Nick Toczek

Nick Toczek was brought up in Bradford, where he was educated at Frizinghall Road School (briefly), Victoria Park Preparatory School and Bradford Grammar School. He then took a BSc in Industrial Metallurgy at the University of Birmingham, graduating with 3rd class Hons in 1971.

While at university, he began to read his poetry in public and was co-founder and co-editor of the campus poetry magazine, Black Columbus (nine editions, one per term, 1969–72).

He lived in Moseley in Birmingham until the summer of 1977. Based in a flat on Queenswood Road, he launched his own poetry magazine, The Little Word Machine, in 1972. Eleven editions appeared before it folded in 1979. In 1977, as a spin-off from the magazine, he published and co-edited (with Philip Nanton and Yann Lovelock) Britain's first substantial anthology of black writing, Melanthika: An Anthology of Pan-Caribbean Writing, under the imprint LWM Publications.

In 1974, Toczek co-founded the annual Moseley Community Arts Festival and was its director for several years. In 1975, he was a founder-member (and manager) of the poetry and music group, Stereo Graffiti, which debuted at the Ilkley Literature Festival in May of that year. Thereafter, the group toured throughout the UK before disbanding in 1977.

Toczek writes every day. He says: "If I was an athlete, I’d need to train on a daily basis. As a writer, I therefore make myself write every day. It's a routine I’ve followed since I was a teenager."

In the late 1960s, his poetry began to appear regularly in journals. Some of his short punning poems appeared in The Sunday Times and again in two collections they published entitled Worse Verse (1971) and More Worse Verse (1972).

After a poetry reading in a Birmingham pub, he was invited by J. C. R. Green, director of the Birmingham-based Aquila Publishing Company to submit a short manuscript. In 1972, this first collection duly appeared as a pamphlet entitled Because the Evenings.{{cite book|last=Toczek|first=Nick|title=Because The Evenings|year=1972|publisher=Aquila|isbn=0-903226-07-3}} It was the start of a decade-long working relationship that saw Aquila publish four more collections of his poetry and an early novella, Autobiography of a Friend.{{cite book|last=Toczek|first=Nick|title=Autobiography of a Friend|year=1975|publisher=Aquila Publishing Company|isbn=0-903226-67-7}} Over this period, various other small presses also published single collections.

During the last half of 1976 and the first few months of 1977, Toczek was drawn into punk after seeing Birmingham gigs featuring The Clash, Ramones, The Adverts, The Slits, The Vibrators, Blondie, The Prefects, Talking Heads and others. After he and his then-partner and fellow Stereo Graffiti member, Kay Russell, moved to Bradford in the summer of 1977, they formed the band Ulterior Motives, releasing a single – "Y'Gotta Shout" c/w "Another Lover" – on their own label, Motive Music, in 1979. That December, the pair co-edited and published the first edition of the seminal indie rock mag, The Wool City Rocker. Toczek and Russell split up in mid-December and, at a Christmas Day party, he met his future wife, Gaynor.

Under Toczek's editorship, The Wool City Rocker appeared monthly throughout 1980 during which time it changed from being Bradford-focussed to covering the whole of the north of England, later editions each including a free flexi-disc of northern bands. A final edition, No. 14, appeared in the summer of 1981.

Toczek continued to tour and record with Ulterior Motives until the band split up in 1982. Since then, he has toured as a solo artist.

For four years, from March 1982 until April 1986, Toczek ran weekly punk (and later indie) gigs at assorted venues throughout the Leeds-Bradford area, sometimes as many as five a week, each with suitably lurid names (including Gory Details, Fatal Shocks and Natural Disasters). In September 1986, Toczek formed a business partnership with Willi Beckett (performance poet, frontman of The Psycho Surgeons and leading light of the Monster Raving Loony Party) to run a weekly alternative cabaret club under the name of his long-defunct show, Stereo Graffiti. The alternative cabaret scene soon took off and this project blossomed, continuing under different names and in a variety of West Yorkshire venues until the mid-nineties. It spawned various side projects including Bradford Writers' Group (which the pair founded in 1987) and a Festival of European Community Literature (which they ran in April 1989).

On 8 September 1984, Toczek and Gaynor (née Doherty) were married. Their daughter, Rebecca, was born on 23 December 1986 and their son, Matthew, on 20 August 1990.

In the autumn of 1993, Toczek began a two-year stint as W. H. Smith resident storyteller at Eureka! the children's museum in Halifax, West Yorkshire. In 1995 and again in 1996, he was an MP in the Channel 4 TV debating programme The People's Parliament.

Since 1997, Toczek has collaborated with the composer Malcolm Singer. Their first joint work, a cantata using Toczek's dragon poems, was performed at London's Royal Albert Hall in 1998. Toczek later worked on a storyline and then a play-script in order to turn the cantata into a musical which was published as Dragons! The Musical by Golden Apple in 2005.{{cite book|last1=Toczek|first1=Nick|title=Dragons! The Musical|year=2005|publisher=Golden Apple|isbn=978-1-84449-480-4|first2=Malcolm |last2=Singer}} While he was working on this, Toczek was asked to write a pantomime for Golden Apple. This was Sleeping Beauty's Dream which they published in 2003.{{cite book|last1=Toczek|first1=Nick|title=Sleeping Beauty's Dream|year=2003|publisher=Golden Apple|first2=Malcolm |last2=Singer}} In 2004, Perfect Pitch, another Toczek-Singer cantata, this time based on Toczek's football poems, was performed at The Barbican in London. A further collaboration, this time a political opera entitled The Jailer's Tale, was premiered at The Arts Depot, also in London, in February 2010.

Toczek has produced weekly shows for Bradford Community Broadcasting since it was founded in the mid-1980s His current show, InTOCZEKated, has been running since 1991.[http://www.bcbradio.co.uk/sunday.php BCB radio]

The 1997 poetry anthology The Spirit of Bradford, which Toczek co-edited with David Tipton, won a Raymond Williams Community Publishing Award. A short programme on writing poetry which he made in 2000 for the Channel 4 Education series, Just Write, was BAFTA-nominated. In 2002/3, his poem "Responsibilities" featured in an award-winning TV advert. In 2004/5, he was employed as a consultant and contributor on BBC TV's new digital curriculum for schools.

Since 2004, he has also worked regularly as a professional magician. He says: "It's another of those things that I started as a hobby and it just escalated."

Toczek has been writing lyrics and recording his songs with a wide variety of musicians since the mid-1970s, releasing album and EPs, and contributing to compilation albums. He co-wrote the lyrics (with Pete Doherty) of the popular Babyshambles song "Baddie's Boogie".

His first full-length political book, "Haiters, Baiters and Would-Be Dictators: Anti-Semitism and the UK Far-Right", was published by Routledge at the end of 2015. He is currently working on the follow-up, "Farage Faces Foreigners", covering the history of British Euro-scepticism, Islamophobia and wider xenophobia.

Toczek has released two albums with German musician Thies Marsen. Their collaboration began in 2012 when Marsen used the vocals from a Toczek spoken word track on his own composition. Toczek gave permission for Marsen to use more of his vocals to be used this way and this led to the release of The Bavariations EP in 2012. More tracks were added to make a full album, The Bavariations Album, released on CD in 2019. A follow-up album, Death & Other Destinations: the Second Bavariations Album, was recorded by Marsen using Toczek's pre-recorded vocals and released as a vinyl LP in 2021.{{Citation |title=Nick Toczek & Thies Marsen - Death & Other Destinations. The Second Bavariations Album |url=https://www.discogs.com/release/19699771-Nick-Toczek-Thies-Marsen-Death-Other-Destinations-The-Second-Bavariations-Album |language=en |access-date=2022-03-27}}

In 2019, Toczek began collaborating with Matt Webster, former drummer with many bands on the Bradford punk and indie scene of the 80s and 90s, including Western Dance, Primate, Grim and Zed. Webster had begun recording and releasing material under the name Signia Alpha in 2018. In 2019, the pair started recording the album Shooting the Messenger, released on CD and vinyl in 2020. Although Webster plays drums, guitar, bass on keyboards on the album, a number of guest musicians augmented the line-up of Signia Alpha. These included jazz saxophonist Keith Jafrate, flautist Chris Walsh, bassist Mark Cranmer and guitarists Jack Atkinson, Stephen Andrews and Emmanuel Williams. Bassist Jonny Botterell and rapper Dee Bo General appeared on one track apiece. All are veterans of the Bradford music scene. The album was a mix of indie, jazz and funk grooves with Nick Toczek’s surreal poems and stories over the top.

A second album by Nick Toczek and Signia Alpha followed in 2021. Walking the Tightrope featured many of the same musicians alongside Webster and Toczek with the addition of guitarists Wulf Ingham and Simon Nolan (formally vocalist with anarcho punks Anti System). The album again had jazz and funk elements but was rockier in feel and included a guest appearance by The Damned’s Paul Gray, who played bass on the track “Best Wishes”.{{Cite journal |last=Tomkins |first=Peter |date=July–August 2021 |title=Insight |url=http://www.rock-n-reel.co.uk/back.html |pages=69}}

Toczek and Webster recorded their third album in 2021. Due to the restrictions imposed by the Covid-19 epidemic, most of the other musicians recorded their parts remotely. The Columbus Memoirs was released on vinyl and CD in 2022. Again, Matt Webster played many of the instruments with contributions from most of the musicians featured on the first two albums, including Paul Gray, who played bass on four of the ten tracks. A new addition to the line-up was Bradford singer-songwriter Harris, who added guitar and vocals to several tracks. The album is a mix of genres. The tracks that feature Paul Gray on bass are generally post-punk influenced, while the seven-minute title track is a Frank Zappa influenced improvised jazz piece based around Toczek’s surreal retelling of the history of the USA.{{Cite book |last=TOCZEK |first=NICK. WEBSTER, MATT |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1303559204 |title=COLUMBUS MEMOIRS AND OTHER TALES. |date=2022 |publisher=MUTINY 2000 PUBLICATIONS |isbn=978-0-9926755-5-4 |location=[S.l.] |oclc=1303559204}}

The first single from the album, Dignity, is a blues-rock track highlighting the plight of refugees and displaced people. Toczek’s own father and uncle were refugees who came to England during World War II, a story told in the short film Tvins.{{Cite web |title=Brothers were imprisoned in Bradford - for being German |url=https://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/19216478.new-film-real-life-story-twin-brothers-fled-nazis/ |access-date=2022-03-27 |website=Bradford Telegraph and Argus |language=en}}

• {{cite book|last=Toczek|first=Nick|title=Because the Evenings|year=1972|publisher=Aquila Publishing Company|isbn=0-903226-07-3}} – early poems.
• {{cite book|last=Toczek|first=Nick|title=The Book of Numbers|year=1973|publisher=Aquila Publishing Company|isbn=0-903226-56-1 |id=(paperback)}} – poems and short prose pieces.
• {{cite book|last=Toczek|first=Nick|title=Evensong|year=1974|publisher=Sceptre Press}} – single poem.
• {{cite book|first=Nick|last=Toczek|title=Malignant Humour|year=1975|publisher=Aquila Publishing Company|isbn=0-903226-41-3}} – short humorous punning poems.
• {{cite book|last=Toczek|first=Nick|title=God Shave the Queen|year=1975|publisher=Aquila Publishing Company|isbn=0-7275-0140-2}} – short humorous punning poems.
• {{cite book|last=Toczek|first=Nick|title=The Credible Adventures of Nick Toczek|year=1979|publisher=Kawabata Press|isbn=0-906110-16-5}} – short fictionalised prose pieces.
• {{cite book|last=Toczek|first=Nick|title=Complete Strangers Tell You Nothing|year=1979|publisher=Xenia Press|isbn=0-905761-01-4}} – single poem, illustrated.
• {{cite book|last=Toczek|first=Nick|title=Acts of Violence|year=1979|publisher=Waygoose Press|isbn=0-950663-50-6}} – short fiction / bizarre tales.
• {{cite book|last=Toczek|first=Nick|title=Lies|year=1979|publisher=Rivelin Press|isbn=0-904524-18-3}} – poems.
• {{cite book|last=Toczek|first=Nick|title=Rock'n'Roll Terrorism|year=1981|publisher=Aquila Publishing Company|isbn=0-7275-0205-0}} – performance poems, lyrics and short prose pieces.
• {{cite book|last=Toczek|first=Nick|title=Fish Fox Peaches & Pig|year=1987|publisher=Purple Heather Press|isbn=0-950834-15-7}} – experimental poems and prose.
• {{cite book|last=Toczek|first=Nick|title=The Private Crimes of Nick Toczek|year=1989|publisher=Amazing Colossal Press}} – short pieces of quirky fiction.
• {{cite book|last=Toczek|first=Nick|title=The Meat Boutique|year=1991|publisher=PB Publications|isbn=0-951756-30-3}} – political lyrics and performance poetry.
• {{cite book |last=Toczek |first=Nick |title=Slaphead Wrote Some Poems |year=1995|publisher=Hybrid Press |isbn=1-873412-60-6}} – poems for adults and teenagers.
• {{cite book|last=Toczek|first=Nick|title=The Wreckage|year=1998|publisher=Redbeck Press|isbn=0-946980-53-5}} – poems.
• {{cite book|last=Toczek|first=Nick|title=Voices in My Head|year=2020|publisher=Caboodle Books|isbn=978-1-9997749-5-0}} – poems.
• {{cite book |last=Toczek |first=Nick |title=Corona Diary |year=2020 |publisher=Mutiny 2000 Publications |isbn=9-780992-675530}} – first of 3 collections about the pandemic.
• {{cite book |last1=Toczek |first1=Nick |last2=Webster |first2=Matt |title=The Columbus Memoirs and Other Tales |year=2022 |publisher=Mutiny 2000 Publications |isbn=978-0-9926755-5-4}} – The collected lyrics of Nick Toczek and Signia Alpha.
• {{cite book |last=Toczek |first=Nick |title=The Year The World Stood Still |year=2022 |publisher=Mutiny 2000 Publications |isbn=978-0-9926755-4-7}} – The second of 3 collections about the pandemic.

• {{cite book |last=Toczek |first=Nick |title=Dragons |year=1995|publisher=Macmillan Children's Books |isbn=0-330-34829-9}} – dragon poems.
• {{cite book|last=Toczek|first=Nick|title=Dragons Everywhere|year=1997|publisher=Macmillan Children's Books|isbn=0-330-36792-7}} – more dragon poems.
• {{cite book|last=Toczek|first=Nick|title=Never Stare at a Grizzly Bear|year=2000|publisher=Macmillan Children's Books|isbn=978-0-330-39121-4}} – animal poems.
• {{cite book|last=Toczek|first=Nick|title=The Dragon Who Ate Our School|year=2000|publisher=Macmillan Children's Books|isbn=0-330-34829-9}} – dragon poems (originally published as Dragons)
• {{cite book|last=Toczek|first=Nick|title=Can Anyone Be As Gloomy As Me?|year=2000|publisher=Hodder Wayland|isbn=0-7502-2793-1}} (re-published 2005) – poems for young readers, about feeling sad. (Poemotions)
• {{cite book|last1=Toczek|first1=Nick|title=Number Parade|year=2002|publisher=LDA|isbn=1-85503-343-7|first2=Michael |last2=Rosen|first3= Jackie |last3=Kay|first4= John|last4= Agard|first5= Grace |last5=Nichols}} – poems about numbers 0–100 (21 by Nick, 20 each by Michael Rosen, Jackie Kay, John Agard and Grace Nichols).
• {{cite book|last=Toczek|first=Nick|title=Kick It!|year=2002|publisher=Macmillan Children's Books|isbn=0-330-39920-9}} – football poems.
• {{cite book|last=Toczek|first=Nick|title=Sleeping Beauty's Dream|year=2003|publisher=Golden Apple}} – pantomime: 2 books (script + songbook) + CD.
• {{cite book|last=Toczek|first=Nick|title=Dragons!|year=2005|publisher=Macmillan Children's Books|isbn=0-330-43744-5}} – collected dragon poems (past 2 books + new collection).
• {{cite book|last1=Toczek|first1=Nick|title=Dragons! The Musical|year=2005|publisher=Golden Apple|isbn=978-1-84449-480-4|first2=Malcolm |last2=Singer}} – musical: 2 books (script + songbook) + CD. Nick Toczek and Malcolm Singer.
• {{cite book |last1=Toczek |first1=Nick |title=Dragons! The Musical: Teachers Book |year=2005 |publisher=Omnibus Press Wise Publications |isbn=9781844494811 |first2=Malcolm |last2=Singer}}
• {{cite book|last=Toczek|first=Nick|title=Me and My Poems|year=2008|publisher=Caboodle Books|isbn=978-0-955971-10-5}} – assorted poems for children (and adults).
• {{cite book|last=Toczek|first=Nick|title=Hogs'n'Dogs'n'Slugs'n'Bugs|year=2009|publisher=Caboodle Books|isbn=978-0-955971-11-2}} – creature poems.
• {{cite book|last=Toczek|first=Nick|title=Cats'n'Bats'n'Slugs'n'Bugs|year=2009|publisher=Caboodle Books|isbn=978-0-956265-65-4}} – (above book re-titled) collected creature poems.
• {{cite book|last=Toczek|first=Nick|title=Number, Number, Cut A Cucumber|year=2009|publisher=Caboodle Books|isbn=978-0-956265-64-7}} – poems for younger children.
• {{cite book|last=Toczek|first=Nick|title=Dragons Are Back|year=2016|publisher=Caboodle Books|isbn=978-0-956265-64-7}} – selected dragon poems.

• {{cite book|last=Toczek|first=Nick|title=Autobiography of a Friend|year=1975|publisher=Aquila Publishing Company|isbn=0-903226-66-9}} – novella.
• {{cite book|last=Toczek|first=Nick|title=Group of Heroes|year=2004|publisher=Skrev Press|isbn=9781904646105}} – novella.

• {{cite book|last1=Toczek|first1=Nick|first2=Tim |last2=Lambert|first3= Leslie|last3= Partridge|title=Rockbiz|year=1988|publisher=The Open College |isbn=0-7482-0500-4}} – popular music syllabus.
• {{cite book|last=Toczek|first=Nick|title=The Bigger Tory Vote – The Covert Sequestration of the Bigotry Vote|year=1991|publisher=AK Press|isbn=1-873176-20-1}} – investigative research into far-right of UK Conservative Party.
• {{cite book|last1=Toczek|first1=Nick|title=The Life of Bierley|year=1995|publisher=Yorkshire Arts Circus|isbn=1-898311-17-X|first2=Alex|last2= Krysinski}} – portrait of a Bradford 'problem' estate (with Alex Krysinski).
• {{cite book|last=Toczek|first=Nick|title=Haters, Baiters and Would-Be Dictators - Anti-Semitism and the UK Far-Right|year=2016|publisher=Routledge|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p61ACwAAQBAJ|isbn=978-1-138-85350-8}}

• {{cite book|last1=Toczek|first1=Nick|title=Midland Read: An Omnibus of Local Poetry|year=1972|publisher=Aquila Publishing Company |first2=Maralyn |last2=Heathcock|first3= Paul |last3=Humphries|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iF3RRwAACAAJ |oclc=122688431}} – An Omnibus of Poetry (with Maralyn Heathcock and Paul Humphries).
• {{cite book|last1=Toczek|first1=Nick|title=Melanthika|year=1977|publisher=L.W.M Publications|isbn=0-905393-00-7|first2=Yann |last2=Lovelock|first3= Phil |last3=Nanton|editor1-first=Nick |editor1-last=Toczek|editor2-first= Yann |editor2-last=Lovelock|editor3-first= Phil |editor3-last=Nanton}} – the Uk's first collection of pan-Caribbean writing (with Yann Lovelock & Philip Nanton).
• {{cite book|last1=Toczek|first1=Nick|title=The Spirit of Bradford|year=1997|publisher=Redbeck Press|isbn=0-946980-39-X|first2=David |last2=Tipton|editor-first=Nick |editor-last=Toczek |editor2-first= David |editor2-last=Tipton}} – poems about living in Bradford (with David Tipton).

• {{cite book|last=Toczek|first=Nick|title=Join In, Or Else.....!|year=2000|publisher=Macmillan Children's Books|isbn=0-330-48263-7}} – participatory poems.
• {{cite book|last=Toczek|first=Nick|title=Toothpaste Trouble|year=2002|publisher=Macmillan Children's Books|isbn=0-330-39753-2}} – poems for younger readers: Poems from Breakfast to Bedtime.
• {{cite book|last1=Toczek|first1=Nick|title=The Dog Ate My Bus Pass|year=2004|publisher=Macmillan Children's Books|isbn=0-330-41800-9|first2=Andrew Fusek|last2= Peters}} – poems that are excuses (with Andrew Fusek Peters).
• {{cite book|last1=Toczek|first1=Nick|title=Read Me Out Loud!|year=2007|publisher=Macmillan Children's Books|isbn=978-0-330-44621-1|first2=Paul |last2=Cookson|first3=Paul |last3=Cookson}} – poems for performing – A Poem To Rap, Chant, Whisper Or Shout For Every Day of the Year (with Paul Cookson).

• Y'Gotta Shout/Another Lover (Motive Music – MMR001, 1979) – 7" single of 2 songs by Ulterior Motives.{{Cite web |title=Band Index {{!}} Bradford's Noise Of The Valleys {{!}} Bradford |url=https://www.bradfordnoise.com/band-index |access-date=2022-03-25 |website=bradfordnoise |language=en}}
• The Britanarchist Demo Tape (Bluurg Tapes – No. 29, 1983) – Cassette of performance poems + 3 songs by Toczek with To Be Continued.
• Ulterior Motives Demo Tape (Bluurg Tapes – No. 49, 1985) – Cassette of performance poems and short stories.
• More to Hate... ...Than Meets The Eye (Martyrhate Records – ACR 001, 1986) – 12" EP of 4 songs by Toczek, 2 with The Burial, 2 with Spectre.{{cite web|url=http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/leisure/tamusic/urbanmusic/urbanfeatures/727392.print/ |title=Brothers are still keeping it real (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus) |publisher=Thetelegraphandargus.co.uk |date=7 April 2006 |accessdate=5 June 2012}}
• Bloodsucker (Other Records – OTH 5, 1986) – Compilation 7" single with 1 performance poem.
• The Intolerance Tape (Bluurg Tapes – No. 69, 1986) – Compilation cassette of 11 performance poems.
• InTOCZEKated (Bluurg Records – FISH 19, 1987) – 12" LP of 11 songs by Toczek with various bands.{{Citation |title=Nick Toczek - Intoczekated |url=https://www.discogs.com/release/835297-Nick-Toczek-Intoczekated |language=en |access-date=2022-03-26}}
• God Save Us From The U.S.A. (Happy Mike Records – KTLP001, 1987) Compilation LP includes 2 performance poems.
• The CIA Tape: Live Toronto 87 (Bluurg Tapes – #76, 1987) – Live compilation cassette of performance poems.
• The Meat Boutique (Acrimony Tapes, 1988) – Cassette of performance poems.
• Selfish Men (Not-a-Rioty, 2004) – CD (with booklet) of performance poems.
• Totally InTOCZEKated (Mutiny 2000 Records, 2007) – 25-track CD (with lyric booklet) of songs by Toczek with various bands.{{Citation |title=Nick Toczek - Totally Intoczekated |url=https://www.discogs.com/release/8731291-Nick-Toczek-Totally-Intoczekated |language=en |access-date=2022-03-25}}
• Britanarchy (Not-a-Rioty, 2011) – 5 track CD EP (with lyric booklet) of songs by Toczek with Threshold Shift.
• Motormouth (Sound Shack, 2012) - 46 track 3-CD albums of spoken-word poetry.
• Motormouth (Not-a-Rioty, 2018) - 46 track 2-CD albums re-release of above.
• Dealing with the Darkness (Mutiny 2000 Records, 2018) - 49 track 2-CD albums of spoken-word poetry.

• Bavariations (Sound Shack, 2012) - 3 track CD EP
• "Sea Shanty" (2019)
• The Bavariations Album (Not-a-Rioty, 2019) - 12 track CD album.{{Citation |title=Nick Toczek, Thies Marsen - The Bavariations Album |url=https://www.discogs.com/release/14758743-Nick-Toczek-Thies-Marsen-The-Bavariations-Album |language=en |access-date=2022-03-25}}
• "Cars in Cairo" (2021)
• Death & Other Variations: The Second Bavariations Album (Not-a-Rioty, 2020) - 12 track vinyl LP.{{Citation |title=Nick Toczek & Thies Marsen - Death & Other Destinations. The Second Bavariations Album |url=https://www.discogs.com/release/19699771-Nick-Toczek-Thies-Marsen-Death-Other-Destinations-The-Second-Bavariations-Album |language=en |access-date=2022-03-25}}

• The Voices in His Head (2019)
• Shooting the Messenger (Mutiny 2000 Records, 2020) - 17 track CD album, 10 track vinyl LP.{{Citation |title=Nick Toczek, Signia Alpha - Shooting The Messenger |url=https://www.discogs.com/master/2546141-Nick-Toczek-Signia-Alpha-Shooting-The-Messenger |language=en |access-date=2022-03-25}}
• "Coming to Get You Next" (2020)
• "When We Men Talk" featuring Dee Bo General (2020)
• "No Messages" (2020)
• "This City Eats" (2020)
• "The Movie" (2020)
• Walking the Tightrope (Mutiny 2000 Records, 2021) - 11 track vinyl LP.{{Citation |title=Nick Toczek, Signia Alpha - Walking The Tightrope |url=https://www.discogs.com/release/17631277-Nick-Toczek-Signia-Alpha-Walking-The-Tightrope |language=en |access-date=2022-03-25}}
• "Cannibals of the Western World" (2021)
• Un-Herd Volume 88 (2021) compilation CD featuring the track Cannibals of the Western World{{Citation |title=Various - Un-Herd Volume 88 |url=https://www.discogs.com/release/19500535-Various-Un-Herd-Volume-88 |language=en |access-date=2022-03-26}}
• "Best Wishes" (2021)
• "Dignity" (2022)
• The Columbus Memoirs (Mutiny 2000 Records, 2022) - 10 track vinyl LP.

• Let Music Live (Surrey Youth Music & Performing Arts, 1999) – CD: Dragons Cantata (live at Royal Albert Hall).
• Dragons & Gladiators (Bexley Centre for Music & Dance, 1999) – CD: Dragons Cantata (live at Royal Festival Hall).

During the 1980s, Toczek wrote for the short-lived music weekly, Musicians Only, an offshoot of Melody Maker, for which Nick wrote regular articles and reviews starting in the 28 June 1980 issue,{{cite journal|last=Toczek|first=Nick|journal=Musicians Only|date=June 1980|pages=8|issn=0143-6937}} finishing with the final issue,{{cite journal|last=Toczek|first=Nick|journal=Musicians Only|date=20 December 1980|issue=Final|pages=9|issn=0143-6937}} before becoming a features writer on the seminal Edinburgh-based pop culture monthly, Cut.{{cite journal|last=Toczek|first=Nick|journal=CUT|date=June 1987|pages=28|issn=0951-5127}} for which Nick wrote features and reviews for more than two years... his first piece{{cite journal|last=Toczek|first=Nick|journal=CUT|date=June 1987|pages=28|issn=0951-5127}} (a feature) was in the June 1987 issue, his final piece (a review){{cite journal|last=Toczek|first=Nick|journal=CUT|date=July 1989|pages=57|issn=0951-5127}} was in the July 1989 issue. Throughout the 1980s he also wrote on literature and the arts for the monthly journal of the Yorkshire Arts Association.{{cite journal|last=Toczek|first=Nick|title=Another Stick of Yorkshire Rock|journal=The Month in Yorkshire|year=1980|pages=11|publisher=Yorkshire Arts Association}} The Month in Yorkshire featured Nick's music column, Another Stick of Yorkshire Rock, starting in the October 1980 issue, and continuing until the final Summer 1981 issue.{{cite journal|last=Toczek|first=Nick|title=Another Stick of Yorkshire Rock|journal=The Month in Yorkshire|year=1981|publisher=Yorkshire Arts Association|issn=0264-7699}} From October 1981 it was replaced by The Month in Yorkshire, which continued to carry Nick's music column, from its first issue,{{cite journal|last=Toczek|first=Nick|journal=The Month in Yorkshire|date=October 1981|pages=6|publisher=Yorkshire Arts Association}} until the April 1982 issue,{{cite journal|last=Toczek|first=Nick|journal=The Month in Yorkshire|date=April 1982|pages=12|publisher=Yorkshire Arts Association}} after which it became The Outer Limits of The Arts (from May 1982 issue),{{cite journal|last=Toczek|first=Nick|journal=The Outer Limits of the Arts|date=May 1982|pages=12|publisher=Yorkshire Arts Association}} until May 1983.{{cite journal|last=Toczek|first=Nick|journal=The Outer Limits of the Arts|date=May 1983|pages=3|publisher=Yorkshire Arts Association}} Thereafter, Nick wrote occasional features for the journal until its demise in 1986. Also, from the March 1984 issue,{{cite journal|last=Toczek|first=Nick|journal=The Outer Limits of the Arts|date=March 1984|pages=19|publisher=Yorkshire Arts Association}} he wrote a new column, Toczek's Rockcheck, which ran for several months, and had his own column in the weekly Bradford Star for more than two years... his first column was in issue 7,{{cite journal|last=Toczek|first=Nick|journal=Bradford Star|date=19 March 1981|issue=7|pages=14}} 19 March 1981, his final column was in issue 113, 1983.{{cite journal|last=Toczek|first=Nick|journal=Bradford Star|date=14 April 1983|issue=113|pages=6}} He also wrote many features for the paper including a series of pieces on his experience of adventure sports.

Since the early 1980s, he has been collecting an archive of far-right and racist literature, especially from Britain and America. His 1991 book, The Bigger Tory Vote{{cite book|last=Toczek|first=Nick|title=The Bigger Tory Vote|year=1991|publisher=AK Press|isbn=1-873176-20-1}} details racist activity in the UK. In the immediate aftermath of the April 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, he wrote lengthy features for The Guardian, The Independent,{{cite journal|last=Toczek|first=Nick|title=Make believe world inspires UAS terror|journal=The Independent on Sunday|date=6 August 1995|pages=17}}{{cite journal|last=Toczek|first=Nick|title=Over taxed and under siege|journal=The Independent on Monday|date=24 April 1995|pages=13}} Pagina (Argentina),{{cite journal|last=Toczek|first=Nick|title=Patriotas y milicias (Patriots and militias)|journal=Pagina|date=30 April 1995|pages=20–21}} The South China News (Hong Kong){{cite journal|last=Toczek|first=Nick|title=The fantasies of the far right|journal=The South China Morning Post (Hong Kong)|date=18 August 1995|pages=17}} and Rheinisher Merkur (Germany).{{cite journal|last=Toczek|first=Nick|title=Eine ganz und gar amerikanische Tat|journal=Rheinisher Merkur|date=April 1995}} He has since been employed as a researcher by most UK newspapers and has appeared in this capacity on numerous UK TV and radio programmes.

In 2006, he returned to rock journalism as a features writer for the Bradford-based northern fanzine, Mono.{{cite journal|last=Toczek|first=Nick|journal=Mono|date=2006–2008}} The journal, which folded 2 years later, listed him as its Guru. Since 2008 he has been a columnist, reviewer and features writer with the bi-monthly music journal, R'n’R (formerly R2{{cite journal|journal=R2|date=2008–2012|issn=0964-3257}} and before that called Rock'n’Reel). Having written his first piece, a feature on bluesman Stephen Dale Petit, in the July/August 2008 issue, he's since written hundreds of pieces.

{{BLP unsourced section|date=August 2011}}

In September 1986, Toczek began work as a part-time degree course lecturer in the English Department at Bretton Hall College in Wakefield. In all, he was there for eleven years during which time he developed and tutored first, second- and third-year courses in a wide variety of subjects including the short story, creative writing, film studies, post modernism, global image, aesthetics, and modernism. He also gave annual lectures in the Music Department on racism in popular music and on working independently in the music business. In May 1995, he launched the Northern School of Writing at Bretton Hall, offering a range of short-term accredited adult learning courses to the general public. These included becoming a professional writer. storytelling, journalism, stand-up comedy, investigative journalism, and writing for TV and radio, each of which he tutored or co-tutored. After he finished working at Bretton Hall in 1997, he continued to run Northern School of Writing courses independently for a couple of years. He says of this work: "We had young kids and I needed the money, but it was also a chance to self-educate in a wide variety of disciplines. All of it was every bit as steep a learning curve for me as it was for my students."

Throughout his career as a full-time writer and performer Toczek has at various times run writers’ groups, held writing residencies, tutored residential courses, presented adult education courses and has frequently been a guest writer in colleges and universities. He has also done one-day visits to schools, thousands of them in the UK as well as having done frequent schools tours around the world. Since 2008, he has worked in half a dozen countries a year via Caboodle Books and Authors Abroad. As a writer-in-schools overseas he has worked in Germany, Canada, Ireland, The Netherlands, USA, China, France, Indonesia (Borneo, Sumatra and Bali), Egypt, Kuwait, Cyprus, Italy, Malaysia, Singapore, Spain, Qatar, Russia, Thailand, Azerbaijan, Vietnam, Jordan, Switzerland, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Brazil, Sarawak, Cambodia, Malawi, Hong Kong, Norway, Java, Brunai, Oman, Sharjah, Myanmar, Saudi Arabia, Kazakhstan, South Korea, Zambia and India.

Since September 2014, he's been resident poet-tutor at Appleton Academy in Bradford, working for First Story, and has edited the following collections of work by his students, all of them published by First Story:

• Red Roses Die First (2015) - {{ISBN|978-0-85748-182-5}}
• My Head is a Universe (2016) - {{ISBN|978-0-85748-223-5}}
• Tide In, Tide Out (2017) - {{ISBN|978-0-85748-238-9}}

and a CD of some of the pupils reading a selection from the anthology (also called Tide In, Tide Out).

All of the above were with secondary pupils.

In 2017-18 he also worked with a primary group producing:

• Owls Are Always Pink (2018) - {{ISBN|978-0-85748-294-5}}

An anthology of work by secondary pupils will follow in July 2018

"See him if you can. He's brilliant." – from a review by Geoff Mellor of Nick Toczek as stand-up comedian, The Stage (23 May 1991).

"... the most exciting visual performer we have this side of Benjamin Zephaniah" – from a review by Steven Wells of Nick Toczek as performance poet, New Musical Express (4 June 1988, p. 46, {{ISSN|0028-6362}}).

"At his best Toczek is bitter, disturbing, and political. His language gets harder and more effective with each publication" – from a review by Jeff Nuttall of Nick Toczek's two books Acts Of Violence (Wayzgoose Press) and Lies (Redbeck Press) in The Guardian (January 1980).

{{Reflist}}

• https://www.nicktoczek.com/ - Official website
• http://www.myspace.com/nick_toczek - MySpace page
• http://www.bookedup.org.uk/booked-up/choose-your-book/meet-the-authors/96843
• http://www.thejailerstale.co.uk/html/librettist.html

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Toczek, Nick}}

Category:1950 births

Category:Living people

Category:People from Shipley, West Yorkshire

Category:Alumni of the University of Birmingham

Category:English music journalists

Category:People educated at Bradford Grammar School

Category:Writers from Bradford

Category:English male poets

Category:English male non-fiction writers