Punk Rock Ruined My Life: John Robb in conversation with Daniel Dylan Wray

John Robb is coming to Crookes Social Club on Thursday 22 October, where he'll be talking about his memoir, Punk Rock Ruined My Life. It's a conversation rather than a solo reading, with Sheffield-based music and culture writer Daniel Dylan Wray on the other side of the table. If you've spent any time around the music press over the last few decades, you've probably come across Robb's name without even realising it.

He's a Blackpool writer and musician who's spent a good part of his life inside the counterculture. While writing for Sounds, he landed the first interview with Nirvana and discovered The Stone Roses, and since then he's interviewed everyone from The Manics to Patti Smith. He's worked as an on-screen commentator and an author, and Punk Rock Ruined My Life is the memoir that pulls it all together. The friendships he recounts in the book run from Poly Styrene to Chris Packham, so it's not just a trip through the music scene.

Robb hasn't stopped there, either. He founded the culture site Louder Than War, plays bass in The Membranes, and writes a column for Viva!life Magazine. His more recent books include Live Forever: The Rise, Fall and Resurrection of Oasis (2025) and The Art of Darkness: The History of Goth (2023), so he's still writing about the same sort of noise and subculture that's been his beat for years. Wray, who'll be chatting with him on the night, is a Sheffield writer himself, which should make for a good fit.

It starts at 6:30 pm at Crookes Social Club, and tickets are £12, or £10 if you're a member.