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”
A week ago I teamed up with some friends and family to take part in a pub quiz for the first time this year. I wanted to catch up with the guy who hosts it, and there was also a decent jackpot on offer: £680, in cash. The prize for the winning team is a… Continue reading Word of the week: Belgrade
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”
We create our own rules. We establish patterns and follow them, deliberately or otherwise. I have established certain patterns on this Blog. I usually publish “Word of the week” pieces on a Monday. When writing about football, with screenshots showing league positions, I have only ever posted one such image per month. This piece will… Continue reading One game to go
I am still in contact with many of the people I was at school with. Back in February a few of us (seven, to be exact) met up for dinner at a pub in Hammersmith. I had hung out with four of them often in the last few years. (By “often” I mean “at least… Continue reading Old School Ties
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
Following on from this introductory piece, here is another “oven-ready quiz round”. Pub Names, Top 10 or not? Here is a list of 10 common UK pub names. Pubsgalore.co.uk publishes a list of the Top 250 most commonly-used names of open pubs at any one time. The list below contains 5 names that are currently… Continue reading Oven-ready quiz rounds: Pub Names, Top 10 or not?
It’s been a long time since I read a book like Timothy Ferriss’s “The 4-Hour Work Week”. I read it during a reading binge that lasted for most of 2011. Checking through this Blog I see that I have never referred to it here (over 1,000 posts, over one million words) or an idea from… Continue reading Letting small bad things happen
How are your sleep patterns? Perfect, disastrous, or somewhere in between? Mine are somewhere between those two extremes, nearer to “perfect” than “disastrous”. I expect that’s true for most people. The following 1,360 words are about sleep, leading to a memory about the best hour’s sleep that I have ever had. I’m afraid that the… Continue reading The best hour’s sleep I ever had
The Compartments 