Category Archives: Worlds Shortest Radio Show

He’s a seriously good art director, always on the look out for ideas to make his work even better. It was at Phil’s suggestion that I found myself yesterday on the 3rd floor of the NCP car park in Brewer Street at a Steve McQueen exhibition. Fascinating unseen photographs but best of all, the original […]

And Paul McCartney’s Wonderful Christmas Time. You’ve heard them both far too many times, so why don’t we play this instead? The Butties are a Beatles tribute band who’ve had a far longer career than the original Fab Four. So it’s no wonder they sound more like The Beatles than The Beatles. If John, Paul, […]

Shocking pink – and I mean truly shocking – and made even worse by a lurid floral pattern. I’ve worn it to practically all my children’s school concerts. In a sea of sensibly dressed parents, I stood out like a (very) sore thumb but at least my kids knew I was there. My 15 year […]

Mine would be the one I had a few years ago at Pizza Express in Dean Street. I can’t even remember what it was – a margherita, I think – but it was served with a side order of Gregory Porter. This little Soho pizzeria is one of London’s oddities because it is also one […]

And by all accounts, Dean Martin truly didn’t. He never claimed to be a great singer, only someone who could “carry a tune”. He wasn’t in the same league as Frank Sinatra. Yet Sinatra worshipped him because Dino’s good looks, quick wit and insouciant charm made him the epitome of cool. That relaxed, half-cut style […]

Christmas isn’t Christmas without Lindisfarne. Tony grew up on Tyneside and every year the Lindisfarne Christmas Concert at Newcastle City Hall was a yuletide tradition. The last one was in 1993 but with the City Hall threatened with closure, Lindisfarne have got back together to help save it. This Christmas, their sell-out show will return. […]

And it was about this time of the year. I’d seldom ventured beyond the North Circular so this was as far as I’d ever been from everything I’d ever known. And it was fantastic. One night we stayed in a remote settlement near the Burmese border with an indigenous tribe called the Karens. The Karens?? […]

As a DJ not as a punter but the gay crowds were always my favourites. Stylish, generous and appreciative, they danced all night and never got nasty or aggressive, so back in the 80s I used to host a gay night once a month at a little underground club in the West End. I’d go […]

Maybe because it’s acapella, it’s sort of choral – almost like a carol. And of course, because it was the Christmas No.1 of 1983. The Flying Pickets were well-known for their radical left-wing leanings – I suppose the name was a bit of a clue – and for their vocal (sic) support of the Miners’ […]

……slowly, subtly, nothing too full-on but a sprinkling of Christmas tunes throughout the month is a very good thing. My friend Nicole will have been waiting for at least two weeks for the rest of us to catch up. For her, every day is the season of goodwill but Christmas is when really she comes […]