Paul Gambaccini’s “Pick of the Pops” show earlier today on BBC Radio 2 featured a couple of charts that are well worth a listen. That’s true most weeks, but occasionally there’s a horror-show from the 1990s or some year earlier in this century that I do not need to revisit. You can hear today’s programme… Continue reading Stuck at 2: 1967, 1983
In 2011 BBC4 started to screen repeats of the old BBC1 music show “Top of the Pops”. On Friday 1 April that year they showed the episode that was first broadcast exactly 35 years earlier. Brotherhood of Man were at #1 with “Save your kisses for me”. As the year progressed they continued to show… Continue reading 10 years of “Top of the Pops”
On this date in 1971 the UK #1 was “Hey girl, don’t bother me” by the Tams. Treat yourself to this performance of a great chart-topper. Rod Stewart was at #2 with “Maggie May”, listed in some charts as a double A side with “Reason to Believe”, another pair of great songs. Here’s the classic… Continue reading “It’s late September, and …”
In this piece from February 2016 I summarized the three levels of expertise that apply to practical skills, skills like speaking another language or playing a musical instrument. I categorized these three levels of expertise as “nothing, something and everything”. The first of these applies when you have no familiarity with a task. I offered… Continue reading Word of the week: transpose
Last weekend, on his BBC Radio 2 show “Sounds of the 70s”, Johnnie Walker played a record to commemorate the 80th birthday of Jet Black, the original drummer in punk-era band The Stranglers. For many people they would be classified as a punk band, but I appreciate that this is a matter of opinion rather… Continue reading An 80-year-old punk
Just over a year ago, in this piece, I wrote about Pop Master, the mid-morning quiz on the Ken Bruce Show on BBC Radio 2. That earlier piece explains the format of the quiz, and notes that this is the most listened-to slot on UK radio, outside of Breakfast Shows. Every Monday to Friday, at… Continue reading 600 Rounds of Pop Master
Which Beatles album covers can you visualize right now? A few of them can be classed as Universal Knowledge for people over a certain age, and they are an occasional source of quiz questions. Here’s an example from a recent edition of “The 100k Drop”: “Which member of the Beatles wears a blue military coat… Continue reading Beatles Album Covers, seeing and observing
As I noted in this piece on the Projects Menu (“A UK #1 for every year”) I can sing and play at least one UK chart-topping song from every year between 1954 and 2013. This repertoire developed from over 20 years’ worth of learning the odd song here and there and finding that many of… Continue reading More than Once at One (39 songs)
Harlesdon is a mis-spelling of Harlesden, an area of North West London a few miles from where we live. The correct spelling ends in “den”, like its neighbour Willesden. Hoddesdon in Hertfordshire, and Wimbledon in South West London, on the other hand, end in “don”. If you approach the junction known as Savoy Circus from… Continue reading Word of the week: Harlesdon
Last night, for the fourth year in a row, we watched a large chunk of the Eurovision Song Contest as a family, the four of us all in the same room for the first 18 performances. My children’s experience of the contest is similar to my own at their ages. Aged 8 or 9 you… Continue reading Eurovision 2018
The Compartments 