About Me

(Please note I hate doing these but apparently my regular line of “I’m just this girl you know” doesn’t quite cover things.)

I was born in the early 70s, grew up in…actually I’ve never bothered growing up, not really. I’m just forced to do grown up things like the shopping and the washing up.

When I was at primary school I was happier with books than with maths. I was in my Junior school drama club and played such luminary roles as Second Villager in The Man From Galilee and a Spanish lady in The Nightingale. The highlight of my short lived drama career was as a member of Fagin’s Gang in the 4th Year production of Oliver! (I wasn’t a 4th year but it was a full on production so the 3rd Years in Drama Club got to be extras – I got to be in the pub scene too, because I took in my own tankard!)

High School partially succeeded in knocking all the individuality out of me and taught me how to pretend to be vaguely normal in front of others. College taught me the route to the pub. (I did manage to get A-Levels in Communication Studies and Classical Studies but not the grades they expected from me.)

I love all kinds of music. And as a Beatles fan I started finding other fans to write to via the ads in Beatles Monthly. All Beatles roads lead to Liverpool, and somehow towards the end 1991 I fell into to being the Saturday girl working alternate weekends in The Beatles Shop on Mathew Street. I was casual staff for nearly two decades and ran the blog for the shop’s annual auction before becoming a full time staff member in 2010. I left in April 2026 for various reasons including the fact that the commute from Salford was a bit of a slog and I was adding to that slog by staying at my other half’s place near Oldham. I’m sure tales from the shop will creep into blog posts from time to time.

From around 1995 I ran my own little 60s fanzine. It was all done on Microsoft Publisher so I’ll leave the state of the wordart to your imagination! I did later have a website for it, and you can still read some of the articles via the Wayback Machine at Archive.org. (Not all the articles listed are archived and not all the articles are written by me. Some are a bit cringy but some I am very proud of, and did I really interview Keith Badman by fax? Blimey!)
https://web.archive.org/web/20030401195624/http://brandxonline.bravepages.com/articles.html

In 1999 The Beatles Shop opened a spin-off gallery. I became the weekend girl there for the six years it existed, still covering in the shop if required. Originally it was to show and sell John Lennon art prints, but branched into displaying works by Klaus Voormann, Astrid Kirchherr, Bill Zygmant, Robert Whitaker and Mick Rock. Each exhibition involved a launch party where I mostly made sure everyone had drinks and that glasses were cleared etc… Later we did a few pop-up exhibitions where I got to talk about the images and was in charge of the paperwork.

I was recruited to run the hospitality room for a fan run cult TV event for a few years from 2000, the same for a couple of Doctor Who conventions, and was involved in yet another fan run TV event for a short while, including writing pieces for a website. Through this I ended up being a guest minder at a regular major signing event for a bit. The result of all this is that I’m a terrible name-dropper! Again, I’m certain some of this will occasionally surface in blog posts, at least the stuff I would consider okay for public consumption anyway.

When my friend arranged for the International Pop Overthrow to come to The Cavern Club, Liverpool in 2003, I was asked to join the event as one of the team of Merch girls. We sold CDs and other merchandise for the bands playing at the event. Our merch table became a bit of a social hub as we also kept the attendees up to date on last minute schedule changes. After a few years the hours became a bit too long for me, and I couldn’t always see the bands I had befriended when I was working on the stall. I still attend the event every year though, if you hadn’t guessed by the fact it has its own section on this blog!

I think that brings us up to date. I am currently a stay at home cat mum. I have an etsy shop where I sell novelty jewellery. I try to write stuff and I also collect hobbies, at the moment they are embroidery, sewing and painting random wooden decorations. I am also in the process of creating a site for my other half’s motorcycle vlog channel on YouTube.

Credits – (as far as I can remember)

Various Keith Badman books – I was first credited as his webmistress in his Marilyn Monroe book, but featured in the acknowledgements of previous books too. I also heavily contributed to the February 24 2002 entry in his book The Beatles: Off The Record 2 – The Dream is Over where my Brand X piece about the Liverpool George Harrison Tribute concert was quoted, I think in full. My copy still falls open on that page from my nana proudly showing everyone in her street.
Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) DVD box set (by Umbrella in Australia) – I get a credit on the interview with Kenneth Cope as I helped provide the location for it. It was filmed in the gallery I worked at after it had closed down but we had been using it for pop-up events.
Ralph Alfonso Liverpool EP CD – photo credit (I actually have an entry on AllMusic.com because of this!)

I appeared on the BBC TV programme Open Air when I was about 14 but that didn’t involve getting an actual credit (I did get travel expenses though!)

Oh then there’s this from Uncle John’s 24-Karat Gold Bathroom Reader –

And finally, on an International Pop Overthrow related note, a few years ago at the event this song happened (and definitely took me by surprise – I’m not the person they are singing about, but they used my name and I usually get a mention when it’s performed in Liverpool each year.)