The Farm are touring again this summer and have just made their first album for 31 years (with the same-line-up). This sparky and wide-ranging conversation with Peter Hooton stops off at the following …

… the advice Mark E Smith gave him when they were interviewed by Select magazine.

… “Suedeheads v Trogs and Greebos”: early ‘70s tribal warfare in Bootle.

… seeing Cockney Rebel, the Sensational Alex Harvey Band and Genesis at the Liverpool Empire.

… the death of old heroes – “you imagined Bowie was always going to be there”.

… backstage with the Clash in Paris and why they were the Farm’s role models.

… Bill Drummond’s attempt to remodel them “in tracksuits with hard dogs”.

… how the death of John Lennon made him start writing.

… the use of All Together Now as a football anthem – from everyone to Everton to Euros 2004 to a disastrous campaign by the Labour Party - “but the Qatar World Cup was a bridge too far”.

… touring with Mick Jones (“the Pied Piper”) for the Hillsborough 96 Campaign.

… his school band, Breakwind - “the forerunners of Half Man Half Biscuit” – and being in the cast of Oliver!.

…. his guided music tours of Liverpool and the places they visit.

… and why The Farm has “omni-appeal – a band who look like they’re from a street corner”.

Also in the mix: Big Audio Dynamite, Deaf School, Nile Rodgers, Roger Eagle and Cliff Richard on Top Of The Pops.

Buy tickets and the album Let The Music (Take Control) here: https://thefarmmusic.co.uk/

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