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Northern ECHO
Tiny Timpson is Willy Mitchell’s best friend, they grew up together but drifted apart over the years. Willy agrees to meet Tiny for one last blast, he heads to the Royal Oak, in their childhood town, all while knowing in his heart that something isn’t right. Turns out, Tiny has terminal cancer and makes Willy promise to one day tell their story of growing up in the North of England during the Punk Rock era, and this is it, Northern ECHO, Boys Don’t Cry.
It’s the seventies and dark clouds are surrounding Great Britain. A series of events has brought society and the economy to its knees. With few prospects for employment, the youth have become disillusioned. As the punk rock scene spreads over the Atlantic from New York, it transforms into a movement that soon becomes an unlikely catalyst and contributor to change. Caught up in the frenzy of such transformative times, Willy and Tiny take a sometimes humorous, eye-opening journey through one of the most interesting and challenging times in modern British history.
Northern Echo: Boys Don’t Cry is a social commentary of the musical, political, and social revolution that occurred as two boys grew up in a northern town in England during the Punk Rock era.
“Indie Author, writer, and storyteller Willy Mitchell masterfully tells this tale of two boys growing up on the crest of the Punk Rock wave, the disenfranchised youth, a crippled economy, the ‘sick man of Europe’, the Great in Great Britain had lost its shine. Northern ECHO provides insights to those times in this very personal story.
It’s the seventies and dark clouds are surrounding Great Britain. A series of events has brought society and the economy to its knees. With few prospects for employment, the youth have become disillusioned. As the punk rock scene spreads over the Atlantic from New York, it transforms into a movement that soon becomes an unlikely catalyst and contributor to change. Caught up in the frenzy of such transformative times, Willy and Tiny take a sometimes humorous, eye-opening journey through one of the most interesting and challenging times in modern British history.
Northern Echo: Boys Don’t Cry is a social commentary of the musical, political, and social revolution that occurred as two boys grew up in a northern town in England during the Punk Rock era.
“Indie Author, writer, and storyteller Willy Mitchell masterfully tells this tale of two boys growing up on the crest of the Punk Rock wave, the disenfranchised youth, a crippled economy, the ‘sick man of Europe’, the Great in Great Britain had lost its shine. Northern ECHO provides insights to those times in this very personal story.
358 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 8, 2020
1 person want to read
About the author
Willy Mitchell
13 books6 followersWilly Mitchell was born in Glasgow, Scotland, with origins from the shipyards of the Clyde. He has spent many an hour in hostelries around the world and heard many a story - some true, some fiction, and some of legend.
After heading south of the border to work in the steel mills of Yorkshire he is now retired in California and has turned his hand to writing some of these tales that he had heard over the years, and now bringing those stories to life.
Willy Mitchell is an indie author, a writer, and a storyteller.
After heading south of the border to work in the steel mills of Yorkshire he is now retired in California and has turned his hand to writing some of these tales that he had heard over the years, and now bringing those stories to life.
Willy Mitchell is an indie author, a writer, and a storyteller.
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September 4, 2022
Willy Mitchell meets an old friend in the Royal Oak, in the northern town they grew up in, for one last blast. Tiny Tim has terminal cancer, and at the end of the evening, he makes Mitchell promise to tell their story of growing up in the North of England during the punk rock era and of their dark secret from a trip to Paris.
There were dark clouds surrounding Great Britain at that time. The Provisional IRA was actively rebelling against the English, Arabic terrorism was on the rise, and Argentina invaded one of the nation’s territories in the far-off South Atlantic.
Unemployment was at its highest level since the 1930s, and whole industries were being crippled by the trade union movement and strikes in every corner of industry. The Far Right was also on the rise, as was the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament protesting the arms race that existed between the United States and the Soviet Union.
Society was on its knees; the middle class had given up, seemingly content to slide into obscurity, forgetting the victories and the pride of the past.
The youth of the time were disillusioned, with little prospect of jobs, careers, or a future, and as the punk rock scene spread across the Atlantic from New York, it changed into a movement and a commentary on the state of the country and the mood of society.
With no future and no rules, ripping up the rule book and starting again, the punk rock movement was an unlikely catalyst and contributor to change in Great Britain, with heaps of attitude, and it changed the nation for the better.
Mitchell, in Northern Echo, takes the reader on a sometimes humorous, eye-opening journey through one of the most interesting times in modern British history—a musical, political, and social revolution—and the story of two boys coming of age in their journey toward adulthood.
There were dark clouds surrounding Great Britain at that time. The Provisional IRA was actively rebelling against the English, Arabic terrorism was on the rise, and Argentina invaded one of the nation’s territories in the far-off South Atlantic.
Unemployment was at its highest level since the 1930s, and whole industries were being crippled by the trade union movement and strikes in every corner of industry. The Far Right was also on the rise, as was the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament protesting the arms race that existed between the United States and the Soviet Union.
Society was on its knees; the middle class had given up, seemingly content to slide into obscurity, forgetting the victories and the pride of the past.
The youth of the time were disillusioned, with little prospect of jobs, careers, or a future, and as the punk rock scene spread across the Atlantic from New York, it changed into a movement and a commentary on the state of the country and the mood of society.
With no future and no rules, ripping up the rule book and starting again, the punk rock movement was an unlikely catalyst and contributor to change in Great Britain, with heaps of attitude, and it changed the nation for the better.
Mitchell, in Northern Echo, takes the reader on a sometimes humorous, eye-opening journey through one of the most interesting times in modern British history—a musical, political, and social revolution—and the story of two boys coming of age in their journey toward adulthood.
Displaying 1 of 1 review