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
You are probably familiar with the concept of “Six Degrees of Separation”, the idea that you are within six steps, or “six handshakes”, of everyone else on earth. When I first came across the idea I realized that my quickest route to the 7.9 billion other people on the planet is through the church hierarchy.… Continue reading Musical degrees of separation
11 November 2023: The Beatles at #1 in the UK singles chart with their final release “Now and Then”. The last time they were #1 here was in 1969, over 54 years ago, with “The Ballad of John and Yoko”. In the UK, until now, the Beatles had all of their chart-toppers in the 1960s.… Continue reading The Beatles at #1
On 11 August 1979 I went to the Royal Albert Hall for the first time, for a “Promenade Concert”, or Prom. A schoolfriend invited me. His father was a senior management figure at a local brewery. The brewery, or their parent company, had a box at the Albert Hall, so that was where we sat.… Continue reading A box at the Royal Albert Hall, 1979
The Compartments 