ON THE road now and then some — my autobiography tour is in full swing and the vibrancy and sense of hope inspired by the seismic changes in the Labour Party is certainly in evidence at the gigs.

From Soho down to Brighton, to coin a phrase, people have a spring in their step and new hope in their eyes.

And indeed Soho was the most recent gig, a lovely night at the Borderline last Friday where I was joined by loads of old friends. Radical comedian Jeremy Hardy didn’t just eulogise the political shift but loved the fact that his first name is now hip all of a sudden — and more people know how to spell it.

He was joined by brilliant anti-capitalist US singer David Rovics, who has somehow put up with me through 14 tours of Britain, the US and Europe, and my old friend and comrade in ranting verse, RMT activist and radical author Janine Booth.

My band Barnstormer did a few numbers and my greatest friends in punk, Harlow’s legendary Newtown Neurotics, finished things off. The whole thing was DJ’d by my former roadie, BBC Radio 1 and 6 Music legend Steve Lamacq. A truly memorable night.

Before that, I did a week round the Midlands, starting in the Forest of Dean where I quite literally performed at a piss-up in a brewery — the Bespoke Brewery, to be precise — and the next morning accompanied an anarchist freeminer down his local pit. Kind of DIY punk coalmining ­— fascinating and inspiring.

Then on to the 150th anniversary celebrations for Wolverhampton and Bilston TUC, one of the oldest in the country, and yet another piss-up in a brewery at the The Clarendon Hotel, brewery tap for Banks’s brewery next door.

Feeling a bit the worse for wear, I staggered to Walthamstow in the south Midlands — it is geographically when you’re from a Sussex port town — for an evening at the Stow Festival with my old mates Steve White and the Protest Family.

Sold loads more books, drank loads more beer. Then somehow got to Molineux in time to see the table-topping Seagulls drop two points against Wolves and have a jar of anchovies confiscated at the away turnstile (long story).

Then to the Worcester Music Festival. More book sales. More beer. Then the beer and the schedule caught up with me and I asked my hosts for the night, fantastic Worcester punks Skewwhiff, if I could please go to bed. The next day I cycled along the nearby canal for a few miles, drove to Stroud for a lovely gig and then came straight back to Sussex because I was up to London early the next day for a radio interview with Steve Lamacq.

I’ve been doing that kind of thing for 35 years and hope that I’m game for plenty more.

It takes a bit longer to recover these days and now I’m a punk rock step-granddad. Yes, you heard that right. Congrats to my lovely stepdaughter Rose and husband Marcus and welcome to the world Mollie Dorfman, born on Tuesday.

My wife Robina is a very happy first-time granny.

Let’s carry on the fight to make the world a better place — for Mollie, her generation and the generations to come.

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