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Russ Litten

Sabotaging since 2 Feb 2010

Russ Litten was born at the end of the 60's, grew up in the 70's and left school in the 80's. He spent the subsequent decades in a bewildering variety of jobs before becoming a freelance writer at the turn of the century. After writing drama for television, radio and film, he finished his first novel, SCREAM IF YOU WANT TO GO FASTER. He lives with his family in Kingston Upon Hull..

My Articles

Books

The Accidental Diplomat: An Ordinary Bloke With An Extraordinary Life

I don’t read as much non-fiction as I should. After all, as we are constantly reminded, the truth is often much stranger than it’s made up counterpart and therefore, in theory at least, much more interesting. This is certainly true of Paul Knott’s “The Accidental Diplomat”, part travelogue part memoir of his career in the Foreign Office, spanning twenty years and seven countries with an attendant cast of gun toting pensioners, drunken MP’s, KGB spies and Eastern European Michael Jackson Tribute Acts.

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Sport

The Beginner’s Guide To Taking Drugs At Football

Skinning up is certainly one way of making a terrible 0-0 draw more interesting, but how does acid go down at the match?

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Life

Taking Prisoners’ Books Away Denies Them The Opportunity To Rehabilitate

The government’s decision to stop prisoners receiving books is a predictably short-sighted and counter-productive one, but what do they care when it’s within their interests for prisoners to return to jail?

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Life

All’s Fair In Hull And War: Childhood Memories Of Northern Waltzers

Hull has been awarded the Capital of Culture for 2017. Here’s one very big reason to god visit, the magical Hull Fair…

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Work

Me, Bukowski And The Indignity Of Work

As a child, the adult world of work loomed heavily on the horizon. Luckily I found Charles Bukowski to read when I got home from the days hawking spuds and selling puppets…

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Music

Here Comes Daddy Reggae

I am a firm believer that your children’s musical tastes should not be left to chance. When it comes to moulding the pop kids of today into the up-standing rock n roll citizens of tomorrow, the responsible parent’s watchwords should be education, education, education.

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Life

Superscreen: The Best Radio Commercial Ever

When the gaffer of Superscreen was unhappy with a radio jingle script, he wrote it himself and locked the staff in the office until midnight…

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Football

GERREMONSIDE! When Rugby League Was The King Of Sports

We look back at a time when Rugby League was king. A very different game played by a very different breed of player. Not men who followed macrobiotic diets or dabbed on moisturiser, these were men who supped pints and smoked tabs. Welcome to real rugby.

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People

The Gargoyles Eddie Smith On Poetry, Ambition And The AA

Eddie Smith, Hull based Poet And frontman of The Gargoyles talks about his life and times to mark the release of his new album, ‘On The Beach’.

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Music

Russ Litten: 50 Songs I Love

The Fall, Toots & Maytals, Shack, The Supremes and more feature in this barnstorming list of floor fillers and head shrinkers…

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Books

Swear Down: One Murder, Two Confessions - Exclusive Extract

Check out this extract from my second novel and win one of five copies while you’re at it…

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Life

Sleep Paralysis: I Wouldn’t Wish It On My Worst Enemy

Ever had sleep paralysis? Imagine awaking to a strong sense of a ‘presence’, pressure on your chest, intense fear and hallucinations, but being incapable of moving a muscle. I’ve had two unhealthy doses and just writing this is making me break out into a sweat.

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Music

The La’s: The Band I Had Waited All My Life To Hear

One Easter Bank Holiday Monday about twenty two years ago me and my pal were on the piss down Beverley Road after a horse we had backed had romped home at not inconsiderable odds.

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People

The Last of the Hunters

He’d only intended to go for a piss. But now Jack Nelson was spread-eagled on the deck of the St Arcadius, smashed under the steering quadrant by a heavy wave of water that had crashed over the side, his barely shaved fifteen year old face inches away from being chewed off by grinding gears.

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Books

Mendicant Bookworks And The Rebirth Of The Short Story

How a small, US-based publisher is bucking the commercial trend, selling gritty masterpieces for 99 cents a pop.

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TV

RIP Bill Tarmey: An Ode To Jack Duckworth

He was Coronation Street’s finest loafer, a scallywag hell bent on evading work, snatching a crafty fag and forever hiding from Vera…

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Music

The Pen is Mightier Than the Guitar

“I can make it longer if you like the style
I can change it round and I wanna be a paperback writer”

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Hardware

How ‘Scream If You Want To Go Faster’ Made It From The Taxi To The Till

Scream If You Want To Go Faster, now included in Read Regional 2012, started life as a late night anecdote from a taxi driver in Hull…

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Music

Does The Devil Really Have All The Best Tunes?

Satan may have some top stars on his side such as Mick Jagger and Pete Doherty but the legions of ‘good’ in music aren’t quite as uncool as you might think. Step forward Reverend Al Green and Mr Van Morrison…

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TV

Straight Outta Crompton: The Wheeltappers And Shunters Social Club

The Wheel Tappers and Social Shunters club isn’t a real club, but, if it was, it would probably be the best club in the world.

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Music

Happy Mondays Reform: A Poetic Appreciation Of Shaun William Ryder

The Happy Mondays frontman may be chiefly known for the drugs and soundbites but his lyrics contained pure poetic genius on a par with the classics. Hallelujah for the Bard of Salford…

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Music

Jahna Ranks: Angel of the Seychelles

Like Van Morrison sharing a spliff with Candi Staton, Jahna Ranks brings achingly beautiful pop into the dancehall.

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Books

Blowback: Guns, Drugs And Contract Killers In Leeds 6

Set in and around Leeds’ petty criminal underclass, the tense and hectic “Blowback” is the latest novel by Sabotage Times’ scribe John Lake…

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Music

The Doors: The Seedier Side Of The Sixties Dream

Jim Morrison and The Doors produced genuinely thrilling rock ‘n’ roll lighting a fire under the happy clappy sixties Summer Of Love.

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Music

Little Roy And The Reggae Reinvention Of Nirvana

‘Battle For Seattle’ is the inspired album of Nirvana cover versions from veteran Jamaican recording artist, Little Roy. Here’s why it’s a must have.

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Books

Jack Kerouac: The World’s First Rock N’ Roll Star

Forget Elvis Presley, Jack Kerouac was the world’s first rock n roll star. Obsessed with fast cars, sexual abandon and wild music, he was a weaver of dreams and imagination, an inspiration for a generation.

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Football

The Surliness of the Short Distance Runner

I have recently taken to running round the park of a morning. Well, I say “running”, it’s probably more accurately described as staggering forwards like a dray horse that’s just been hit by a tranquilizer dart alternated with short bursts of good old fashioned walking.

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Books

Exclusive Extract: Scream If You Want To Go Faster

Hull Fair, October 2007. A city still drowning in the aftermath of summer floodwater prepares to wave farewell to Europe’s biggest travelling carnival. As the big wheel turns, 10 characters are brought together in a single weekend in the rain soaked city…

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Music

I Have A Crush On The Go! Team

Like being hit round the back of the head with a day-glo baton, The Go! Team have announced the imminent arrival of a new album “Rolling Blackouts” and I, for one, am dizzy with anticipation.

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Football

Football: A Soap Opera For Blokes

Our lass has always maintained football is a soap opera for blokes, and the last few weeks has only confirmed this. By the time Saturday came round I’d had a belly full of football, and that was before a ball had been kicked.

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Film

The Apprentice 2010: Week 2 Chucky Escapes the Axe

Glued to The Apprentice? We are. It’s quite difficult to get so many idiots in one room, well done to whoever cast it. This week the Exorcist era Linda Blair look-a-like loses control.

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Film

Between Froggit & Greengrass

Best known for gurning buffoon Selwyn Froggit and lovable oaf Greengrass, Bill Maynard struck gold as ‘The Gaffer’.

Music

Seven Wonders of the World

The seven best Stevie Wonder songs - and there’s not a Paul McCartney duet in sight.

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Music

One and a Half Fall Fans Can’t Be Wrong

Me and my daughter have a new call-and-response song for going upstairs to bed. “Up the stairs Mister!” says I – “Eat Y’self Fitter!” she yells back.

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Life

Alarmed

What do you do when an alarm sounds? Call the police? Stab yourself in the ears so you don’t have to listen to it anymore? Russ Litten takes action, gun action.

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