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Rock's Backpages is the world's most comprehensive online database of pop music writing, a unique resource unavailable elsewhere online. It contains an
ever-expanding collection of primary-source full-text articles from the music and mainstream press from the 1950s to the present day, along with a collection of
exclusive audio interviews.
Subscriptions to Rock’s Backpages are available for institutional or personal use.
For institutions, Rock's Backpages is provided as an unlimited access subscription, meaning that all staff, students and library patrons have
unrestricted remote and on-site access to each text and audio file in the database. For full terms, please click here.
Please visit our Institutional Subscriptions page for further information and to arrange for a trial or quote.
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Rock's Backpages is the world's most comprehensive online database of pop music writing, a unique resource unavailable elsewhere online. It contains an
ever-expanding collection of primary-source full-text articles from the music and mainstream press from the 1950s to the present day, along with a collection of
exclusive audio interviews.
Subscriptions to Rock’s Backpages are available for institutional or personal use.
For institutions, Rock's Backpages is provided as an unlimited access subscription, meaning that all staff, students and library patrons have
unrestricted remote and on-site access to each text and audio file in the database. For full terms, please click here.
Please visit our Institutional Subscriptions page for further information and to arrange for a trial or quote.
Signing up for the RBP newsletter provides access to a limited number of free articles, as well as six new free articles every week.
Northern Ireland: The Fantasy And The Reality
Gavin Martin,
New Musical Express,
11 October 1980
Gavin Martin has been NME's Belfast correspondent for the past three years. When, earlier this year, he announced his intention of moving to London, we asked him to give us an account of rock amid the rubble. This is his story.
Total word count of piece: 8905
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