Author Archives: Paul

I went to see my daughter playing Pamina in The Magic Flute last night and I could hardly have been prouder. The music, the costumes, the whole production was stupendous. Except for one thing: the boy sopranos. They were excellent too but somehow that made it worse. Choirboys and angel-voiced boy sopranos have always creeped […]

Keyboard virtuoso and one third of Emerson Lake & Palmer. Theirs was never my sort of music but in the early 70s, ELP were one of biggest bands in the world. I don’t own a copy of Trilogy, Tarkus or Brian Salad Surgery because Prog Rock is like a language I can neither speak nor […]

The great man died today, aged 90 and tributes have been paid to the “Fifth Beatle” who produced all their records, developed their work and was therefore one of the greatest cultural influences the world has ever known. But it wasn’t just The Beatles. Throughout his long career, he continued to produce other hits too. […]

Mark Goodier was never anyone’s favourite DJ. Bland, cheesy and devoid of personality, he was always too unremarkable to either like or dislike. But I think that may have changed. As we know, Tony Blackburn was sacked from Pick of The Pops on Radio 2 for standing up to the BBC in relation to the […]

….was Hugh Williams. I met him many years ago because I was going out with a properly posh girl called Lucy. She was born with a ready-made group of Sloaney chums and Hugh was one of them. Most of the other chaps worked in the City so he was regarded as a bit of an […]

We were recording a campaign of radio commercials and this man was the client. He had a reputation as a bully who always wanted his own way. Having agreed everything, he’d apparently then change his mind once the work was finished and refuse to sign it off. But somehow we got talking about Guilty Pleasures, […]

Author and academic. Born 29th February 1948. This makes her part of the luckiest generation ever – those born in the 1940s. They really did have it all. Unlike their parents and grandparents, they hadn’t had to fight in a war, and National Service was abolished just before they were called up. They are the […]

The 88th Academy Awards Ceremony takes place tonight, slightly marred by a row over a lack of black nominees. Spike Lee is one film maker who’s boycotting the ceremony, accusing the Academy of racism. So are these accusations justified? Personally, I don’t think so. Once you let someone’s race have any bearing on whether or […]

To Cadogan Hall with my daughter to see David Sedaris. Very funny man but “humourist” is the only word to describe him. He’s not a stand-up comedian. On the contrary, he sits down and simply reads autobiographical stories and anecdotes. They’re funny, sad, wise and true. Just like real life. I’ve been a big fan […]

It was a few years ago. I was meeting my old friend Bill Overton and he turned up with Tony Blackburn, who struck me as a thoroughly decent and honest man. Almost too honest. In the 1970s, he famously begged his wife, on air, not to leave him. And told striking miners to go back […]