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Memories of Ari Up
At the start of September 2005 I moved into a new place: a rather Agatha Christie-esque 1930s apartment block at the posh end of Ladbroke Grove. I was there on a wing and a prayer, and so it has remained to this day but I very nearly got chucked out within the first week and…
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From ‘She Loves You’ to ‘Paint It, Black’
This is 80 minutes of music that documents a revolution in English culture that permanently changed the way that England sounded and felt about itself. I say England rather than Britain because all this music was made by Englishmen – notwithstanding Paul McCartney’s Irish ancestors, or anyone else’s. Some might say that the revolution started…
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The Beatles Decca Audition
(This is a work of imagination) Fifty years ago today, a scraggy little removal van appeared in the streets of West Hampstead, London. Its driver had been up all night, driving down from Liverpool. In those days there was no proper motorway link between the two cities so the journey took at least eight hours.…
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Rocking Goose
Johnny and the Hurricanes “Rocking Goose” was riding high in the UK charts a couple of months after I was born in July 1960. My parents chose one of their theatre buddies to be my Godmother. Her name was Kristine Howerth and she chose to give me a copy of this record as a present.…
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The Adventures Of My Scoliosis In Japan
Sometime in 2003, Errol Linton – the leader of the band in which I played – had mentioned that we had a gig at the Park Tower Festival in Tokyo, Japan at the end of the year. I believed him a lot. But sure enough, in the Autumn we all had to troop down to…
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“Love’s Getting Nowhere”
A new version of an old song.
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Prog Nightmare
You are a record collector of a certain age. You have a fondness for late 60s/ early 70s British prog. On holiday in a small seaside town you are browsing 2nd hand records in a junk shop when you come across a record that you have never seen before. You have never heard of the…
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Telepathy In Music
Dear Adam I’m sure you are right about this but no research has been done as far as I know, and I can’t think how one could do it. Scientific methods are rather blunt and crude and not suited for something as evanescent and subtle as this. Do please tell us more Rupert Sheldrake ———————————————————————-…