Author Archives: Paul

But not for long. I was asleep again by 3.04 and it was with my ability to do this that I made a rod for my own back. When my children were babies and woke in the night, it was always me who’d feed and change them. My wife insisted I was “lucky” because I […]

So I’m genuinely sad about the sudden death of Bob Crow. But I’d be a hypocrite if I pretended I didn’t loathe him. I detested the misery he inflicted on the lives and livelihoods of innocent people by regularly calling tube strikes. There’s nothing socialist about deliberately hurting other workers, who rely on public transport, […]

I was working with a researcher the other night. We were in a house in South London, asking people about steamed vegetables. Not surprisingly, the conversation soon turned to other things including this track. “I’ve got it”, I boasted, “On 12″ pink vinyl”. But the researcher, who really knew his music, trumped that with “Ah, […]

Unseasonally beautiful weather in March. Warm sunshine and clear blue skies that kid us into believing that this is how it’ll be until September. It won’t be, of course, so even more reason to enjoy it. Especially on a Sunday. So unless you’re a priest or you play for Manchester City, you’re probably not working. […]

I know it was a couple of weeks ago but for some reason, I’ve only just found out. Apparently, Glenn Miller’s disappeared too. Harold Ramis was a great writer, actor and director, most famous (though not that famous) as “the other one” in Ghostbusters alongside Dan Ackroyd and Bill Murray. Ghostbusters owes an awful lot […]

The venue on which The Fast Show must have based “Jazz Club”. My friend Will Awdry plays drums with the Philip Dodd Quartet. But not very often. They convene just once a year for a closed session, complete with bangers & mash, down at the 606 and it is sublime. I don’t really “get” jazz. […]

Older readers will (just about) remember the Top of the Pops compilation albums of the 1970s. Back then, because of licensing issues, compilations could not feature the original artists, so instead they used cover versions by anonymous session singers. One such singer was Reginald Dwight. Apparently, he did quite a few: Spirit in the Sky, […]

I’m giving up the work of Ronan Keating. I’m just continuing the great lenten tradition of people giving up things they’re not that bothered with anyway. They often give up chocolate because they want to lose a bit of weight. Or maybe alcohol because lent is a good excuse for a de-tox. It’s usually more […]

My friend Brian Jones brings me news of how they celebrate the day before lent in Sweden. In a land more associated with sensible things like flat-pack furniture and the invention of the seat belt, they’ll be troughing into semlor. These confections are – get this – large sweet buns, crammed full of almond paste, […]

12 Years a Slave. Of course it did. Its triumph at the Oscars was never in doubt. But have you noticed that, because of its subject matter, any criticism is tacitly forbidden? No one dares say that it was a film they admired rather than actually enjoyed. And certainly not that it was unremittingly grim, […]