Writing, photographs, fact and fiction
by Damon Fairclough

A primitive internet archive of words, sounds and pictures with an aroma of concrete, drizzle and bus stops.

Noise Heat Power vs. Martin Dust
Unearthing the unfinished city: my foreword to the book Brutal Sheffield
A very Yorkshire disaffection: my foreword to the book Brutal Yorkshire
The time that land forgot: my foreword to the book Little Sheffield
– Updated August 2023 –

Seeing red
Signals from the Socialist Republic of South Yorkshire
– Posted May 2023 –

Noise Heat Power vs. the Curfew Tower
The house of King Boy D: inside Bill Drummond’s Curfew Tower
No idlers, no rioters: text and sound produced during my Tower residency
A Curfew Tower journal: five days in the life of my Cushendall diary

– Updated February 2023 –

Catherine Cookson and a pig’s head
Short fiction and photographs from Sheffield’s Sheaf Market
– Updated November 2020 –

Roy Lichtenstein at Tate Liverpool
A review of Roy Lichtenstein in Focus
– Posted September 2020 –

The Radiophonic Workshop
An interview with Paddy Kingsland
– Posted August 2020 –

Sheffield to Tokyo with love
Talking to myself about matter transference
– Posted June 2020 –

That bed
Tracey Emin and William Blake at Tate Liverpool
– Posted May 2020 –

Picturing Sheffield
A visit to Sheffield’s Millennium Gallery
– Posted May 2020 –

Sales talk
My ten-second artwork for electronic billboard
– Posted February 2020 –

Theatre reviews: 2019
Sleeping Beauty: Everyman Theatre

Noise Heat Power vs. The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu
Bring out The JAMs: unearthing a hidden Liverpool
They drove an ice-cream van: a look back at the day The JAMs hit town
– Posted August 2019 –

Brutalism, bus fares and The Box
Music and photographs from 1980s Sheffield
– Posted June 2019 –

From the ether, from the static
A collection of spoken words and found sounds
– Posted June 2019 –

I shout for The Fall
Turning Mark E. Smith’s lyrics into visual art
– Posted April 2019 –

Theatre reviews: 2018
Those Two Weeks: Gladstone Theatre
Cirque du Soleil’s OVO: Echo Arena
Long Joan Silver: Hope Street Theatre
To Have to Shoot Irishmen: Everyman Theatre
The Snow Queen: Everyman Theatre

Theatre reviews: 2017
Pygmalion: Liverpool Playhouse
The Conquest of the South Pole: Everyman Theatre
The Lonesome West: Liverpool’s Royal Court
The Story Giant: Everyman Theatre
The Sum: Everyman Theatre
Romeo and Juliet: Everyman Theatre
The Damned United: Unity Theatre
The Tin Drum: Everyman Theatre
Golem: Liverpool Playhouse
Man to Man: Everyman Theatre
Baskerville: Liverpool Playhouse

Theatre reviews: 2016
Madame Bovary: Everyman Theatre
I Am Thomas: Liverpool Playhouse
Land of Our Fathers: Liverpool Playhouse Studio
Kite: Unity Theatre
Liverpool Lambs: Unity Theatre
The Possible Impossible House: Unity Theatre
Tony’s Last Tape: Everyman Theatre
Two Gentlemen of Verona: Everyman Theatre
The Rivals: Liverpool Playhouse
Little Red and the Big Bad Wolf: Unity Theatre
Aladdin: Epstein Theatre
The Star: Liverpool Playhouse

Bad wool rising
An interview with the artist Mark Leckey
– Posted October 2016 –

Alan Garner and deep time
An interview with Erica Wagner
– Posted September 2016 –

Different trains: Steve Reich at Edge Hill
An interview with Robert Ames of London Contemporary Orchestra
– Posted September 2016 –

A conversation with LoneLady
Talking to musician and songwriter Julie Campbell
– Posted September 2016 –

Skelmersdale and the magic of roundabouts
Talking to Hannah Peel of The Magnetic North
– Posted June 2016 –

Theatre reviews: 2015
Twopence to Cross the Mersey: Epstein Theatre
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas: Liverpool Playhouse
Blood Wedding: Everyman Theatre
Until They Kick Us Out: Everyman Theatre
Constellations: Liverpool Playhouse
The Hudsucker Proxy: Liverpool Playhouse
The Hook: Everyman Theatre
The Odyssey, Missing Presumed Dead: Everyman Theatre
The Princess and the Pea: Unity Theatre
The Haunting of Hill House: Liverpool Playhouse

In every neighbourhood, revolution!
Behind the scenes at Liverpool Small Cinema
– Posted July 2015 –

Theatre reviews: 2014
Betty Blue Eyes: Liverpool Playhouse
The Kite Runner: Liverpool Playhouse
Little Red Riding Hood: Everyman Theatre

The ectoplasmic audio guide
A mixtape tour of a very personal Liverpool
– Posted November 2014 –

Pinning down the past
A voyage around my badge collection
– Updated September 2014 –

Where there was discord
Words for Cabaret Voltaire’s Western Works studio, Sheffield
– Posted May 2014 –

Record and play
A book about music, memory and six imaginary mixtapes
– Posted April 2014 –

Dedicated to discomfort
A personal history of the Everyman Theatre, Liverpool
– Posted February 2014 –

Three Sheffield favourites
Talking about Sheffield music on BBC Radio Merseyside
– Posted July 2013 –

The future is now
Creating a universe for Wipeout on PlayStation
– Updated February 2013 –

The Crucible method
Celebrating 40 years of Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre
– Posted February 2012 –

Vision on: Nam June Paik
The futures and pasts of the pioneering Korean artist
– Posted January 2011 –

An argument in concrete
A personal history of the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield
– Posted January 2010 –

The paste land
A memoir from Sheffield’s 1985 flyposter frontline
– Posted October 2009 –

Brain aided dancing
Words and music for the mighty Designers Republic
– Posted March 2009 –

Clutching at moments
Thoughts on the Terence Davies film ‘Of Time and the City’
– Posted October 2008 –

Above and below
Photos of Sheffield’s flats and subways from 1987 and 1988
– Posted April 2008 –

Mapping the Liverpool underground
A journey to the centre of the creative universe and a tribute to Adrian Henri
– Posted January 2008 –

Sweating together
Short fiction and photographs from the Sheffield derby, Wembley, 1993
– Posted November 2007 –

For the Lyceum with love
A brief history of the Lyceum Theatre, Sheffield
– Posted August 2007 –

Withnail and me
Reaching 40 with the film that makes it all worthwhile
– Posted June 2007 –

Sheffield Sunday
Photographs from the Sheffield Leadmill, 1986
– Posted November 2006 –

Destroyed by gods
Words and music to conjure up a long-lost Sheffield of the soul
– Posted October 2006 –

In praise of seventeen
How a 1984 haircut changed my life
– Posted October 2006 –