Ned's Atomic Dustbin frontman Jonn Penney talks ahead of Wolverhampton Literature Festival event - with pictures

Now, as he approaches 50, the singer-songwriter is gearing up to tell all at Wolverhampton Literature Festival in hopes of gathering enough information and inspiration to record his memoirs.

The frontman, originally from Quarry Bank, will host the event Jonn's Atomic Memoir Won't Write Itself at the Slade Rooms tomorrow alongside the group's guitarist Rat for an acoustic session, talk and questions from the audience.

Father-of-two Jonn, who now lives in Stourbridge with his partner of 28 years, says he was first inspired to do this kind of show when he went to see Echo and The Bunnymen frontman Ian McCulloch in a solo acoustic show at Bilston's Robin 2.

"He’s a big personality - there’s a big thing about 'the Mac'; he’s a strong force on stage," explained Jonn.

**To watch Jonn and Rat play trio of songs - with EXCLUSIVE rendition of number never before performed acoustically, click here**

"It was just him and an acoustic guitar and it was a massive departure from what I expected, but it was phenomenal.

"When he got on stage, he warned the crowd he’d got a sore throat. Every now and again, he’d say ‘oh, I fluffed that’. But that was what was so great about it. He was self deprecating. It wasn’t about production, there was no smoke and mirrors. It was about him and the audience.

"I just thought ‘maybe that’s where I can pitch things’ if I were to do something like that - outside of a full band thing.

"If I fluff it, it doesn’t matter. It’s all about having that moment with the fans.

"It was a similar experience when I went to see Beth Orton on her own when she was heavily pregnant. It was an acoustic gig she performed on her own.

"She’d stop in the middle of a song and say ‘wow, that was a kick!’. I’ll remember that gig forever. It was such a special performance.

"It opened my eyes to the possibility of doing something which was imperfect."

Though he's no stranger to the stage, Jonn says he's been very nervous about this show, as it'll be a new experience - and will also see him talk a lot more than he usually would between songs.

"I’ve never done anything like this before," added Jonn.

"I’m coming up to 50 years this September. Is it a mid-life crisis? I don’t know.

"But I’ve been thinking that if I start shying away from challenges, I know I’ll just turn into a pensioner. If I come through this and it goes well, I’ll be chuffed to bits.

"I’ve got to push myself."

Looking ahead to the event, Jonn said he had been encouraged to write his memoirs by several people - if only to record anecdotes for his sons.

He and Rat had also dabbled with playing acoustic versions of Ned's songs in a Facebook Live podcast which, when it went down well, Jonn said 'turned Rat into an acoustic addict', after having never 'been into it before'.

Ned's Atomic Dustbin was founded 30 years ago last November; another reason the band is 'taking stock'.

"It’s a massive experiment," added Jonn.

"I thought I’d quite like to be involved in the Lit Fest again, after it was so fun last year.

"Then I thought to myself, how can I structure an evening where I could gear it towards the book but also entertain the audience to incentivise people to come along?

"The plan is to start by playing some very early stuff, which will be interesting. Some songs may be shorter than normal, as we don’t see the point in guitar solos when we’re playing acoustic.

"There’ll be some surprise songs thrown in throughout the show - and some we’ve never played live before.

"We’ll play songs from before our first album, then stuff from the first album God Fodder.

"We’ll then move onto the second album Are You Normal?, then on to our final album Brainbloodvolume, which again we’ll play a few from.

"We’ll go from the days we were all a bunch of spotty oiks and work our way through.

"I have no idea what kind of questions will come forward, but we’ll be talking about the songs and what our lives were like at those times.

"We’re going to pop a few Post-It notes around the bar to inspire people, just in case they can’t think of a question. Some of them will have names of celebrities on which they can ask about, such as Annie Lennox, Keith Richards, Lionel Blair and Peter Gabriel.

"But I don’t assume to know what people would be interested in hearing about.

"Generally speaking, I tend to react to things. When the band were writing songs, I’d have to get the band to give me tune which would then make me feel in a certain way and words would then come to me in reaction.

"And it’s going to be the same way with this book.

"In my view, the best creative people are honest and don’t pretend to be something they’re not. And I can’t be anything but myself.

"I’m hoping the appeal of all of this will be that it’s just me being honest. I’m just a chap from Quarry Bank.

"As a band we never got lost in it all. I went up, I came down. And it was great going up, and damn hard coming down - but I’m still the same bloke."

Most of Ned's Atomic Dustbin will be at the event in the audience.

Catch Jonn and Rat at the Slade Rooms event on Saturday from 8pm for an 8.45pm start. Tickets cost £13, with a £1.63 'service fee' when booked online.

For tickets to the Wolverhampton Literature Festival event, click here

Ned's Atomic Dustbin will also be going on a 12-date tour with fellow Stourbridge rockers The Wonder Stuff, coming to Birmingham's O2 Academy on April 14 and 15.

For tickets to the Love From Stourbridge double-header tour with The Wonder Stuff, click here. The April 14 date has now sold out.