A few months ago a friend invited me to a show at the Albert Hall. He and I worked together on a project over 25 years ago and have stayed in touch, but have not worked together since 1999. His current employers have a box at the venue. He doesn’t entertain corporate clients in the… Continue reading A box at the Albert Hall, 2024
Here’s a list of the songs that I performed in public for the first time during May 2024. Each month I aim to play at least one new song from each of the following repertoires: Songs that reached #1 in the UK. Songs that reached #1 somewhere else. Songs that have not reached #1 anywhere.… Continue reading Repertoire: Songs debuted in May 2024
I return to the theme of acts who have spent one week, and one week only, at the top of the UK charts. This earlier piece lists 40 acts that spent a single week at the top of the album charts. The list below is for every act, up to May 2024, that has spent… Continue reading Every act that has spent a single week at the top of the UK singles charts
If you have been involved with enough quizzes, seen enough quiz shows, and care about pop trivia you will know that The Who never had a UK #1 hit single. They were Stuck at 2 twice: “My Generation” was kept off the top for 2 weeks by “The Carnival Is Over” (The Seekers, 1965) and… Continue reading 40 acts who spent a single week at the top of the UK album charts
I am in a Sam Cooke frame of mind, singing and playing a range of his songs that I have learnt over the last 25 years. Some of them reached #1 in various countries. He only had one UK #1, as a songwriter: “Only 16”, recorded by Craig Douglas (1959). He wrote and recorded “You… Continue reading “Touch the Hem of His Garment”
Last month I posted this piece, summarizing some of the music events that I have been involved with since last summer. I mentioned a performance that really stood out: “Working Class Hero”, John Lennon’s 1970 composition. “Hammered out on an acoustic guitar, each verse sung without hesitation or prompts, I was reminded of what a… Continue reading “Working Class Hero”
The current UK #1 is “Too Sweet” by Hozier, his first UK chart-topper. This is the 10th example of the word “Sweet” appearing in either the title or the name of the act at #1. I could offer this as a challenge: how many others can you name? Usually when I do this I leave… Continue reading Sweet Number Ones
Last July, in this piece (“A funeral changes everything”), I wrote the following: I have been on a mission to see live music, and play live music, as much as possible, in memory of the woman whose funeral prompted that first evening in a new venue [a pub in Harlesden where the reception took place]… Continue reading Reflections on my 100 most recent live performances
The current UK #1 is “Texas Hold ‘Em” by Beyoncé. It is coming to the end of its fourth week at the top. In an hour or two we’ll know if it has made it to a fifth week. Its predecessor, “Stick Season” by Noah Kahan, spent 7 weeks at #1, the first new chart-topper… Continue reading UK #1 Trivia, March 2024: Beyoncé and Noah Kahan
Here’s something I wrote way back February 2016, which still applies today: I often recall these last two lines from the first poem in Ted Hughes’s “Birthday Letters”, “Fulbright Scholars”: At twenty-five I was dumbfounded afresh By my ignorance of the simplest things I am way past 25 but dumbfounded almost daily by my ignorance… Continue reading Word of the week: Session
The Compartments 