As mentioned in this piece last week I have decided to follow the example of the new Master of Jesus College Cambridge and select an Album of the Week. I started with “Pin-Ups” by David Bowie and have followed it with “entertainment!” by Gang of Four. It was their first album, released on EMI here… Continue reading Album of the week: #2 “entertainment!” (Gang of Four)
Sad news last month, as reported here on the BBC website: Melanie Panayiotou, George Michael’s older sister, died at Christmas, three years after her rather more famous brother. That BBC News article quotes a statement released through the family’s lawyer John Reid, “We would simply ask that the family’s privacy be respected at this very… Continue reading Chatting to George Michael’s sister at a Wham! video shoot
New Year’s Eve 2019. Tomorrow we begin a whole new decade, the 20s, or the 2020s. I don’t recall thinking too much about decades coming to an end on previoius New Year’s Eve’s. We made a big deal of 31 December 1999, but that was the end of a millennium, not just the end of… Continue reading End-of-the-decade memories, and some calculations
Three times in recent weeks BBC Radio 2 (my radio station of choice) has played “Mama used to say”, a 1982 release by Junior. It reached #7 in the UK charts and #30 in the Billboard Hot 100. Every time I hear the record, including these three recent plays, I recall the same scene. It… Continue reading “Mama used to say”, a musical memory
If you were in the UK in the 1970s and spent any time watching TV on a Saturday night you will have seen a musical act containing the word “Swingle”, “The Swingle Singers” perhaps, or “Swingle II”. They would appear on shows like “The Two Ronnies”, performing a cappella versions of, well, I can’t remember… Continue reading Word of the week: Swingle
I have been meaning to dig out my old autograph book for a while. It came to mind at a family funeral I attended back in January, and at another one earlier this month. Two weeks ago today I was travelling to Ireland by train and boat for the second of these funerals, as recorded… Continue reading Word of the week: autograph
Do you recall the early days of mobile phone technology, back in the 1980s? The way I remember it, a disproportionate number of calls began with the caller (usually a man in a suit) exclaiming, “I’m on a train!” It became a cliché, but there was a practical purpose to it. As soon as the… Continue reading Word of the week: decompression
Today, for the first time since 1975, I watched the Oxford v Cambridge Boat Race from the bandstands by Dukes Meadows. I have seen the boats pass by from many different vantage points over the last 43 years, always on the north side of the river, but never from here. Back in 1975 Cambridge (the… Continue reading Boat Race memories
Today is the 23rd day of Lent. We are halfway through. In various pieces over the last three years I have referred to the first day of Lent, Ash Wednesday, when it occurred: on 14 February last year (the first time since 1945 that it had fallen on Valentine’s Day), on 1 March 2017, and… Continue reading Halfway through Lent, 2019
Last month, for the fourth time in my life, I travelled from our corner of West London to Southampton for a family funeral. The service took place in the same cemetery chapel as each of the other three. The four departed members of that side of my family are buried close together, a husband and… Continue reading Southampton: four decades, four funerals, no weddings
The Compartments 