Author Archives: Paul

Britain goes to the polls today to vote on whether to leave or remain in the EU. Unlike General Elections where the old maxim “Doesn’t matter who you vote for, you still get the government” tends to prevail, this is a stark and simple choice between two very different futures. Every vote matter and I’ve […]

Three houses stand empty on my street while extensive renovation work is carried out. The owners of two are digging down into the basements. And once the basements arrive, you know that serious gentrification has too. I think my house now earns more than I do and I’m still not sure whether to be proud […]

My 21 year old son is away at the moment, but he left me a Father’s Day card and gift in a Jiffy bag that said “Not to be opened until Sunday”. And it wasn’t. Even a few years ago, this would have been impossible. I’d have opened it – or impelled by childish curiosity […]

Happy Birthday to Sir Paul McCartney, 74 today. Yes, his voice has gone, he should really give up the live performing, his hair is strange shade of mauve and, for perhaps the greatest star the pop world has ever produced, he’s still irritatingly down-to-earth and faux-ordinary. But as a bone fide musical genius, he’s still […]

A free copy of the NME was thrust into my hand today. This tacky little freesheet was once the greatest music paper in the land. Its writers included Tony Parsons, Julie Burchill and Danny Baker. I was a great fan of Baker’s singles reviews. Years later I became a fan of his radio show, got […]

I was in Soho yesterday evening as the crowds converged on Old Compton Street to commemorate the 49 people shot dead by a crazed gunman at a gay nightclub in Florida. My friend Tom said come along but I’m not gay and somehow felt I hadn’t earned the right to be there. I never had […]

Not the European Union but Euro 2016. See what I did there? Oldest trick in the copywriter’s book. Let your headline suggest you’re talking about one thing, before revealing that you’re talking about something else. We should have beaten Russia 3-0 last night, we were by far the better side. But by conceding a goal […]

Congratulations to Rod Stewart, whose knighthood was announced this morning in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List. I’ve been a fan for as long as I can remember. He is, and always has been a brilliant performer and a gifted though sometimes underrated songwriter. In the late 1970s, he became an object of derision for the […]

Not that it’s obscure. Pin Ups topped the UK album charts in 1973. That iconic sleeve featuring Bowie and Twiggy has not been forgotten but its contents largely have. Maybe because it was a rather pointless collection of 60s covers, not that different from the originals. They seemed like “oldies” at the time even though […]

Remember the great Millennium Bug scare of 1999? As the clock struck midnight on New Year’s Eve, we were told, a virus known as the Y2K bug would cause untold damage all the computers on the planet and global catastrophe would ensue. Billions of pounds were spent to combat this Armageddon but in the event, […]