London these days, but a recent television series Stanley Tucci’s Italy has reminded us where his soul really lies.

The episode in Rome was a perfect taster for my wife Rachel and I to properly prepare for a long weekend of flaneuring and feasting. Though we didn’t go to any of the specific restaurants Stanley did, we did adopt the same attitude and outlook. Walk around, take it in, and eat lots of pasta.

But my new mantra of BMS - Be More Stanley - is actually influenced by his whole look. Adopting the sartorial easy style of the coolest people on the planet, Italian pensioners.

SO many times I thought I’d seen Stanley on our meanderings. But it’s a look, a way of holding yourself, and as I’ve been reluctant to do, go with the dome and accept baldness.

A mate of ours, Anthony Teasdale, a fashion writer and DJ, did a brilliant Twitter story a few months ago that broke down Stanley’s style and look.

“His key item is the unstructured Italian jacket. Forget the traditional English shape, Stan goes for a "Neopolititan" soft shoulder that sits beautifully on the body. A silhouette that's both smarter and more casual: and which looks great with jeans (unlike regular suit jackets).

“Stan is a one-colour man – and that colour is blue. When it gets chilly, he layers a blue polo shirt under a blue jumper – and a blue padded gilet over the top. He'll then bring white, grey or beige in to add contrast. But not too much, obviously.

“His accessory game is off the scale. From his collection of scarves to those "I'm on personal terms with Tom Ford" specs, Stanley lifts his look with a series of understated gems. And the most effective accessory of all? His year-round tan.

“Stanley embraces his baldness. Forget comb-overs or Turkish hair transplants, Stan shaves what hair he has left – leaving a sleek, polished bonce that's ultra-chic and incredibly effective. He looks – the absolute business. And the ladies LOVE him. Especially yours.”

Music Therapy - top tunes and great jackets

Since me and Neil started doing Music Therapy back in 2020, just as we thought we were emerging out of lockdown, we’ve really discovered a lot about ourselves, but also about our listeners.

Confession time, we only managed to record one show from the studio before another lockdown sent us all home again. For an absolute age we were recording from home. Blissfully, thanks to the ingenuity of the station controller Andy Hoyle and the wonders of modern technology, by some minor miracle, we managed to get a show out every week.

Honestly though, since we returned to the studio, it’s been a proper gamechanger. We get to twiddle nobs a bit more (fnarr, fnarr) get a few tips from Alex Cann, the most prolific man in commercial radio, and take over curated pictures of ourselves wearing a variety of much admired jackets.

One of Neil’s oldest mates said to him that he’d heard the show and that we sound like actual real radio DJs now. I think he meant it as a compliment, we’re certainly taking it as one.

You can’t beat being in the same space and having the right technology. The sound is crisper, we’re not likely to get bounced out by a dodgy WIFI connection, but it’s given us time to think and appreciate the music we play on the show.

We’re both hustling freelancers, looking for new opportunities, more often than not working from home, so the chance to do what human beings should be doing is an important part of our weekly structure. Although we haven’t been headhunted by BBC 6 Music (yet) every person I’ve done work for has found it fascinating that I do this. Neil has made films about the music and fashion scenes in Manchester and Sheffield for the fashion brand Pretty Green, which have been informed by having a focus on music. 

But the main delight has been our interactions with you, the listeners. We have no idea on the numbers of people, but through social media we get lots of love and comments. We don’t do requests, but we do take suggestions from people who get the show and what we’re about.

Some of our listeners aren’t even in Tameside and the High Peak. They use modern technology such as Tune In and Radio Player, or the station’s superb app, to listen to the show from anywhere in the world, at a time of their choosing.

One of those conversations sparked an idea to do a slot called Original Spin. We pick a song that you will be familiar with, but probably didn’t realise was a cover version. A few times these have been Prince songs, I Feel For You, covered by Chaka Khan, and Nothing Compares 2 U which Sinead O’Connor rescued from being an unperformed album track.

It takes us on a journey into different styles, plays to our ethos of there being no such thing as a guilty pleasure and hopefully opens up music that will be new to people.

I also don’t think I’ve been as switched on to new music as I am now. So thanks for the opportunity and keep on listening. Drop us a message if you fancy a chat about what you’d like us to do next.    

Writing for The Big Issue in the North

I'm very pleased today. There's a story published in the Big Issue in the North that I've wanted to write for a few years now, an interview with Patrick Grant from Community Clothing.

Full disclosure, I was an early adopter of the utilitarian clothing brand, I subscribed to the first crowdfunder and have a few of their hard-working pieces. But, as Patrick makes clear in the interview, they don't work with so-called influencers and chuck out freebies. I wouldn't want them even if they did. The reason I wanted to speak to Patrick and dig a little deeper into his philosophy is because of what he's doing for the cause of northern manufacturing and re-establishing a sense of purpose and pride to places that make things. It just so happens he's doing this from Blackburn, where I watch my football and have an affinity, but that's only part of it. 

In so many nooks and crannies of the fashion world I hear barbed digs about what Community Clothing is, and what Patrick's agenda is. Maybe I didn't dig hard enough, but I don't see anything to snipe at.

Anyway, read it and let me know what you think. It's a good follow up to the insights I picked up from looking into emerging northern textiles businesses for The Mill recently.

It's the second piece I've written for The Big Issue in the North this year, but not the last. The first was an opinion piece on the awkward spot the BBC has found itself in, then this week's piece with Patrick Grant, on Monday I filed another feature for next week with a nationally known public personality with lots to say. 

Kevin Gopal and Antonia Charlesworth, editors at Big Issue in the North, are also exceptionally good at nudging, pushing and tweaking. They definitely improved the piece from commissioning to publishing. It's not surprising that the magazine is always a good read. It's well written, authentic, lively, it has strong clear design, but with a very real sense of who it is for and what the reader will be interested in.

So, go and get yours today, support your vendors, and support quality print media.

Of if you can't get out to a Co-op store, or a vendor, and if you don't live in the North, then you can buy a digital copy online, here.

The way we wore - thinking a bit more about fashion

There's a certain ugliness to Black Friday. I never want to be that person attacking businesses for making a living, but there's something grotesque about this recent import. Impulse shopping driven by excessive discounting.

I hope it's a chance to think a bit about where stuff comes from. It's also maybe an opportunity for homespun brands that properly get provenance and building a decent partnership with suppliers. I was pleased to see that one of my favourite brands Haglofs are doing an anti-Black Friday campaign and urging people to recycle instead with the launch of Haglofs Restored. It's not something I'll have call for just yet, as I'm a recent convert and it seems remarkably resilient technical clothing that's also really well made and very smart too.  

I've been reading Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard's book about the evolution of the outdoor brand and the risks he's taken and the decisions he made early on. Not only is it really smart gear, it's rooted in excellent values. I love how he declared his Manchester shop as a gift to the people of the city and the area. I want to believe that. I also find myself wondering why everyone doesn't do this. Not only is it good, it's good business. As a mate who knows far more about this sort of stuff than me pointed out, Kantar research reveals that brands with a clear commitment to purpose outperformed others massively. 

Patrick Grant, founder of Community Clothing has issued a bit of a plea for the fashion industry in this country. He's passionate about a revival and urges us to support social enterprises that support skilled jobs. I don't see a problem with that. I've bought loads of pieces from CC over the last few years, basic, well made, hard wearing staple items. I don't see the point of a massive mark up on well marketed brands that I won't name, but the lambswool jumper I'm wearing today is from a quality mill in Scotland and produced through CC, just as the Peacoat (pictured) was made in Blackburn using Hainsworth milled wool. 

Avid readers of this blog will note too that the picture is cropped to edit the trouser troubles I talked about last week. 

Day 17 - he's finally flipped, he's talking about trousers

I may have reached peak lockdown cabin fever madness with this blog, but I need to say it. I've always had problems with my trousers. I just don't feel either comfortable, or right, in pretty much anything except jeans. Working from home has been liberating in one small sense. Not having formal meetings, or events, or politicians and special visitors around, means I have four suits hanging up in the wardrobe that haven't been worn this year. A couple of them were looking a bit ragged anyway and I'm tempted to bin them for good. I particularly hate another one I have which only comes out for weddings. 

I've found some dark trousers from Uniqlo that work alright with smart shoes and are OK for work, but they're a bit narrow. I've been told it rocks my "Danish architect" look, though I'm not sure that's a compliment.

I also hate chinos. I immediately think they make me look like I'm off to Twickenham. I bought a pair of neutral stone coloured ones from Community Clothing but ended up getting them taken in. Though they're comfy, they're still not quite right for me.

This is probably a load of self-indulgent bollocks, but I am trying to make positive and progressive purchasing choices. This means shopping at good retailers, ditching fast fashion and thinking of craftsmanship and provenance. 

So, in that spirit, I stumbled on Tim at This Thing of Ours, in a unit at Hatch. He totally sold me on a pair of loose fitting cords from a Korean brand called Uniform Bridge. They've been my go-to non jeans this autumn and they look and feel ace, hanging nicely onto whatever I've got on my feet. . 

Next, I was put on to these deep navy Roots trousers from a niche brand called Arhto (top). I got these ridiculously cheap in a flash sale and they're so gooood. The material is a midweight canvas, but it's the cut that's quite unlike any others I've worn before; lower cut crotch with a slight taper at the ankle. The rear pockets are also like an inverted fatigue style. And they have a button fly; really smart buttons too. 

Outdoor wise, I still prefer walking in shorts, even on a winter grueller. I've got some Fjallraven multi-pocket utility long walking trousers, which are practical enough, but frankly are like a chocolate fireguard when it rains. I tried the waxing thing but it didn't work. For our last yomp over the West Pennine Moors I wore these mammoth Haglofs bib and brace snowboarding pants, which may have been over the top for what I was doing, but they absolutely did the trick. Being so big too, there's plenty of space to layer up underneath, the technical knowledge of which has been a genuine revelation in recent months.

I think I may have temporarily solved the pant dilemma, but the search goes on and recommendations are very welcome.

Now all them things that seemed so important ...

Well, mister, they vanished right into the air

Day two of the great lockdown and here we are quoting Bruce Springsteen and trying to keep calm and carry on.

Last week the most pressing non-work issue on my mind was what new hiking boots to get in time to break in for my trip to the beautiful English Lake District to climb Skiddaw and Catbells in April*. Other quibbles like sporting tournaments, the trains and the Labour leadership election all seem so utterly inconsequential now.

We're not sure when or if or even how one of our sons is getting back from his posting in Africa. One of our students is home and the other confined to his high rise residence. But we have technology to keep in touch with parents and friends, these are the blessings we count.

We've signed up for the local support networks, we've done that through our Church and unofficial community networks, but it's imperfect and unclear what we can safely contribute other than to stay at home and try not to fall over each other.

On that imperfection, I've also heard it said that there will be a reckoning for how organisations behave. Rachel and I both work for large complex organisations trying to keep on top of difficult communications issues, and with so many moving parts. Difficult decisions are being made, but always with the very best of intentions. Seeing the government wrestle with this, and then how businesses react, show's painfully that not everyone will get this right all of the time. Yes, the Wetherspoons bloke, Ian Lavery, Mike Ashley and Britannia Hotels appear to have acted with predictable insensitivity, but in many cases we should try and cut people a bit of slack, I think.

This is new for us all. It is a test for us all, we can help each other, stay as positive as we can and hopefully emerge better, more decent and more caring as a result. I might post a few TV and book reviews from time to time, but if you fancy a natter, get in touch.

*Haglofs Skuta mid-proof eco in barque/maroon red, in case you were wondering

Blackburn Spezial exhibition

I really enjoyed the Spezial exhibition in Blackburn's Cotton Exchange. Definitely enjoyed it more than the football match we attended beforehand. The curation of the huge collection of iconic adidas shoes was very well executed.

I also liked the whole context around the exhibition, a tilt in the direction of Blackburn's heritage, both in textiles and in culture.

Gary Aspden did an excellent job and got the look and feel just right.

If the shoe fits - repair, recycle, renew - me and my Mephisto's

New shoes? Nope, but I only refurbished my absolute favourites. These Mephisto Rainbow beauties have been worn relentlessly since I picked them up from FW Tyson in Ambleside in 2014.

They've got the comfort of trainers, and are a true French design classic. They also come without the connotations of wearing trainers for doing something that isn't sport, for a man of my age. So, I simply couldn’t bear to throw them away when the sole had worn down and splits to the stitching got worse. Normally I'd just start to look for something similar, as good, or even replace them like for like.

But my I've recently bought a couple of pairs of Joseph Cheaney shoes. Hand crafted Northampton made exemplars of British craftmanship. They come with a lifetime guarantee that the skilled shoemakers can bring well worn pieces back to their best.

It got me thinking about these Gallic glories. I found out that there was this bloke in Burnham-on-Sea who does a refurb service, Footwear4you. We had a lovely chat on the phone about how it works, so I popped them in the post and waited to see what happened. He sent them off to the factory in France, four weeks later I got them back, and I'm staggered at the results. They've had a real overhaul, a brand new sole, they've seamlessly stitched up a couple of the tears on the trim, and polished them up far better than I ever could, as good as new, and thrown in fresh laces. Remarkable. Great service and a reasonable price as well. As my Dad has always said, 'pay less, pay twice'.

There's been a growing backlash against fast fashion lately. The alternative is buying better quality because it lasts, getting things repaired because they're worth it. These definitely are.

Discovering Blackburn

I did something yesterday that I haven’t done for nigh on 20 years. I went to a Blackburn Rovers home game by train. We’ve come to the conclusion that one car is quite enough for our family, and there were other pressing places for it to be yesterday.

Now that Joe and Louis are both living in Manchester, it actually makes logistical sense to put our fate in the hands of Northern Rail and see what flows. I could hardly describe it as an adventure, even with Millwall as the opponents, but as we were walking down Bolton Road from town, Joe said to me it felt more like an away game, because he had no idea where we were. Our usual route is from Lower Darwen along Branch Road.

But from when we passed underneath the inscription at Blackburn station - By Skill and Hard Work - I was pleasantly surprised. It always helps to brighten a place when the sun shines, but the public space around the Cathedral and the Mall was very nicely done. The shopping centre was both busier and tidier than I’ve seen in other town centres around the North West.

We stopped for lunch at the Chippery, a bit of a Blackburn institution, where the friendly staff served us up a decent pre-match pie and chips. I was keen to visit the Community Clothing pop up store on King William Street. I was an early adopter of Patrick Grant’s social enterprise, providing basic items of clothing, made locally. I invested in the first crowd funded call for support and have steadily accumulated a wardrobe of staple items, a mac, a crew neck lambs wool sweater and some gloriously well fitted selvedge denim jeans. An order is pending for a Dutch-style Peacoat.

Anyway, long story short, it’s really whetted my appetite to explore Blackburn a bit more. Through October there’s a film being shown at Blackburn Museum which tells the story of Patrick’s fashion project. Given it’s made by film maker Aaron Dunleavy, it will have an honest earthy style and be one to savour. Also next month is a Trainer exhibition at the Cotton Exchange being curated by fellow Riversider Gary Aspden, the bloke behind the surge in appreciation of the adidas Spezial brand.

More information on the exhibition is here.

Football wise, the first half was nothing to write home about, bar Derek Williams’ left foot screamer. I like 3 at the back, but it sometimes seems like the players and the fans don’t quite believe the manager’s vision. Tony Mowbray seemed a bit peeved at the performance in his post-match interview (frustraaaaated, even), but the high spots for me were the sheer dogged tenacity of Bradley Dack to try and pick the lock of the opposition and the growing influence on the pulse of the team of Stewart Downing.

It seemed a good day to finally break another family ritual, our pre-match Twitter predictions. Given they’ve both admitted to being fundamentally dishonest - never predicting what they truly feel - one an optimist, the other the opposite - we’re instead just going to pick our own man of the match.

A wander around Holborn and Clerkenwell

London is a great city for flaneuring. There's probably nowhere quite like it. And so having an hour to kill is always an opportunity.

After a smashing fish and chip lunch with John Dixon at the Fryer's Delight on Theobold's Road, I took in a few old haunts. I worked for magazine publisher EMAP in four different buildings around Holborn and Clerkenwell from 1989 to 1993. Robert Elms described Holborn as his favourite part of London when he was his own Listed Londoner on BBC Radio London recently. I can see why. It's a really fascinating part of town, with plenty of traces of the strong Italian character, including two splendid Catholic Churches in contrasting states of health. All of this rubs alongside the diamond traders in Hatton Garden.

While businesses in office buildings come and go. I was pleased to see some of the old pubs, cafe's and delis are still going strong. But what pleased me most were the characterful newer businesses. Nowhere stays the same for long in London, but it was good to see so much has remained true to these roots. Exmouth Market is an artisan food paradise but unsurprisingly the pie and mash shop has gone. Lamb’s Conduit Street has also upgraded its reputation as the home of strong independent menswear, with Universal Works and Folk the standouts. However, to see the magnificent Shop 70 now a Ryman seems a travesty.

Hatton Garden and Leather Lane are actually very similar to how I remember them, full of life, colour and lurking intrigue. There was no trace of the old publishing village we inhabited, the Guardian having long gone too, though I'm sure there are salesmen of a different kind keeping the City Pride in business. MEED House on John Street is now residential, 67 Clerkenwell Road and Abbots Court are still offices, but there's not much to show of the “most advanced publishing system in Europe” we were told we had on Bowling Green Lane. The receptionist told me they still get mail for EMAP.

There's a gallery here, if you want to see the pictures.

Paninaro - oh, oh, oh

For no other reason than the sun is out, and maybe thoughts have turned to great holidays, I found myself humming along to this 1986 Pet Shop Boys classic tune over the weekend. Paninaro - a youth cult named after a sandwich, as this piece from Vice says. It’s even inspired a tribute t-shirt from Casualco.com which predictably sold out within hours.

At the time I felt the Paninaro look was a real coming together of styles. The whole football dresser thing had gone a bit stale - splintering off from Italian sportswear into flares and cords up north, and slacks and big jumpers in the south.

I was a first year student at the time and heading for a summer in the USA and Canada. It's probably the look that fixed my own personal preferences for life.

Today, as a man who should probably know better, I've still got several items of that look even now - checked and cotton/ light denim shirts, plain blue blazer, the best jeans I can afford (then, Levis 501s; now, selvedge denim), brown sturdy shoes (then, imitation Timberland; now, Mephisto), a Breton striped t-shirt, and my staple for all time, a two-button Lacoste polo shirt. In my younger days I liked a bold sweatshirt, though now I prefer British knitwear from Sunspel and John Smedley. Back then my pride and joy was a white C17 parka with orange lining and two badges on the sleeve - Juventus and Fac51. Oh, and backpacks. I've always loved a good backpack: Karrimor, North Face, Patagonia.

As I said in this piece about the Northern Monkeys book: "It didn't have a name then, but this was the emerging Paninaro look. By the time of our third year in 1987-88 my mates were well into looking smarter too - we liked Chevignon, Chipie, C17 and Timberland for a night at the Hacienda or the Venue, way before the Madchester druggie rave scene."

The deeper satisfaction of all of these items is still layering on a look, grafting different pieces from unlikely sources. Probably my favourite clothing brand now is Albam, which can definitely trace a creative lineage to this time and place. And to quote Paul Weller from this time, 'our favourite shop' is either J. Simons or Oi Polloi. However, I can't afford to just waltz in and pick anything I like. And there's no fun in doing that either.

I've told tales before of the treasure trove that was Shop 70 on Lamb's Conduit Street in London's Holborn, from where I bought a Stone Island hooded sweatshirt, which I still have, and (tragically) a CP Company duffel coat that I don't.


In its stead, and as a cocked cap to the video above, I found my current favourite coat, my Adidas Originals yellow rain jacket, which I discovered in... Well, that would be telling, I just wish I'd bought the matching blue one as well.

J. Simons of London, the Godfather of British male fashion

I can't remember whether I ever actually bought anything from J Simons, possibly a pair of Bass Weejun loafers (which I still have and really love), but I still can probably cite it as the motherlode when it came to my fairly fixed style of clothing and how it has gently evolved. In the early 90s we'd wander in to this treasure trove of a shop next to Covent Garden and the owner, John Simons, would talk us through great stories such as the red stitching on the seams on Levis jeans, the origins of penny loafers and the Harrington jacket.

We didn't know it at the time but we were in the presence of one of the giants of the mod era. A real cultural figure in London. So I'm really looking forward to seeing the full version of the film trailed above, featuring notable sharp dressers like Robert Elms, Paul Weller and Kevin Rowland, and someone who featured heavily in my 1988 undergraduate dissertation on the New Man - ad guru John Hegarty. It feels like a fitting tribute to the contribution of one of the giants of British male fashion, who took the best bits of Americana, Italian quality and a classy British street attitude and made something special.

I love his shop in Marylebone. Next time I'm down I'll be paying him a visit. I might even buy something this time.

The source for this nostalgia trip was a lovely piece in GQ, here.

Eyes On The City | London & Darwen

I like this short film extolling the bonds between football, fashion and identity. Gary Aspden and his pals sit just down from us in the Riverside stand and I'm always impressed by how well turned out they are.

I interviewed Gary for Northern Monkeys in recognition of his contribution to the evolution of northern working class fashion through his work with Adidas and Size.

I've had a couple of glorious CP Company pieces over the years - a blue duffle coat and a white needle chord shirt - which I got from Shop 70 in London's Lamb Conduit Street in the early 90s. Even now I'm very attached to a very resilient black military style shirt I picked up a few years ago, a pic of it is here.

Community Clothing - Made in Blackburn - quality clobber

I was pretty excited about the Community Clothing launch - all the romance of re-opening a factory, making clothes in Blackburn, Lancashire. I have to say I'm thrilled to bits with the coat and the selvedge denim jeans. Really comfortable, well-made and with excellent detailing that makes both items well worth the wait.

The project hasn't been without its ups and downs. I got in touch to ask about the closure of the Cookson and Clegg factory in the town and the loss of jobs, as reported in the Lancashire Telegraph here.

I was reassured that it's back on track and to learn that Patrick Grant and his team are are still opening a store in Blackburn, and that the garments are still being produced in the Cookson and Clegg factory in Blackburn.

Eloise from Community Clothing told me: "The closing of Cookson and Clegg was a major blow to us both on a financial level and a personal one. Basically, what we have been arguing – that U.K manufacturers are facing foreclosure because they do not have consistent work and rely on a few major clients to survive; ended up occurring in our own factory. We set up Community Clothing to help supplement this issue but it came about two months too late, and when we lost a huge client (without warning) we were forced to immediately close. We repurchased the factory within three days and it is now back up and running! We are now using a collection of different factories to produce our products, but Cookson and Clegg will continue to produce the bulk of our clothing. So, I can assure you that all of our products are and will remain to be made in the UK (and primarily in Blackburn)! We still very much believe in our ethos and can take pride in the fact that the source of our product supply ranges from Blackburn to Rochdale, all the way to Scotland."

The eBay shop is due to open any day and a store is going to pop up in Blackburn. 

The Face - the magazine from 1983 that defined my life

Back in early July, I finally managed to track down a copy of the ultra rare July 1983 edition of The Face magazine. Reading it now it is such a treasure trove of personal memories and cultural totems.

Foremost is Kevin Sampson's splash on football terrace fashion, probably the first such piece in the media. A chronicle of something I knew, something that lived, but was truly of the street and not in any way media made. But there is also a rare interview with New Order, pre-Blue Monday, which massively opened my eyes and ears to them and what they were all about.

But it's also got so many of the staples of my journalistic and cultural upbriging, Robert Elms, Julie Burchill and one of those random Face delights about horror films. 

I bought mine at WH Smith's in Lancaster, providing a massive vindication to my sartorial leanings back then, but I lent it to one of the Blackburn lads when we went to Swansea away and I never got it back. Maybe I influenced a movement, maybe it just got binned.

I was a habitual Face reader, later migrating on to i-D and Arena, but this was the starting point. I simply can't overstate how influenced I was by The Face, and subsequently all that was inspired by the publisher Nick Logan and his crew - it shaped not just what I consumed, but how I approached journalism, ideas, politics, design, aesthetics, fashion, music. Even my university dissertation in 1988 was about male sexuality and the modern media (I'd have got a first if my approach hadn't been so 'journalistic').

I have searched for ages for this particular copy and am embarrassed to say how much I paid on eBay, but it's going in a glass case.

Made in Blackburn - I'm backing this Kickstarter campaign for Northern fashion, jobs and pride

In the week I've restocked Northern Monkeys - the epic anthology of the history of Northern working class fashion, I've also backed a Kickstarter project called Community Clothing, aiming to support the creation and manufacture of fashion staples in Lancashire.

Designer Patrick Grant has responded to the plight of one of his suppliers - Cookson and Clegg in Blackburn - by raising £75,000 for future orders of classic jeans, jackets and raincoats. I love each piece, especially so for what the project represents.

So much of the garment manufacturing business is seasonal, while there's a consistent demand for staple basics. The project aims to fill the capacity at the factory during the quiet times with production of these pieces of beauty and simplicity.

It didn't surprise me to learn that the factory produces clothing for my favourite British label Albam Clothing. But these will bear the label Made in Blackburn. How good is that?

It's had great coverage in the fashion press, including Monocle, and the London Evening Standard.

There are only 8 days to go and the campaign is nearly there.

Getting stuff done - a week of substance, over and style

If you get the chance go and look around one of the Youth Zones in the North West. You can't just drop in, these are safe places for young people. But go and talk to the volunteers and fundraisers about the outcomes of the work they do, but also how humbling and personally beneficial it has been to everyone who has been involved.

I spent the morning at the Bolton Lads and Girls Club with Nick Hopkinson (pictured), who is a real force of nature. An entrepreneur, adventurer and fund raiser, he spends 80 per cent of his time "messing about and raising money" travelling the world while doing so and shining a great amount of light into this part of Bolton.

Substance

I'll be writing this up for Onside magazine, which I produce for my client Seneca, a business with real substance, incredible reach and deep humility amongst its team members. This was demonstrated in spades two weekends ago when a gang of them romped through Delamere Forest together in the Hellrunner half marathon, raising a chunk of money for the Bolton club. These exercises work on so many levels, yes, the funds for the kids of Bolton, but also the togetherness and greater sense of mission that doing something this engenders.

This connection to the values of a charity is particularly important at a time when Kids Co is being pored over and charities have undoubtedly suffered reputational damage through aggressive fund raising, high salaries and a lack of accountability.

Style

We went to see the new James Bond film on Monday. It was a rare full family outing to something we could all enjoy. Two things stood out. One was the fact that SPECTRE is like a James Bond Greatest Hits tour. The whole band back together for a huge rally for the true fans. The opening scene with skull masks was a top hat tipped towards Live and Let Die, and so it flowed. Secondly, I was struck by how dominant Daniel Craig was in every single shot. He was styled, choreographed, poised and dressed like each scene was a commercial or a pop video. His walk, his every look was an exercise in making the job of his successor an impossible one.

One of my own obsessions is with classic British clothing brands - John Smedley, Clarks, Loakes and the one that was featured in the film to luxurious effect, Sunspel. I love the well made crafted simplicity of their shirts and underwear. They produced the boxer shorts that Nick Kamen wore in the famous Levis laundrette commercial in the 1980s and changed how men dressed down below.

Over

This week has mostly been about getting over the crushing disappointment of the derby day defeat in the East Lancashire t'classico to Burnley. It's never good to lose a game like this, but all we can really do is remind ourselves for those thirty odd years when we were dominant we had a league title, a cup and two promotions to show for it. I can't imagine how unbearable that must have been for them. There is absolutely no danger that our claret cousins will achieve anything like that level of success. We just have to savour the memories.

Finally, we did a Discuss nuclear debate on Thursday this week at the Science Festival and an event in Liverpool to read from my book and sign a few copies. It was great to meet so many new faces, but also made me all the more determined to link everything that I do with something worthwhile. I'm going to start by donating all profits from sales of 40 by 40 to the OnSide charity.

The Jam - About The Young Idea exhibition

I went to The Jam exhibition in London over the summer, a real indulgence of nostalgia on a sticky hot day. It reinforced to me the power of Paul Weller's cultural influence on my teenage upbringing, the vast range of musical and political nuggets he helped me absorb during those incredible formative years.

I'll get my moan out the way first. The sound from each individual room blasted out so loud you were never far away from competing tinny blasts of Town Called Malice or Funeral Pyre. But then comfort zones were never part of the Jam experience. Weller always challenged your ideas and safe preconceptions. He was always keen to unsettle your assumptions - including his dismissal of punk posturing by the throwaway line that they would be voting Conservative in 1979. In so many ways the exhibition  took you back to Jam gigs where feeling safe and comfortable was never part of the deal. They were a boiling, heaving mass of adolescent fury and emotions. Some solid bonds, but the flames grew higher too.

I took two quite staggering points away with me that I never knew before. Paul Weller's school report where his lowest mark was in music. The second was the sheer force of personality of John Weller, his father. Sure, I remember him introducing the band, but a short film and the clippings really highlighted his powerful role in pushing the band and his son.

Just like I mentioned when I reported from a From The Jam gig in Preston a few years ago, I was as fascinated by the audience of fellow Jammers. I was there in a dark suit and clicky brogues, as described by Quentin Letts of the Daily Mail earlier in the day, but there were well turned out geezers in Sta Press and Ben Shermans, Fred Perry and Levis and a few in suede desert boots. Then there was Peter York milling about, looking as dapper as he always does.

But The Jam was so much more than just a great band and a look, I loved how Weller opened my eyes to ideas too. So I was pleased that due prominence was given to Orwell books and Shelley's poetry as there was to the musical influences and the clothes.

It's at Somerset House in London and has been extended until the end of September. I'm sorry it's taken me a month to write this up, but I've been dreaming of a quiet life, the one you'll never know.

My mate #20 - Bill Routledge

Cass Pennant, Bill Routledge and me

It's been a while since I did one of these for this blog's "my mate" series. I haven't run out of mates or anything, I've just been a bit tardy doing anything at all for this blog. But as a lot of people ask how I met Bill Routledge and how I got to publish his book, Northern Monkeys, here we go.

Bill is the first author for my new book publishing venture. He's a good mate of my brother-in-law Dave Tinkler and we were introduced after his last book, Waiting for Glory came out. It's incredible to think how far we've come since we first met four years ago for a drink and a chat about possibly working together on me helping him curate a collection of stories about the fashion around football culture, something we're both drawn to.

Now that we've published Northern Monkeys I can say with full confidence that I count Bill as a friend. I wouldn't have done so had I not met my side of the bargain and published a product I was proud of did to do true justice to all the hard work and graft he's put in to it.

In the foreword to the book he thanks me first, acknowledging my support on a sometimes lonely road. That means a hell of a lot as the world can be full of trickery and people who let you down. It also tells you something of the effort required to produce such a weighty tome.  I hope I can live up to that respect. But what struck me about Bill is his own personal sense of honour. It shines through not only the honest writing, the fulsome accounts of life in the world he has inhabited, but also the deep trust he's managed to secure with such a staggering breadth of people from so many walks of life.

At the Fanatic Live event last week at the National Football Museum his wife Jackie was reflecting on all of this and on how different we were, but I don't see it like that. I'm always drawn to people who are curious and interested in things. Bill is like that. He reads widely, takes on a lot of different influences and never stops learning.

Northern Monkeys - a book about growing up

Next month will see the publication of a book I've been working on for the last few years. It's called Northern Monkeys and it's a journey through working class social history in the North of England.

At its centre is the "casual/dresser" scene of the 1980s - lads going to football in gangs, dressed to the nines in designer sportswear and often with violent motives. For me and Bill Routledge, the prime mover and guiding hand of the project, it's the period that defined and changed everything. Fashion, sport, work, pride, politics and it all came together in this uniquely volatile period of recent history. The book covers where it was all rooted, what it was like to be there at the time, who was first, how the looks of the time quickly mutated and how the key figures at the time went on to use that mindset to influence music and fashion to this day.

But to see it as a book about football casuals is an epic understatement. Its central core is a way of interpreting that movement and putting it slap bang in the context of some seismic social and cultural changes.

We start with tales of post-war austerity, moving through the sharp suits, the Teddy Boys and the Cunard Boys - Liverpudlian seamen who would stock up on rare fashion items on their international jaunts - clearly influencing their sons and heirs in the Transalpino era. Male narcissism and looking good was nothing new, of course, and the pack look of football lads of the 1980s clearly cocked a nod in the direction of the Mods and even skinheads of the previous two decades. Different scenes also fed into it - we've got a whole section of memories from Northern Soul devotees and the look and lustre of nights at Wigan Casino and Blackpool Mecca.

Where this look differed for those of us in Northern towns was that it was more DIY than many have previously acknowledged. The early Scouse pioneers tracked down rare Adidas trainers in Germany, the Manc innovators plundered market stalls for flares and leathers as the look evolved. But my early memories of the developing style was rooting out a Fila tennis top at Lancaster University sports shop, finding Pringle in old man's shops and a Peter Storm cagoul in an outdoors shop. For many it was about buying the look off the shelf in Hurleys in Manchester or Wade Smith in Liverpool, for early adopters, it never was.

The compiler of this has been a lad I'm now proud to call a good friend, Bill Routledge. He's cajoled and persuaded a huge range of mates and contacts to contribute various tales, some going back to the post-war period of austerity and community building in Northern towns like Preston, others are boot boys, skinheads, rockabillies and the most dominant cult of them all at the dawn of this movement - the punks. Bill and his crowd in Preston in 1981, like me and my Lancaster mates (pictured, right, in 1984), made a transition from punk to "football lad" - it was a remarkable transformation. This was the closest I ever got to being in a "firm" - Lancaster, Morecambe and Carnforth lads all supported different teams, the picture above covers lads who followed Blackburn Rovers, Morecambe, Manchester United, Blackpool, Rangers and Spurs, from memory. Can you spot me, by the way?

I've always carried this look on. During Fresher's week at University in 1985 I was turned away from the goth and punk night at the Ritz in Manchester for wearing chinos, deck shoes, a Lacoste polo and a red Italian chunky jumper. It didn't have a name then, but this was the emerging Paninaro look. By the time of our third year my mates were well into looking smarter too - we liked Chevignon, Chipie, C17 and Timberland for a night at the Hacienda or the Venue, way before the Madchester druggie rave scene. By the time we moved to London, the treasure trove that was Shop 70 on Lamb's Conduit Street in the 90s was a delight, and a few pieces of Stone Island and CP Company still adorn my wardrobe as a tribute to that era and that look.

For my bit of the book I've interviewed Robert Wade-Smith, Barry Bown from JD Sports and Gary Aspden, the former brand director of Adidas, as well as commissioning a few tales from lads who were there with stories to tell. The stories are long and revealing and I like to think I get what they're about, the journey they've been on and how their interpretation of brands and street fashion influenced the high street today.

One thing Northern Monkeys is certainly not is hoolie-porn, there's been enough of that to be honest, but it doesn't try and sugarcoat a movement that had football violence as one of its core identifiers.

So, here's the Northern Monkeys website, have a nosy at that. There's a Northern Monkeys Book Facebook page which we're using to gather some extra pictures and messages and you can join in this majestic nostalgia fest on Twitter by following @MonkeyNorth.