When I was growing up it was easy to understand how the UK singles chart was compiled. It was based on the sale of vinyl records. There were stories about how the charts could be manipulated because sales figures came from a sample of record shops and these shops could be targeted by pluggers or… Continue reading Double A Sides at #1
Almost exactly a year ago, in this piece, I wrote about playing football with people my own age again for the first time in over a decade. I am happy to report that this is still a regular part of my week. I have played something close to 5-a-side football at least once every month… Continue reading A year’s worth of 5-a-side
“What does your dad do?” That’s a question I was asked many times at primary school. The answer was easy enough: he worked on building sites. At least half of the other kids were of Irish background, like me, and many of their fathers were involved in construction one way or another. My father spent… Continue reading Word of the week: Formwork
If you are into your chart trivia you will probably know the titles of the shortest #1s in UK chart history. They consist of just two characters: “If” (Telly Savalas, 1975) and “19” (Paul Hardcastle, 1985). Recently I asked my son which songs Sara Cox had played on her “Half Wower” slot between 6.30 and… Continue reading More Chart Trivia: #1s with the shortest combination of song title and artist
You might recall the 1985 hit “Trapped” by American singer Colonel Abrams. It reached #3 here in the UK. He had one other Top 40 hit (“I’m Not Gonna Let You Go”) which I am unfamiliar with. When the first of these singles was in the chart, a friend was telling me about his relationship… Continue reading “I’m Diana Ross” (in two ways)
Now that I’ve fessed up about celebrating my 60th birthday recently (Dead at 59, another list) let me tell you the best thing about reaching this milestone: free public transport. Age-related benefits are not cast in stone. Pensionable ages have changed in ways that I have not really kept up with. Most of my friends… Continue reading Word of the week: Twirly
I have been deliberately vague on this Blog about many things and very specific about others. My birthday, for example, is something I have mentioned many times (21 September) but I have not been specific in any post about the year I was born. It’s not a secret. I have simply chosen to leave some… Continue reading Dead at 59, another list
In the autumn of 1994 my mother booked two places on a coach trip to Rome. It was arranged by a Catholic organization that she wasn’t directly involved with. None of us in the family had actively campaigned for it. The trip was essentially a pilgrimage to celebrate the Anno del Famiglia (Year of the… Continue reading Le Quick
In the million-plus words that appear on this Blog, all of them still freely available whenever you want to read them, there has been no mention of either of the UK’s two most recent prime ministers. Until now. The current prime minister, less than a week into the job, is Rishi Sunak, who either believes… Continue reading Leeds United FC and Liz Truss
Just over 30 years ago, in the autumn of 1992, the #1 single in the UK was “Ebeneezer Goode” by The Shamen. The chorus, as you may recall, includes words that sound like “Eezer Goode, Eezer Goode, ‘e’s Ebeneezer Goode”. Or, if you prefer, “E’s are good, E’s are good, ‘e’s Ebeneezer Goode”. The E… Continue reading Got any salmon?
The Compartments 