Daily Mail 23.6.18
When Paul McCartney was a teenage boy dreaming of greatness he would sit on the loo in his father’s council house on a Liverpool estate, play his guitar and sing. With that slight bathroom echo of lino … read more
Me and My Hollyhocks
Daily Mail, June 2018
Someone broke the growing tips off two of our hollyhocks last week. For some wanton reason he or she stopped on the West London pavement outside our front garden, leaned over the fence and removed the … read more
‘As Time Goes By’ – a review of Derek Taylor’s memoir
Daily Mail, 13.4.18
One morning in 1969 I was sitting at my desk at the London Evening Standard when we got a tip-off that John Lennon had been arrested on a drugs charge.
My job at the time was, among … read more
The Beatles Go To India
Daily Mail 6.4.18
When the Beatles set off for India in February 1968, they left behind a degree of bemusement and even ridicule among many of their fans. Why on earth were the four most famous young men in the … read more
On the Origins of the films That’ll Be The Day and Stardust
Daily Mail, September 30, 2017
One day in the early-Seventies I had a huge stroke of beginners’ luck. Going over to a friend’s house to borrow a book, I was asked, over a cup of tea, if I would like … read more
The F-Word And ‘Kenneth Tynan Should Have His Bottom Smacked’
Daily Mail, September 7, 2017
Back in November 1965, writer Kenneth Tynan, then the literary manager of the National Theatre, was asked during a late-night BBC television discussion if he would allow sexual intercourse to take place on stage.
It … read more
What If Elvis Hadn’t Left The Building?
Daily Mail August 19, 2017
Elvis Presley died forty years ago this week, but as, over the decades, so many fans have continued to insist that he is still alive, it’s become a commonplace joke that he’s been spotted on … read more
Elvis – The Making Of Love Me Tender
Daily Mail 11.08.2017
If Elvis Presley had never existed, the film Love Me Tender would still have been made. But it wouldn’t have been called Love Me Tender, and wouldn’t have had that song in it – or, for that … read more
Glen Campbell Obituary
Daily Mail 10.8.17
Glen Campbell was a brave man. You have to be brave to set off on a vast nationwide tour of the US fully aware that you have Alzheimer’s Disease, that you may not always know where you … read more
Memories of My First Pop Festival
24.6.17
Never one for roughing it, not even Bob Dylan was going to get me under canvas, when, in August 1969, a couple of brothers called Foulk managed to tempt the great man to their Isle of Wight Festival of … read more
