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
Earlier this year I wrote a piece about the Oscar winners that I have seen on the London stage. I counted up a dozen, 11 I had seen in London and one more (Jeremy Irons) in Stratford-on-Avon. Since writing those words I have found another theatre programme: “Antigone” at the Barbican, a production I saw… Continue reading A 12th Oscar Winner on the London stage
The story behind the song: “I Remember You”. Frank Ifield’s recording of “I Remember You” was the best-selling single of 1962 in the UK. It was #1 for 7 weeks, from late July until mid-September. The song was written over 20 years earlier, in 1941, by Victor Scherzinger and Johnny Mercer. Mercer wrote the words… Continue reading The story behind the song: “I Remember You”
There are some news stories that clearly made a big impression on people. When I was growing up we would only have leaf tea, brewed up in a pot. Right up until the 1980s we never used teabags. My father always said that the stuff that they put in teabags was only the sweepings from… Continue reading The sweepings from the factory floor
I return to the subject of favourite lines from the movies, and am surprised to find that I have not written about this for over two years. The most recent piece, “Get this boy a bib”, was about “Westworld” (the original 1973 release). Last night my children and I watched “Groundhog Day” again. It’s a… Continue reading “Sometimes people just die”
I was at a funeral the week before last. It was in Harlesden, a place I had not visited for over 20 years. The deceased was the sister of an old college friend. I had invited him to something last month but he couldn’t make it. His sister was very ill, and she died at… Continue reading A funeral changes everything
Two weeks ago I began to draft a piece about the previous weekend’s sport, but didn’t finalize it. It recorded a sporting weekend where every result went the way I wanted. England won the UEFA European Under-21 Championship with a 1-0 win against Spain on the Saturday evening (8 July). That match also featured a… Continue reading Two Sporting Sundays (July 2023)
Following on from two earlier pieces (most recently this one), here are another 10 jokes from Tony Blackburn’s “Sounds of the 60s” show on Radio 2. Most of them come from the few minutes just before 8am on the live broadcasts when he and Dermot O’Leary discuss their week. We heard about a trip to… Continue reading Tony and Dermot, a third selection of jokes
Pakie, Packy or Packie, is a diminutive form of the name Patrick. Patrick, as I’m sure you know, is one of the most popular boys’ names in Ireland, more usually abbreviated to Paddy or Pat. I had two uncles baptised with the name of Patrick. My father’s brother was known as Paddy, and the man… Continue reading Word of the week: Pakie
How much do you remember about your dreams? How many can you recall, right now? During a recent conversation a friend was telling us about a very strange dream that he had had. He could recall it vividly, a few days later. As I listened I couldn’t think of any recent dreams. There are themes… Continue reading The scariest dream I ever had
The Compartments 