Category Archives: Worlds Shortest Radio Show

………though I’m not likely to find out. I’ve never watched it. Not even as a kid. I just cannot get on with science fiction. Star Wars? Star Trek? Lost in Space? Lost on me. So when I saw the name “Capaldi” all over the news this morning, I naturally thought of Jim Capaldi, ex-drummer of […]

…..to DJ at a surprise party. No one was more surprised than me. I’d forgotten how much I used to love it. The sheer joy of filling a dance floor and being the reason people are having a good time. Oh God, it’s gone straight to my head and this is not good. It can […]

What is it about blokes and barbecues? They never normally go near the kitchen but give them raw meat, an open grill and a comedy apron and suddenly they’re Jamie Oliver. Except they’re not, are they? How many times have you only eaten charred chicken and burnt burgers because Barbecue Man has taken so long […]

……for no apparent reason. Actually, there are lots of reasons. My dad was Irish. As were 90% of my friends’ parents at my very Catholic school. I spent much of my young life in Kilburn and Cricklewood. Since then, the Emerald Isle has played practically no part in my adult life. My children have not […]

……they weren’t even a real band, just a bunch of session musicians who wrote this song in a flat in South London. Yet it’s a masterpiece of summer harmonies and orchestration that somehow retains the flavour of 1970s British bubblegum pop. This lovely combination says “Californian sunshine but right here in Britain” and that’s exactly […]

…….when I walked into a steam room in that very locale. Three people were sitting in silence, towels around their waists. Elvis Costello, Dave Allen and Peter Mandelson. I sat down and heard myself say “Blimey, I’m the only one I’ve never heard of” and we began to talk. We’d all enjoyed the film, particularly […]

…..it was Norman Jay MBE which made me think of my old friend Julian Dyer. A great writer and true renegade, Julian was the first person I ever heard use the phrase “Rare Groove” to describe old soul tunes that were rare and….well…groovy. This led me to listen to Norman Jay’s Original Rare Groove Show […]

……the tourists who congregate daily, photographing each other on that famous zebra crossing on Abbey Road. It’s not far from where I live so I’m always narrowly avoiding oblivious people with cameras. They seem unaware that they’re on a busy road in St. John’s Wood, not at Madame Tussaud’s or the British Museum. Abbey Road […]

….whose Radio 1 rap show is to be axed after 20 years. Can you imagine how relieved he must be? Many regard Westwood as a preposterous human being. An ageing phoney from Suffolk dressing and talking like a gangsta from Compton but I love him. He is a true pioneer and his genuine passion for […]

…….Not very long ago, this man was a big star. Very talented actor, writer, singer and musician. He should be a national treasure or at the very least a “celeb”. The autobiography should have been written and its subject interviewed on countless TV sofas. But no, nothing. Not even a well-publicised “battle” with alcohol or […]