How do you start with someone like Paddy McAloon? He is a proper artist, as I would call ‘pop stars’ who simply refuse to fit the mould, like Kate Bush. The band is Prefab Sprout
Continue ReadingThe Captain is in
“A squid eating dough in a polyethylene bag is fast and bulbous, got me?“ This has become a much loved quote in our house, repeated by offspring who were not even a glimmer in my
Continue ReadingMaths!
In a transparent (and very much appreciated) effort to elicit a post from me, my co-contributor to OME challenged me to list my top ten maths songs. Over a month ago. Possibly inspired by the
Continue ReadingCan’t buy a thrill – Steely Dan [Album]
The Record and Tape Exchange at 90 Goldhawk Road, Shepherd’s Bush, is entirely responsible to this day for my love of Steely Dan. As a designer I would say the cover of their first record
Continue ReadingBless the Weather – John Martyn [Album]
This, his fifth album, recorded in 1971, was unknowingly to me the start of a lifelong obsession with John Martyn. Unknowingly because one night in 1973 John Peel played Glistening Glyndebourne, and I nearly fell
Continue ReadingFellow Hoodlums is 30 [Album]
Deacon Blue were a successful chart band in the 80s and have subsequently become unfashionable in some quarters, probably due to some questionable style choices in the pop years. Not with me. They actually broke
Continue ReadingFree live
“We considered ourselves a live band that did records every now and then” Andy Fraser. “We really tore up the place, but we were around for less than three years. By the time Fire and
Continue Reading[Song/Video] Ash – A Life Less Ordinary
Turns out that Ash have written two of my top… gonna go with 15 just in case I’ve forgotten some… top 15 pop songs of all time. And this is one of them. It’s just
Continue ReadingTop 10 singles – Teh Jayhawk
This was provoked by the Guardian’s clickbait top 100 No 1s of all time, which was so contentious that it sparked off another 100 lists. This is something which changes as you go along and
Continue Reading[Album] Parachute – The Pretty Things
The death of Pretty Things vocalist Phil May (he was in Bowie’s address book under ‘God’) prompted a re-listen to a 1970 album which at the time (mid ‘O’ Levels) had quite a profound effect
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