For fifty years it’s never been far from our ears. It’s on the radio, it’s a karaoke favourite in bars, it’s crooned in the plural by mobs on football terraces, and it’s heard with increasing frequency at funerals for those … read more
‘He’s Nearly 40’ (Daily Mail, August 21, 2019)
Responding to research from Heidelberg University that stated that parents are happier when their children have left home, I wrote:
The happiest times in this father’s life were when his children were little. Yes, it was murderously busy sometimes, but … read more
Something About The Beatles – podcast
I’m new to podcasts but I’m told by US Beatles fans that this is good. It’s free to listen to, anyway.
Thoughts on the Men on the Moon (July 21, 2019)
Considering the historical enormity of that moment fifty years ago when a man first walked on the surface of the moon, I have a confession to make. I missed it.
Throughout the four days after Apollo 11 was blasted off … read more
Port de Soller, Mallorca
Daily Mail – 8 June, 2019
For decades I’d thought of Mallorca simply as bikini scattered beaches, noisy discos, much revelling, and rampant romancing. And, if that’s what you want on holiday, I expect there’s a lot of it to … read more
Ella Fitzgerald
Plump and homely, Ella Fitzgerald wasn’t beautiful. Nor did she wear sexy, clingy outfits that flaunted her thighs and curves. And, never one to submit to confessional interviews, what love-life she had wasn’t ever made a matter for public discussion, … read more
The Last Days Of The Beatles
Daily Mail – 2.2.19
When Paul McCartney announced in April 1970 that he had no plans for working with the Beatles the world fell in on him. ‘PAUL QUITS BEATLES,’ ran newspaper headlines around the world.
And, overnight, the most … read more
Let Nothing You Dismay – A Christmas Story
23.12.18
Harry watched as Amy, with the tip of her tongue poking from between her lips, compiled her list. Finally, at the bottom of the page she wrote in fluorescent pink: ‘Happy Christmas. With love from Amy xxx’. Then, sticking … read more
John Lennon, Yoko and Me
Sunday Times Magazine, December 9, 2018
One afternoon I was sitting with John Lennon in the kitchen at his Tittenhurst Park home in Berkshire when he asked me if I’d written his obituary yet. It was 1970, and amused, at … read more
When the Lunatic Beatles Took Over The Asylum
November 9, 2018
When it comes to rock music, events of half a century ago are almost ancient history. So, we can imagine the thrill that Giles Martin, the son of record producer George Martin, must have got, when he … read more
