From Bricks to Beats: Finding Martin O’Brien
After thirty-five years, I finally tracked down Martin O’Brien, one of the lads from my London bricklaying days. Now he makes documentaries about the 1990s San Francisco rave scene and leads the way in California’s cannabis industry. I caught a sneak peek of his film Between the Beats, and it grabbed me immediately. The lights, the music, the chaos, and the people who made it unforgettable all come alive on...
Flash Fiction Friday
Welcome back to Flash Fiction Friday, where every week I drop a short, sharp story. This one’s about Elvis — not Presley — a lad from Stonebridge who thought he was untouchable until life forced him to choose a different road.
The Tipping Point
Elvis was Jack-the-lad, dealing weed from his teens into adulthood. It started with a few mates, extra scratch in his pocket. Before long, half the Stonebridge estate in Harlesden knew his name....
Blood on the Blocks: When the Guards Walked Out
Lest We Forget – The 1997 Prison Riots in Jamaica
It’s 2025. Twenty-eight years have passed, but I still recall the stories about August 1997 like it was yesterday. Between the 19th and 22nd, Jamaica’s prisons became killing fields. Warders at St Catherine District Prison in Spanish Town and Kingston’s infamous General Penitentiary walked off the job. Not over...
The Bloom of Light – Kingston, Jamaica
When that judge sentenced me to hard labour, my stomach dropped, and I shat myself. But it didn’t take long before I found a way into the band.
My neighbour inside, Aljoe, was doing life for a double murder. He’d gone down at seventeen, and by the time I met him he was forty-eight. Decades behind bars, but he could still tear a guitar to pieces.
We got wheeled out like circus acts whenever visiting dignitaries came...
From Bricks to Books – A Life Lived Without Apologies
I left school at fourteen, wandered the world, ended up in prisons abroad, and came out the other side. Now in my sixties, I’m a bricklayer-turned-writer, music promoter, and author—building the next chapter of my life, brick by brick, word by word.
Calloused hands from bricklaying. Lessons carved out in prison cells, on the streets, and in life itself. Learning isn’t about age; it’s about showing up,...
We were in the prison band together, “The Bloom of Light.”
He is now a dub poet. He always said he was innocent, but the likelihood of him ever getting out is minimal.
General Penitentiary Kingston Jamaica 2002
#DennisLobban
#PeterTosh
#DeathRow
#LifeImprisonment
#TheBloomOfLight
#DubPoet
#Innocence
#Prisons
#Jamaica
Nightmare in Jamaica
By Tommy Kennedy IV
Some names and identifying details have been changed to protect the privacy of individuals.
Acknowledgements
Firstly, I would like to thank Thomas Rees and Anna Carrington for their vision for this book, and Jay Hirano for the inspiration he gave me to actually write anything at all.
I am grateful to Janice Stretton for typing this (turning ramblings into sense) and to Emilie Harper in the early stages.
A huge thank you...
Flash Fiction Friday: The Stripper
"The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom." – William Blake
My name is Oscar, and I’m an alcoholic.
The Happy Ending became my life – a strip club in Soho where rock bands played between dancers. The crack, the chaos, the endless bottles in the 90s – it slipped through my fingers like wine rolling down a hooker’s lips. Addiction stole everything.
It started with my twin sister’s death. I reached for the bottle to...
Flash Fiction
Primal Shriek
This week’s Flash Fiction Friday tells a raw, uncompromising story of grief, loss, and resilience. Primal Shriek captures the devastation of a mother who loses her son to knife crime in London — and her determination to turn pain into purpose.
Story
I stood in the cold, musty room, the lights dimmed low, the clock ticking as midnight passed. My only son lay in an open coffin. I’d clung to his hands all day, and by the time I...
Ricky Hatton was ours long before the world claimed him. Born Richard John Hatton in Stockport in 78, raised on the Hattersley estate, he carried Manchester in his fists and his heart. You could see it in the way he fought relentless, no frills, all pressure and heart. A proper lad from a proper place, and he never pretended otherwise.
He turned pro in 97, and from that moment on it felt like we were all in the ring with him. The night he beat Kostya...
Mark Thorn: The UK Punk Voice Reviving the Dead Boys
Punk doesn’t sit still. It doesn’t gather dust in a museum. Punk lives, sweats, and bleeds—or it dies. That’s why I’ve been watching Mark Thorn, one of the most electric voices in UK punk rock today I've known Mark over 20 years when he used to play for me at the Mau Mau bar on Portobello Road in Notting Hill. His vocals are rough enough to sandpaper a wall and sharp enough to cut through a thousand...
Flash Fiction Friday
Content Warning: This story contains graphic violence, animal harm, and disturbing themes. Reader discretion is advised.
Prologue
In London, something sinister lurks beneath the surface of ordinary lives.
Mummies Boy
A dark little tale from Covent Garden. A boy’s jealousy twists into something far more disturbing than a prank — a prologue of innocence lost and horror waiting to unfold.
In the heart of London’s Covent Garden, Mummy and I—...
Five Years After Lockdown
London went dead.
No boozers.
No gigs.
No barbers.
Screens glued to faces.
Hair wild.
Silence. Ghost town.
We came back.
Pubs rammed.
Gigs sold out.
Trains late.
Fear sticks.
Cough on the tube — instant flinch.
Survival? Brutal.
Clap on doorsteps.
Netflix binges.
Zoom hell.
Shaggy heads.
Scruffy beards.
Drink. Faith. TikTok.
Families broke. Rebuilt.
Communities pulled. Fell apart.
Real resilience.
Lockdown fashion? Accidental.
Sweatpants armour.
Messy...
Hope you like my rendition of the TWAT
I first met John at the funeral of the great train robber Bruce Richard Reynolds. A strange setting, maybe, but it showed me the circles this man’s words travelled in — across poets, rebels, dreamers and outlaws. I spoke with him a couple of times after that, and what struck me most was his genuine, down-to-earth northernness. No airs, no pretence,...
Seventeen, Out on Bail!
Seventeen. Out on bail in Warrington for theft I didn’t commit—but that’s another story.
Curfew hanging over me. Supposed to be home by 7pm. I didn’t care. I wanted freedom. I wanted the world. Flight paid. Fuck it. I wanted bigger than my street. Bigger than Warrington pubs.
So I blagged it. I flew to Canada. First plane journey. First taste of life outside Europe.
Three weeks in Edmonton. Walking the streets like I belonged. My...
Under Irish Management
The Stewart Arms W11, a fantastic women-run pub, thrives under the management of Shauna and her mum Tina, alongside their brilliant bar staff, Tina, Sophie, Emma, and Oli, the friendly doorman. They keep the toilets sparkling and the beer pipes in top-notch condition.
Micky P will host his Portobello Live at the Stewart every Wednesday night, bringing vibrant energy to the area and guaranteeing a great time.
It will be great to see more promoters looking to...
Flash Fiction Friday: The Night I Escaped Sean
Prologue
In the middle of Shepherd's Bush Green, the sweet smell of candy floss mingled with the hum of generators.
It was the annual fair, a fleeting escape from the dull routine of everyday life. Amid neon lights and swirling crowds, a young boy stood still, lost in thought.
Trigger Warning!
1980
We loaded the Dodgem cars onto enormous red lorries. Grease coated our hands, mixing with the sharp scent of oil and petrol. Sweat slid down my back, and...
Our Anthony’s Fight: Facing Cancer with Guts and Love
I’m sitting here, heart in bits, trying to describe what my little brother Anthony’s going through. He’s always been “our kid” to us in Warrington—the one who made us all laugh and lit up every room with his character and non-stop jokes.
For 18 years, he built a cracking life in Dubai—glitzy towers, mad construction jobs, the lot. He loved it there, even though he missed his five kids like mad. But early this year, 2025, life threw him a...
Have you ever wondered about switching paths and chasing a new dream? My journey shows that it’s never too late to embrace your passions.
I arrived in London in the 1980s as a bricklayer in the bustling construction world. That was my life before travelling music and crime took over. But in 2017, I took a leap into creative writing, and now I’m studying for a BA in Creative Writing at...
Flash Fiction Friday
"Kept Man"
Lady Helen Walton sneered, her clipped accent dripping with venom. She’d once had a fling with the notorious gangster Curtis ‘Cocky’ Warren, who introduced her to drugs, and she’d had a soft spot for the lower orders ever since.
“Yah, I should never have married you,” she spat, her tone thick with disdain. “We both know why I did: my family’s money. You were a bum, barely scraping by, when I plucked you from that incestuous...
