Author Archives: Paul

And who would begrudge the veteran auteur this rare and prestigious honour? He deserves enormous credit for the organic and original way his films are made. No script, no story, months of workshopping, rehearsal and improvisation. He has never been beholden to big institutions with only commercial and financial interests. Just one problem: most of […]

Fascinating documentary about Genesis on BBC Four. The band was formed by public schoolboys Peter Gabriel, Mike Rutherford and Tony Banks while they were all at Charterhouse. But it was only when drummer Phil Collins joined in 1970 that they had any degree of success. When Gabriel left and Collins took over as frontman, Genesis […]

I don’t really like, understand or follow rugby but even I know that England scored a famous victory over Wales last night in the opening game of the Six Nations. Wales once dominated British rugby because all the Welsh pit villages and collieries had very strong teams. Young players would come through those ranks and […]

It’s the original cover of Bob Marley & The Wailers’ Catch a Fire. It looks like a Zippo lighter and, hinged and riveted, it opens like one too. Only the very early copies had this cover and I bought it with a record token I’d received for my birthday. I only bought the record for […]

We all know what he’s been found guilty of and the verdict came as no surprise. Because of the vile nature of his crimes, his records are no longer played on the radio and he himself has been airbrushed out of pop history. So it’s easy to forget what a huge star he was. Gary […]

When I was about six, I had to pick a football team. And round our way, nobody knew more about football than my friend Micky Farmer and his brother Mark. Mick remains Arsenal’s most avid fan but Mark was equally devoted to QPR. Mark was older and wiser. QPR had Rodney Marsh and were (just […]

Playing Christmas songs at any time of year other than the first 25 days of December is one of life’s great taboos. On a par with incest or wearing Crimplene slacks. But this song, though always associated with Christmas, is simply about snow. And since there was a light dusting of snow across North London […]

I’m talking about Don Covay who passed away on Friday. You may not have heard of him but Mick certainly had. If you ever wondered how a middle-class white boy from Kent ended up sounding like a black American from South Carolina, just listen to this. Don Covay was not a big star but was […]

Brilliant and truly original book about a boy with Asperger’s Syndrome which I never thought would adapt to the stage. But I went to see it with my daughter last night and it’s magnificent – faultless in every detail. Every detail except one. Two of the characters live in Willesden. They talk about Chapter Road […]

This is mine. With three older sisters and a pop-mad babysitter called Pam who came round every Thursday, I was into The Beatles and The Stones when the other kids at infant school were still watching Sooty & Sweep. Only Eugene O’Hara shared my precocious obsession and we had to wait years for the rest […]