Tim Satchwell grew up in Shropshire and was sucked into the ’77 Punk Revolution. (If a little behind kids from the major cities.)  He loved the music and the creativity that went with it and followed it. Anyone could do it, and so he did, taking up bass guitar and being drafted into a band a couple of weeks later.

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He left Shropshire to go to college in Bristol and then a couple of years later to London to “follow the dream” of getting into the music industry, be that making the tea, working at a record company or playing in a band. The way in he hoped was working in a record shop. (He had worked in record shops part-time while still at school and carried on even after getting a full-time job). That gave him a great grounding in how things worked in music retail, maybe not the glamorous side. (Although some of those Virgin Megastore cashiers had a damn good try at making it so.) 

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After working for Our Price and Virgin Music and getting involved in developing a computerised stock system in Virgin, he got bitten by the IT bug. (Barcodes?… Music became tins of beans?) This led to several years working at Gallup on the UK Music and Video Charts, a perfect combination of his interests. (Although “chart” music didn’t exactly excite him)

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Everything was a learning process, and he headed back to Bristol to work at an independent distributor who were expanding, followed by a return to London to set up and run a UK Music warehouse for US label Rykodisc. A call out of the blue took him to what he thought was the golden fleece… a small record label…but it wasn’t, he was no Jason or an Argonaut, and so moved back into a more IT based job with... Books. The pieces all fitted together.

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Tim has written three books, with a fourth now in progress, each of them about one of The Clash albums, a band which seemed to take up an important place in his life over the years, and by the late nineties had become something of an obsession. With no previous experience of writing anything “long form” prior to this, he took on that same punk philosophy, anyone can do it, and so he did.

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Tim also still dabbles in a little bass playing, but more recently has moved into poetry in the guise of The Bard of Bicton Heath.

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Tim Satchwell's books; Combat Ready (Combat Rock) was originally published in 2016, followed by All the Peacemakers (Give ‘em Enough Rope) 2019 and in 2021 Move Up Starsky (First Album), were all self-published, (on his own Stay Free imprint) and each one a labour of love. Now they will see the light of day again through Earth Island Books.

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Tim is currently working on the long process of researching and writing his fourth book, as yet untitled, which will take a closer look at the story around the writing, recording and promotion of 'Sandinista'.

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