Author Archives: Paul

Let me tell you this, then I promise I’ll shut up about Spandau Ballet. I was working on a commercial with Gary Kemp and asked him why he didn’t get Spandau Ballet back together again. “I’d love to”, he said, “So would my brother but since the court case, Tony won’t speak to us”. Tony […]

One appearance in one hit movie. When I say “appearance”, you can’t actually see me. I’m one of about 100 choirboys in a David Essex film called “Stardust”. He plays a rock star whose mother’s funeral is a very grand affair, hence a hundred of us bussed out to St Bernard’s Church in Northolt. At […]

Which reminded me of my friend Nick Gill whose childhood was also spent there. He and I grew up at the same time though hundreds of miles apart, obsessed with music albeit with quite different tastes. I’ve always loathed The Smiths and he scorns my love for Spandau Ballet. Yet there are still vast areas […]

I always think of the blue-haired matriarch when I hear Macy Gray but God, I love this record. “I try to say goodbye and I choke. Try to walk away and I stumble”. If Homer Simpson is worthy of such passion and poignancy, surely there’s hope for us all.

Grammy-winning country artist Shelby Lynne is 44 today. And she deserves our recognition for this morose but magnificent track from her album I am Shelby Lynne. Even if she doesn’t sound like the sort of girl who’ll be celebrating with a nice, big party tonight. \

…all examples of “swearing” without actually swearing. For years I thought that, instead of “Dadgummit”, Bill was saying “That guy I met” which, in the context of this song, would make sense. But “dadgummit” is a phrase employed by people who regard “God damn it” as blasphemous and want to express the sentiment without saying […]

It makes sense to convert a dusty old attic into an extra bedroom. We did it. And on a clear day from the top of my house, you can see Canary Wharf. But it’s not a clear day, is it? And the bit they never tell you about sleeping in a loft is that, when […]

Tony Blackburn announced this from the stage and I thought it was a rather sick joke. We were at the Radio London Soul Night Out at the National Ballroom in Kilburn. A bloke was led on to the stage – dark glasses, braids in his hair – and seated down at a keyboard. That’s when […]

A recent report claims that Britons are falling behind the rest of the world in basic numeracy skills and Brian has discovered why. Kids, he says, no longer have dartboards on their bedroom doors and that’s why their maths homework is suffering. Darts, he claims, is the quickest route to arithmetical proficiency – requiring lightning-fast […]

But when I arrived to DJ at this rough old pub just off Latimer Road, I could see that this particular bash had little to do with debutantes or homosexuals. It was a firm of low-rent villains and their molls celebrating “a pal” coming out of prison. Still, it was all going well until about […]