End of an era as Tom Aylott leaves Punktastic, new Editor Ben Tipple starts today

By James Brown

Sad news today from all of us at Punktastic HQ, as after half a decade of working with us, Tom Aylott is stepping down as Editor and leaving Punktastic to work on new projects.

Ben Tipple, a staff writer for many years and more recently the manager of our brilliant Radar section, starts as Editor today. Everything is continuing as you’d expect, and over the coming weeks and months we’re going to be working as a team to figure out what’s next. You can contact Ben at ben@punktastic.com.

Without Tom, Punktastic definitely wouldn’t be where it is today. We all know him as a huge presence on the site and in the industry, where he has worked relentlessly to improve what we do and push the scene forward.

Under Tom’s leadership, Punktastic has gone from being an infamous blog to a ubiquitous mouthpiece of the UK punk scene, with guest spots Radio 1 (delivering first radio plays to numerous DIY bands), sponsoring and filming festival stages, becoming an established promoter in London and Cardiff and recently launching in the US. Today we’re also publishing a little goodbye note from Tom, too.

So if you see Tom at a show, buy him a beer and give him a bear hug from us. Tom, a huge thank you from all of us! Massive good luck in the future.

– From all of us at Punktastic x