Ah, I know what I did now. Tried for too much in the same day. Like Icarus. Or Bruce's Big Night Out.

Found this version of Macca's Unplugged show on youtube recently - suspect it won't be up for too long so don't blame me if...

  Had a small but pleasing moment today which I want to share. After I had lunch at the local shopping centre (ooh, classy) in the are...

 Not too much to say about the latest episode of Barry Manilow's They Write the Songs (available on BBC iplayer here until Thurs...

Spare those keyboards, embittered Manilovians contemplating a pre-emptive strike, for I am happy to report that the most recent episo...

 ... or, as is equally likely, I didn't send it in - can't remember now. Or maybe it just wasn't good enough. You'll have...

Have just listened to the second episode of They Write the Songs, on Cole Porter, currently on BBC iplayer here . As with last week...

As AA Milne would have phrased it, I am become obsessed with the music of Jerome Kern. This might have manifested itself in some form...

 No time to trick this out with lots of pics and clips but I want to alert readers, before it's too late, to Spencer Leigh's very...

Thanks to audacity (the software, I mean) those of you wondering how those mooted clubland medleys in the Christmas quiz might sound can...

If you're like me - a reasonable supposition if you've elected to read this blog - then this TV documentary probably didn't...

As I'm going to be out later I am posting the answers to the Christmas Quiz now, but entries will still be accepted up to 10pm GMT ...

As a reluctant nod to the season, herewith Christmas Prayer, a lesser-known Valentines track from 1955 - at least it isn't on th...

Today marks the third anniversary of this blog and I was all ready to do some reflecting on what it's all been for - and possibly ...

If you were turned on to Ian Whitcomb as a result of reading an earlier entry in this blog - or even if you've just alighted in searc...

Alright, it's not about a record shop as such but a Jonathan Richman song from the above album seems the most appropriate way of foll...

I commend unto you Sound It Out, a documentary about an independent record shop in Teesside. It was broadcast on BBC 4 yesterday, and wil...

There have been various programmes on the radio to commemorate the fact that it's now ninety years since the BBC started broadcasting...

Have just realised that I haven't really put in much about my own response to Junior Parker. Already possessing the Rounder CD with a...

Following on from the previous post about Junior Parker's Stand By Me, I happened to be listening to an old edition of Steve Propes...

 This is by way of a coda to an earlier post, here , about the origins of Ben E King's recording of Stand By Me. If you have read tha...

From October 23rd onwards, the highly recommended documentary series Street Corner Soul is to be repeated on BBC 6 Music - details of u...

Love Me Do by Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran Everything Between Us by David Ireland There aren't many drama reviews on this blog...

I watched Love Me Do: the Beatles '62 last night, a documentary commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the Beatles' firs...

I mentioned the film Sven Klang's Combo some time earlier, in a post about doo wop biopics . Three scenes have recently surfaced on a...

Have just listened for the second time to Hard Boiled Eggs and Nuts, the Afternoon Drama about the early life of Stan Laurel. It wi...

I vaguely remember a discussion about My Friends by the Strangers and These Golden Rings by the Jive Five, two songs which share the s...

John Walsh is what we call in the trade a good writer. Quite apart from anything else, he knows how to pitch comedy, making it part of t...

I can't help it. I know it was only a couple of posts ago but I have to watch the video for Shirley and Company's Shame, Shame, S...

If you listen to Spencer Leigh's On the Beat programme via BBC iplayer, you may have been puzzled to find that the show appea...

The BBC are currently rerunning 35 year old episodes of Top of the Pops, its now sunken flagship pop show, in sequence. I initially thoug...

A few weeks ago I was, for the first time, inside the Panopticon, otherwise the Britannia Music Hall, in Glasgow: the place where a young...

A wonderful, painterly image of Cheapo Cheapo Records, late of  Soho, found online; another photograph provided the basis for the various...

Have just read in Record Collector magazine that the Dells, who haven't performed since the death of Johnny Carter just over thr...

I'm guessing that the above image, taken from a well-known auction site, shows more recent packaging for the joke glasses in the previo...

One thing I didn't do before posting the previous entry was to check whether that singularly odd phrase "Daring - don't fea...

In recent months my blog has attracted the attention of spammers - though as comments are screened before publication it's all a bit ...

This Bonzos track hasn't attracted much attention - perhaps not helped by coming immediately before I'm Bored on the Gorilla album....

Read about the death of Hal David on the BBC's news channel and was surprised it wasn't mentioned in the subsequent news progra...

The above says it all, really: having listened a few more times to the ten available tracks the Flamingos recorded for Decca in between C...

The final episode of Street Corner Soul was repeated last night on Radio 2 and will be available on BBC iplayer for one week - link here . ...