Author and self-publisher Mike Philpott will be chatting about his incredible book ‘Times Gonna Make Me A Man Someday: Trailing The Vapors’ and how the band became his lifelong passion and shaped his life. Rock ‘n’ roll, punk, new wave; call it what you like, it’s more than the music and Mike nails it in his very special book. A culture of friendship and belonging that exists around the band members their families, friends and their fans worldwide to this day.
With John Warburton, writer broadcaster, composer, record producer and senior lecturer in music and film at the University of Surrey. John plays the organ on a Sunday at his local village church, attends as many alternative hippie music festivals as he can and formed a punk band at school to stop getting beaten up.
Howard Smith was the original Vapors drummer, when the band got back together in 2016, Howard decided not to rejoin, his priorities being his young family and politics. The Vapors were always a political band with songs on political and social issues. Howard was adopted as the parliamentary Labour candidate for Guildford in the 2017 general election, now a Guildford Councillor and mayor elect. Howard regularly promotes folk and Americana gigs at The Keep.
Ben Darnton will be bringing along some discs. Ben’s Records is at the top of Tunsgate,1000’s of records, nothing over priced, ever changing stock, always packed out, every town should have one. Classical, rock, punk, soul, reggae all the way through Ben is there with his amazing knowledge and memory of music, the local music scene and the history of Guildford. He runs “Guildford Past and Present” on Facebook with over 25,000 followers
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