Paul Jeffreys…

…was the bass player in Cockney Rebel. I got to know him through my art director and it was at my New Year’s Eve party that he met and fell in love with my friend Rachel. They got married and, exactly thirty years ago, were en route to New York for their honeymoon aboard Pan AM Flight 103. Which, of course, was blown up in the sky over Lockerbie. If you think we live in “divided” times because we’re squabbling over a European trade deal, just think about the 1980s. Whether it was football hooliganism or the Miners’ Strike, there was real violence on our streets. Terrorists bombed Harrods, two army barracks, the Grand Hotel in Brighton and killed 259 people on that flight over Lockerbie. So matter how bad you think life is now, please remember, out of respect for Paul and Rachel, that things have improved immeasurably since they died.