Some kind person has uploaded the Ravens' long-missing On Chapel Hill to youtube, so  that once again it may sing out underhindered on t...

This is a favourite gospel recording of mine which I only found on youtube recently. I first heard it on Viv Broughton's 1985 Black Gosp...

Apologies to regular readers for this prolonged absence from my post - or posts; frankly I didn't think anyone would notice, but I'm...

 Wow! Some kind person has uploaded a session 14 Karat Soul did for Radio 1 in the early 80s to youtube and it sounds the closest yet to m...

Remember Joyce Carol Oates? Yeah, that's right, the one who told the Guardian in 2012 that "Situation comedy ... distorts the c...

As with the previous question, the answer, if you have given up all hope of alighting on it naturally, is below - but you have to make the c...

Okay, one more. I found this in an old email but I can't remember the answer. I'm sure there will be one. Ah. I do remember the s...

I don't normally do mini-soundbite-type posts but this is irresistible - Paul Merton talking about his forthcoming autobiography: Unti...

Incredible though it sounds, it is now the fortieth anniversary of the film That'll Be the Day. If you have travelled deep within t...

Before you look down below, if you want to have a go at my Round Britain Quiz-type question go to the previous post, here . Here's the...

Okay, this is a fiendish one, and shall be the last for a while. Pretty certain this is one which was actually despatched to the programme, ...

Ah, I can add the bits which will make it a proper RBQ questiion. (Insofar as such a thing is within my power, obviously.) So here is the co...

Okay, here's one which was gently turned down by RBQ in 2009. It doesn't have enough sections but it amuses me so I present it here....

Find an abode suitable for a Cockney dancing partner reluctant to accept direction, an artistic creature of habit, and a seamstress of the...

To find the hometown of a female authority on the longevity of Lucy's accessories, put m uddy feet on a victorious leaf. To identify ...

Well, I showed the RBQ-style question in the previous post to a colleague who pointed out, in a reasonably gentle manner, the ways in which ...

A while back I shared a self-devised Round Britain Quiz-type question with readers but couldn't find the cache of emails which I ha...

I was watching the interview on BBC 4 with writers Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais the other night. It's very enjoyable and worth w...

Have just read that Cuddles the monkey is preparing for the lead role of Vindice in a new production of The Revenger's Tragedy. T...

 Surprising  news: there is now a second volume of Donovan's autobiography, and you can download  the first part of an audio version ...

I've really been enjoying the Insight series on BBC Radio 6 Music. You can find a guide to the currently available epsiodes here ; t...

I may have to curtail the extended blog posts for a bit, but I'm still going to try to post regularly - maybe even make a virtue of...

For fans of Freddie Davies within reach of London, the happy news that he is currently appearing in The Secret Garden at the King's H...

  Have just read that Richard Briers has died. I was lucky enough to see him in Ray Cooney's Run For Your Wife at the Shaftesbury Th...

This documentary about younger artists recreating the Beatles' day-long recording session for their first LP was better than I expect...

I have written earlier in this blog of the surprising omission, in later editions of Philip Larkin's All What Jazz, of his review of ...

It may sound like a premature April Fool, but according to Rolling Stone magazine Al Pacino is to costar with Helen Mirren in an HBO (ie...

Today, on a certain social networking site, I was informed that Paul McCartney has set up a new Q&A feature on his website entitled...

Granted, the internet is full of a number of things, but here's something I really didn't expect to find. Someone has sampled t...

A quick note about the latest Bazza programme, this time about lyricist Johnny Mercer. No, Baz didn't play the Astaire version of One...

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...