Train in vain! 'Withdrawn, Condemned' examines a kid's inner world during a seventies childhood which was dominated by twin obsessions. Firstly, railway enthusiasm - a conventional boyhood fixation stoked by the Rev W Awdry's books and the Tri-ang Hornby range. In contrast to this parentally-sanctioned pastime, taboo preoccupations began to intrude; music, specifically punk rock - a phenomenon which derailed the young Gadjit into a world of music weeklies, late night radio shows, records your parents wouldn't approve of and all round pre-teen discontentment.
Could an aspiring Clash kid credibly nurse a fixation for Western Region hydraulics? How far could innocent enthusiasm withstand punk's shockwave and the ravages of adolescence? 'Withdrawn, Condemned' pulls together the disparate threads of junior school discos, 'seven penny nightmare' comics, the pop dichotomy between Abba and the Sex Pistols, your first pair of Doc Martens, Smash Hits, punk rock records, 00-gauge layouts and Ian Allen books. A retrospective love letter to childhood obsessions in all their glorious absurdity, a demented portfolio of pointless trivia, and an affectionate perspective on a vanished time whose aftershocks somehow continue to rumble.
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