The Beach Boys, and their main songwriter Brian Wilson (typically described as “troubled creative genius” Brian Wilson), inspire great devotion among some music-lovers. I can understand this, and if I were 10 years older would probably feel the same, about them or the Beatles, Kinks or Rolling Stones. At least one 60s band (Small Faces… Continue reading “Love and Mercy”
Biopic and wannabe are two words I came across many times in newspapers and magazines without knowing what they meant, and without any immediate way of looking them up. These days online dictionaries and other resources make it easy to look up any word but it was different in the 1980s. Back then you’d come… Continue reading Biopics and wannabes
For two or three years now the supermarket chain Waitrose has had a reward scheme (the “myWaitrose” card) that offers card-holders a free coffee and a free newspaper every day as long as you spend £5 in the store. (The minimum spend is £5 Monday to Friday, £10 at weekends.) That minimum spend of £5… Continue reading Things that really are free
Sometimes there are too many variables. When asked complicated speculative questions (which often begin, “What would you do if …?” or, worse, “What would you have done if …?”) my usual answer is, “Too many variables”. I like to keep things simple and think of circumstances where there are two variables, and each variable has… Continue reading Two variables, four outcomes and a practising non-believer
This short piece in Larry Elliott’s Economics Blog in last week’s Guardian reminded me of how much I like the word “trouser” as a verb. For once I read the piece in the paper itself before checking it online. He writes about the recent travails at BHS, previously owned by Philip Green and sold on… Continue reading Word of the week: trousering
Some years ago BBC Radio 2 compiled “The Nation’s Favourite No 2 Single” a chart of the best songs to make it as far as #2 in the UK charts and no further. They compiled a list of “around 100 classic number two hits” and then Radio 2 listeners voted for their favourites. The results… Continue reading More Pop Trivia: Stuck at 2
There’s a documentary available on the BBC iPlayer now (and for another 27 days) about the gig that took place 40 years ago today in Manchester, the first Sex Pistols appearance in that city, at the Lesser Free Trade Hall. It’s called “One Night in Manchester: The Gig That Changed Music Forever”. Peter Hook, Jordan… Continue reading Punk and Prog
“It was the 3rd of June / Another sleepy, dusty Delta day”. Those are the first words of Bobbie Gentry’s US #1 “Ode to Billy Joe”, a song that always comes to mind on this date, along with the memory that this is the day I passed my driving test in 1987. If you’re unfamiliar… Continue reading Songs that feature dates
The first post on this Blog, about “Smart Thinking” and “Self Help” sections at my local bookshop, appeared exactly 6 months ago today, on 2 December 2015. In the intervening 183 days 198 items have appeared on these pages, most of them Blog Posts (181, including this one), the rest tucked away in the Menus… Continue reading Reviewing the first six months of “The Compartments”
“It was 49 years ago today … Sergeant Pepper taught the band to play”. The Beatles album “Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” (Universal Knowledge for most English-speakers over 35) was released on 1 June 1967. I don’t remember it myself but I do remember the ITV documentary that was aired on 1 June 1987,… Continue reading “It was 49 years ago today …”
The Compartments 