So with the previous ones out of the way at last, I thought I'd capitalise on this and get on with sending questions to pStan from the Hobs. Annoyingly, I think I wrote some questions & lost em, but here's some more anyway...

I've mentioned pStan on here many a time, I'm sure. He is in the Ceramic Hobs. He has been in other bands from Blackpool before & is in other bands as well now. He runs Pumf Records: http://www.pumf.net and makes stuff: http://www.batcow.co.uk
He also does umpteen other things.

Phil: Where were you born and what schools did you attend?

Stan: I was born in Manchester, and moved to Blackpool when I was the tender age of three. Infant and Junior school education was at Roseacre, Secondary was at Highfield High, then I did 'A' levels at Collegiate Sixth Form College. All these schools are in Blackpool. The whole educational experience was horrific for me; I am not an academic person and have always had difficulty fitting in to an authoritarian framework. I did miserably in my exams, although I did get my maths 'o' level in the fourth year, and got English as well. Who needs more? I then spent two years at sixth form to end up with three 'f' grades in my 'a' levels. (Qualifications are vastly over-rated anyway).

P: What is your first memory of Blackpool?

S: Old ladies in my parents' newsagents shop giving me money because I was cute. I had extremely bright red curly hair - Little Lord Fauntleroy eat your heart out! I had a little pedal car that I used to ride on the pavement in front of the shops, and one of the old women used to give me sixpence 'for the parking meter'. When I saw her coming I used to shuttle the car backwards and forwards next to the wall, 'parking' it, just so she'd remember.

P: Were there any places in Blackpool that held a particular resonance for you as a child?

S: I remember spending time on the beach and the sand dunes (my parents' shop was close to the beach) - also the network of roads behind the shop, and a small patch of waste ground under the bridge next to the railway. When I was (nearly) 8, we moved into a house a couple of miles inland behind which there was a great field that I spent days and days in, climbing trees and setting fires. There were also loads of winding 'country' roads in the area to wander along and explore on bicycles.

P: Are there any memories of the famous Golden Mile or other Blackpool seediness that stick in your mind from childhood?

S: Not really . . . I don't recall going there with my parents, and I only drifted through those areas sporadically when I began to go places on my own (or with friends) as I grew up. There wasn't much attraction for me in all that hurly-burly (though I did spend lots of time on the Pleasure Beach, wandering around soaking up the atmosphere - rarely went on the rides though, I never had much money to fritter).

P: Blackpool sees some rum sights on its streets. Whether it be part of a George Formby convention or a local eccentric, what is the strangest sight you've ever seen out and about here?

S: I think you probably get quite immune to strange sights living here. The first thing that sprang to mind upon reading this question (not to say this is the strangest thing, but it came to me unbidden) happened a couple of years ago. Whilst driving slowly along the promenade, stuck in a traffic jam, with hordes of people thronging the pavement, I observed a totally naked man edge slowly backwards out of the crowd into the road, then walk forwards into the crowd again. This is probably the norm for Blackpool these days.

P: Can you run down your musical interests from 0 to 18? I guess I always think of you as a punk & presume other people do, but you still seem to hark back to the Beatles a lot, so I guess they must figure big. Anyone else? How did you get into punk? Did you have favourite record shops/punky places to hang out?! Who is the earliest punk pal you hooked up with & that you still have contact with?

S: I have two brothers, 7 and 8 years older than me. As I was growing up I was exposed to their musical tastes, so listened to the Beatles and 60's pop through to 70's rock - Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Status Quo, Jethro Tull, Genesis, Yes etc. As I grew up I was listening to chart music of the time, so Slade, Sweet, Gary Glitter, Suzi Quattro, T. Rex, Mud, Alvin Stardust and the like all featured big. My musical tastes now go from the Beatles through to the present day (though less and less of the present day . . . I'm becoming much more intolerant of dross). I think everybody at some point needs to find music that's 'theirs', rather than just liking what's been played to them by other (older?) people, and punk for me filled that requirement. I can't really remember how I got into it, but it certainly made me step into different social circles, for better or worse. I met a lot of new people, some of whom with hindsight were total idiots, untrustworthy and unreliable, and a few who were likeminded, positive and inspirational. There were a few places to hang out, names of which escape me - a couple of records shops and cafes were always likely to have friends mooching round there. As for the oldest punky friend, I guess that would be Boz, who was the singer in the first proper band I was in (A-void). I met her in 1982 or 1983, and these days we're both doing similar arty-based work projects in which our paths occasionally cross.

P: As the Sophie Lancaster thing proves, people still get loads of stick for looking/acting differently, but did the Punks in Blackpool actually have to be fighters? Any fisticuffs with metallers/soul boys etc?

S: I remember being in violent situations many times, but I rarely got beaten up as I have always been good at talking my way out of trouble. I think I have always been able to see that the different factions (mods, skins, rockers etc.) are all desperately trying to live up to the image, which is portrayed in the media as one of constant conflict with those outside their kind - they're fighting because they think they ought to, without really wanting to (apart from the occasional psycho, examples of which I've usually managed to avoid). It often doesn't take much to make them leave you alone. Having said that, there were quite a few occasions where I was unceremoniously dumped on my arse.

P: Can you remember the first Blackpool venue you set foot in for music that you felt comfortable in/good about? What was it like? I'm sure they weren't all your favourites, but do you remember/have any good stories about the clubs of the time? - The Adam & Eve, Jenk's at Rumours, The Tache, the Galleon, The Bizness, the Lemon Tree, Trader Jacks, Norbreck Castle, Mardi Gras etc.

S: I went to the Norbreck Castle to see bands many times, and always felt comfortable there. There was also the Vinyl Drip Club (upstairs at JR's, Victoria Street, above Boots), a weekly live bands event peopled by folk 'just like me', which was great apart from the odd occasion when non-punky types wanted to come in, too. Of your list above I used to frequent Your Father's Moustache, Adam and Eve's, and The Galleon - though I think all those were later in the '80s. I remember going to the Bier Keller for gigs a lot in the early '80s, Lucy's Bar to socialise . . . there must have been other places but names escape me.

P: Can you remember some of the bands that shook you awake live early on? Were there any Blackpool scene characters at the time who were a big influence on you either to do punk stuff or later on, more experimental stuff? What was your first active involvement with the Blackpool music scene? Was art always a factor at the time too?

S: A few of the bands I saw in Blackpool during my teenage years: Theatre of Hate, The Rezillos, The Fall, Wasted Youth, Modern English, John Cooper Clarke, Attritrion - there are probably loads more, but those came to mind first. Also loads of local bands, all of whom really proved that anyone could get up there and do it for themselves. I don't think anyone specific influenced me to do it for myself, rather the whole 'scene' of people was the stimulus. Creating more experimental music seemed to come naturally to me, probably from listening to any and everything. My first involvement with the Blackpool scene was being the compere / occasional DJ at the Vinyl Drip Club in 1980 / 1981. Art came into things in a small way - creating backdrops, making clothes etc. (the concept of 'performance art' has always been there though, I suppose - creating a spectacle at live events rather than just playing the instruments).

P: Do you perceive drugs as having been a major factor for other people in the Blackpool music scene at that time (when you were first going to events)?

S: Not really, I don't think . . . people seemed to be there for the music. Alcohol was drunk freely, and the odd spliff smoked, but that was about it. Lots of the people I associated with ended up doing the drugs because they went hand-in-hand - media image again, I suppose. There were one or two who use drugs as a tool toward creativity, but far more people simply screwed themselves up.

P: Obviously people will have done demo tapes & the like, but were you the only real tape label in Blackpool in the eighties or is there loads of forgotten stuff from that time? Was it difficult to get venues/gigs with yr more experimental stuff in Blackpool then (& when did that become an interest for you) or was it just a case of booking a room yrself or getting on with punk bands etc, like now?

S: Laurence from Sign Language (nowadays Ceramic Hobs bassist) put out a few cassettes as well as doing his fanzine 'Inside Signs', though I'm not sure if he thought of himself as a tape label or not. I can't remember any others (which isn't to say there weren't any). I started Pumf Records and stuck with it, for better or worse . . . bands I was in were seen as experimental, I reckon, because even though they might not have been as 'out there' as many other bands of the time away from Blackpool, it was light-years away from the other pub rock bands most venues put on. There were a couple of venues who would book us to play, but mostly it was a network of people (including myself) who hired rooms and organised the events ourselves. Like now.

P: Were you a festy type in the eighties (bring out the dark secrets!) & were there any festies of any consequence over this way?

S: No, I didn't like festivals. I went to a few, mostly just for the day when the bands I wanted to see were on. I never saw the attraction of rolling round in mud and rain (and shit, judging from the stereotypical state of festival toilets) amongst drunken / out-of-it idiots watching loads of bands, 90% of whom were tedious crap. On the occasions when I did attend for more than one day it would simply remind me why I didn't attend festivals.

P: I asked you this before but...who is the biggest band you've headlined over & who is the band who has played below you & gone on to the biggest things?

S: The Boo Radleys supported us several times (we took them out of Liverpool for their first out-of-town gigs). Blur also played before us in London one evening (though, to be fair, I think they were just getting on any old stage to play a short showcase for a specific audience, i.e. A&R men). That would have been about 1990, I think.

P: What is the best band you've ever seen from Blackpool that you WEREN'T in? Best gig in Blackpool full-stop?

S: Tebbit Under Rubble (oh no, actually, they were from Leicester. And I saw them play in Leicester). Vee VV were one of my favourite Blackpool bands . . . The Fits were always entertaining and punky, as were Sign Language. Best gig in Blackpool? Hmmmmmmm . . . maybe too many to choose from. I saw Gary Glitter at the Norbreck in 1982 - now THAT was a good gig. What a showman.

P: There was a great Higgins piece in Max RnR that ran down the Blackpool scene since punk & he identified the early eighties (punk bands) & nowish as the best times for the scene. Any opinions on the ebb & flow over the years? Was there a real buzz in the early eighties with the relatively high number of punk & post-punk bands or later at the time of Dandelion Adventure?

S: Yes, the early 1980s were inspirational in terms of the number of bands around - every week there would be a new band to see, or an incarnation of previous ones re-born. There was a real sense of creativity, activities weren't just limited to music - fanzines thrived also, people were making their own t-shirts, stickers and badges, painting designs on leather jackets, making clothes . . . it was great to be a part of it, to be able to feel like you 'belonged' in some way. I have a theory that all those people sank into real life as the scene dissipated (or probably more accurately, the scene dissipated BECAUSE those people sank into real life), and after their kids had grown up and they'd paid off most of the mortgage they started to hanker after those youthful experiences. In search of them, they started going out again - hence the re-emergence of the punk scene, and the reformation of hundreds of old punk bands who play once more to the same audience, twenty years down the line. It's the modern-day equivalent of cabaret singers for your granny. When I was playing in Dandelion Adventure, we most definitely weren't a Blackpool band and I don't think we were associated with the Blackpool scene. We were based in Preston, with one member living in Manchester and one in Blackpool. We played in Blackpool about three times only, I think.

P: The town gets a lot of stick for being in decline. Are there any major ways in which you think the town has improved? Any new favourite features? You always seem fairly happy to be here & have an admirable belief that you can do creative things here just as well as anywhere else.

S: Blackpool has cleaned up a little (unless that viewpoint comes from staying on the town's periphery) and is making efforts to regenerate run-down areas, which is a nod in the right direction. There's also some thought being given to the local environment, for example the promenade areas - which, although still large expanses of concrete, are now more pleasant areas of concrete and with large artworks on display. (There are also smooth expanses of promenade for long distances making my roller-blading trips much less bumpy, more glidey). As for being happy here, I've been to a lot of places over the years and never found anywhere that cried out to me as a place I really wanted to live; I think I've ended up here by default. Everybody has the "I hate (insert name of your town here), it's crap, there's nothing to do" attitude after leaving school, and people simply leave one crap town and go to another just for the sake of it. At the time in my life when I should have been doing that, I was playing in a band doing regular gigs to the extent of spending more than half my time touring the country and Europe. I used to come back to Blackpool (where I always had a flat) to escape, for some peace and quiet: visit my Mum, collect my mail, run Pumf Records, write the fanzine, etc. Sometimes the separation from a bustling metropolis can be a good thing in creative terms. It's far too easy to become so wrapped up in the promotion of oneself as an artist that one forgets to be an artist, forgets to be true to what matters most.