Happy Birthday to Graham McPherson

Better known as Suggs – 54 today. I’ve known him for years. I saw him just before Christmas when he and famous tailor Mark Powell (Clang, clang! How’s that for a double name-drop?) kidnapped me and took me to a Soho drinking club. Suggs is not the mad, zany nutty boy you might expect him to be. Or rather Suggs is but Graham isn’t. The clue is in the nickname. Suggs is more like a character he plays and the man who plays him is quiet, decent and completely unaffected by fame. Remarkable for someone who has been famous for 35 years and is now probably better known than ever. I think Madness are still hugely underrated as musicians and songwriters which is why, if Elvis is The King, Suggsy is surely The Prince.