Category Archives: Worlds Shortest Radio Show

….meant that before about 1992, you couldn’t get a drink in London during the afternoon. Well, you could if you knew where to go. There were secret little “clubs” dotted around the West End, which often required a special knock or password to get in and my friend Brian Jones had discovered a brilliant one. […]

We’ve being going there so long I think they now believe that we really are students from India. The conversation got round to Indian music and why, given the large and vibrant nature of Indian communities in this country, there isn’t a bigger UK Indian music scene. Well, there very nearly was. Cornershop topped the […]

The traffic is now heavier, the cloud is too so this long-forgotten tack comes to mind. Long-forgotten because we refuse to accept Mick Jagger as a solo artist. We didn’t mind Rod Stewart, Bryan Ferry or Phil Collins all enjoying concurrent careers on their own and with their bands, but we’ll only accept Mick as […]

…..because I hope that’s not all Slade are remembered for. They were no one-hit novelty act, they were the biggest band in the country. Three chords of raw, guitar-based power. This was music from the streets, music for the masses. All the things that a few years later, punk would falsely claim to be. I […]

Thousands of people pouring in as I cycled past. Top of the bill was Smokey Robinson. You don’t need me to tell you about his magnificent 50 year career and all the Motown classics he’s written and for himself and for other people. But over the years he’s done some wonderful covers of songs written […]

It should because it was. Maybe not musically but culturally. When it came out, nobody knew what a Pina Colada was but through this song, they found out. And it really was largely responsible for the ensuing popularity of cocktails. Pubs were seen as rather drab and cocktail bars started springing up all over the […]

…..and the eldest was quite bohemian. When I was a child, she moved out to share a flat with about eight hippies in Belsize Park. Although only a bus ride away, this was a different world. A world of floor cushions, joss sticks, beads and kaftans. It was more like a commune and I loved […]

Enough time has elapsed between the dreaded flash-flash of the speed camera and the non-arrival of a summons. We have to remember that life is a balance. We can all rightly rage about the time we were fined by a hateful traffic warden for staying a minute too long on a meter. Yet we tend […]

Because a song like this needs to be sung in Portuguese. This melodic language then becomes an additional musical instrument which complements all the others. Understanding the words would somehow spoil it. That’s why opera sounds so majestic in Italian but slightly ridiculous in English. For all I know this song could be all about […]

Truly dreadful – dated, syrupy and redolent of Serge Gainsbourg on a (very) bad day. On the other hand, just go with it. We’re having an Indian summer. September and still 27 degrees. Close your eyes and let it wash over you. Yes, it’s corny but on a day like today, it sounds strangely wonderful.