Author Archives: Paul

Controversial view that will be immediately challenged by the “All men are bastards” brigade but it’s based on one undeniable fact. The vast majority of yearning love songs are written by men about women. Many by men whose hearts have been broken by women. Even those sung by women about men were often written to […]

You hear a track, you don’t what it is or who it’s by, so you hold your phone to the speaker and the Shazam app tells you. Shazam is one of the many marvels of the modern world that I cannot begin to understand. As I get older, I expect to be increasingly baffled by […]

And the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. I have nothing to add to the horror and revulsion felt by all civilised people at the Holocaust, the most abhorrent example in history of man’s inhumanity to man. I think it’s important that it’s observed every year so that nothing like it can ever happen […]

It’s a fantastic film and richly deserves its Oscar nomination for Best Picture. JK Simmons has also been nominated for Best Supporting Actor. He is brilliant as the sadistic music teacher and his Oscar Nomination is seen as the pinnacle of his career. But I’d beg to differ. I think that pinnacle was working with […]

I’m not talking about the victory of the anti-auterity Syriza party in the Greek elections yesterday. I don’t know whether this stunning result will turn out to be a triumph or a tragedy for Greece. No, I’m talking about the death, on the same day, of Demis Roussos. His records were terrible, his kaftans even […]

I just don’t get it. The haggis, the neeps, the tatties, addressing the laddies, the lassies and the haggis with the poetry of Robbie Burns – “Auld Scotland wants nae skinkin ware, that jaups in loggias, etc, etc”. Burns night is tonight so many of our Scottish cousins will be performing this solemn ritual. I […]

And this particular round has been very special for underdogs trouncing overdogs. The mighty Manchester City, Premier League champions, were humbled 2-0 at home by Middlesborough. Even more shocking was Chelsea, Premier League leaders, losing 4-2 to lowly Bradford City. And that came after Man Utd were held to a 0-0 draw by even lowlier […]

RIP Kim Fowley, the producer behind this No.1 hit from 1962. Hard to imagine now but back then, the BBC considered banning it. A jaunty version of Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker, it was viewed by some as a disrespectful parody of serious classical music. But then Kim Fowley loved to court controversy. He went on to […]

I’m talking about current closing time at Highgate Wood. Five minutes’ walk from my house, it’s the perfect urban space. It’s got everything – proper woods leading through to a big open field for football and cricket, a wonderful children’s playground where mine spent many happy hours, and a brilliant cafe serving great food and […]

And probably not before time. Future generations will say “Run that past me again. Every day, on the third page of Britain’s best selling newspaper, there was a picture of a busty topless model?” And we’ll be amazed that we ever thought it normal or acceptable. Mind you, Page 3 now seems almost innocent compared […]