Daily Mail, August 2008 We all recognise the moment. Suddenly a song or a piece of music that we haven’t heard in decades comes on the radio, and immediately we’re transported back in time to a key moment in our lives when that melody happened to provide the accompaniment. It doesn’t matter if we aren’t… Continue reading…
A-Level Results Bad? Don’t Worry…
Daily Mail, August 2008 For thousands of young people around the country a dream came true yesterday. Their A-level results told them they’d got the grades they needed to begin their glittering careers at the universities of their choice. Congratulations to all of them. They worked hard and they’ve been rewarded. No matter if some… Continue reading…
The F Word
Daily Mail, 2008 Can someone tell me exactly what is so funny about the F word, that Middle English verb, adjective or exclamation which used to refer solely to sexual intercourse but which is now used in a plethora of catch-all ways to indicate just about any kind of situation. It obviously must be funny… Continue reading…
Drugs—How Did We Ever Get To This?
Daily Mail, 2008 A father of two is murdered when he tries to stop two drug addicts stealing his car radio; a boy is stabbed to death in a London street by a gang calling themselves MDP–that stands for Money, Drugs, Power; a popular television presenter kills himself when his actress girl friend dies after… Continue reading…
David Essex
Back in the Seventies film producer David Puttnam asked me to go and see a young, hitherto unknown actor playing Jesus in the show Godspell, which was a surprise hit in London’s West End at the time. The actor’s name was David Essex, and he was, Puttnam was convinced, perfect for the film we were… Continue reading…
Are We Doing The Devil’s Work For Him?
Daily Mail, December 10, 2007 What was nineteen year old Robert Hawkins thinking as he looked down the sites of his rifle at the anonymous shoppers in the Westroads shopping mall in Omaha, Nebraska, this week? What was going through his mind as in just a few minutes he picked off eight of them, one… Continue reading…
George Martin and Son and the musical Love
When first rumoured it must have sounded like cultural sacrilege. After forty years of the Beatles’ musical heritage being preserved by the strictest controls, the founder of Cirque du Soleil wanted to plunder Beatle archives to re-edit, remix and generally monkey around with their records for a Las Vegas show called Love. But then came… Continue reading…
A sunny May morning in Lymington
Daily Mail, 2006 I wore my Elvis socks the day my mother died. Made of black cotton with the name Elvis embroidered in silver thread across the ankles, I showed them to her when, waking on the morning of her death, she found me at her bedside. The sight of them made her smile through… Continue reading…
Elvis by the Presleys
Daily Mail, 2006 Priscilla Beaulieu must have thought she’d gone to live with the Beverly Hillbillies when Elvis Presley talked her parents into letting her leave their home in Germany and join him at Graceland in Memphis in 1962. He might have been the most famous star in the world, but he still lived, as… Continue reading…
The Everly Brothers
The Radio Times, December 1982 When the Everly Brothers had their first hits in the late 50s they were both barely more than boys, and the sound of those two late adolescents harmonising about sorrow, pain and the hurts of teenage love, was imprinted on the memories of a generation. So when I finally met… Continue reading…
