Category Archives: Worlds Shortest Radio Show

On so many levels. Back to Kilburn to see Once a Catholic at the Tricycle Theatre with my old schoolmate Joe Callanan and four of his brothers. Practically everyone in my class, no matter where they live now, began life in Kilburn, Cricklewood or Paddington. Like many in the audience, we’d returned to the old […]

In the great spectrum of life, I’ve always seen love and sex at one end, and religion right at the other. So how could one of the most sensuous, soulful purveyors of the love song possibly be a clergyman? Then I discovered that it may well be for tax reasons. The IRS allows clergymen all […]

He’s 19. Lovely boy of whom I’m immensely proud. But looking at him, it’s hard to believe that this is the same blond-haired cherub who, a few short years ago, couldn’t wait to open his presents and blow out his candles. He was out with his mates last night in Shoreditch. Bit of a heavy […]

The first famous death of 2014 is one half of The Everly Brothers. Their success and influence in the late 50s and early 60s was phenomenal which is why we’re all so familiar with their sound. They set the template for harmonic vocals, and one of the reasons their voices were so melodiously complementary was […]

But it was only “This year, I will try to like Bob Dylan”. But I’ve failed again. I just don’t get Bob. I find most of his oeuvre dreary, uninspiring and too “influenced” by Woody Guthrie. Yeah, he made a few great records but so did Hot Chocolate. Still, I thought, it’s probably me who’s […]

….the nights are getting shorter, days are getting longer and summer is on its way. Admittedly not quite yet but still, that’s where we’re heading. I trust you had a fantastic Christmas and that 2014 brings you everything you could wish for. Yesterday, as I changed a wheel in vicious wind and rain, I wished […]

……so here’s a heartwarming tale. I used to spend a lot of my lunch hours and even more of my money in a tiny second hand record shop just off Tottenham Court Road called Rocks Off. It was run by a voluble Irishman and his gormless looking assistant. This creature never spoke or served customers. […]

….so they could enjoy the day with their families. My mate Pete was a milkman and one Christmas Eve, as we carried him out of the pub at midnight, he announced that he had to go straight to the depot to do his round. We got him there and somehow managed to get him out […]

Every Christmas, along with an implausible plot and a some hideous revelation, the snow falls on Albert Square. So we somehow still believe that a white Christmas in London is the norm, when there hasn’t actually been one for 43 years. It would be nice, just once, to have a sprinkling of snow on Christmas […]

……within earshot of “Doc”, our evil, wheelchair-bound maths teacher. He was the strictest, cruellest member of staff in a school where there was some pretty tough competition. Doc was a religious zealot whose beliefs, as is always the case, brought him neither comfort nor joy. Every Christmas, he would deliver a bitter and morbid lecture […]