The origins of Monty Python's Parrot Sketch have been well documented, but on the eve of the team's imminent reunion I think th...

 (headline on Sky News website) Two points as a follow-up to the previous post . I have found suggestions online that the singer of th...

The recent death of Gerry Goffin has been widely reported, and the importance of his contribution to popular music appropriately ackno...

Another videocap from the clip of What a Crazy World in the previous post, out in a month's time.  From left to right, Marty Wilde, D...

It looks as though the Network DVD of What a Crazy World has been delayed - the popular online shopping site where I ordered it now says ...

After the demise of my favourite record shop Cheapo a few years back (see here ), another blow: I learnt this morning that the cafe in my lo...

I happened to notice that Madd, the mango dessert  emporium which took over the former home of Cheapo Cheapo Records in Rupert Street, So...

Doo wop being on my mind in the last few posts, perhaps now is a good time to remind you of the documentary Life Could Be a Dream, which ...

I have now listened to the On the Beat doo wop special and it can be thoroughly recommended. I think it's possible for US readers to ...

This is to alert readers that there will  be an On the Beat doo wop special with Little Anthony and the Imperials available on BBC iplayer s...

Seven of the nine Decca sides on Jasmine's Time Was Flamingos compilation can be found on yout*be. Sound is reasonably good except in th...

Below are my reviews of the two Flamingos compilations as posted on a well-known shopping website. They don't really contain anyth...

Wow! At last there is a Flamingos compilation which includes the sides they recorded for Decca. It's issued by public domain label...

A new clip show entitled The Perfect Morecambe and Wise is currently being broadcast on Saturday nights. Yes, there have been quite a few...

As I have a vested interest in promoting this I can't comment on its inherent quality but this is to let readers know that Freddie...

[19/3/17: this programme was recently repeated on BBC 4 and is once again available on iplayer until 17th April 2017- the link below ...

Great news!What a Crazy World, the film version of Alan Klein's Stratford East musical, is finally going to get a legitimate release o...

Talking of the Magnificents' Lost Lover (see previous post), it has recently been uploaded to youtube, so here 'tis, as the B...

As it is now the fourth anniversary of that day in December 2009 I started this blog with the intention of archiving posts from Steve...

Big news in my little world, and I regret to say it appears to be a done deal, though there is a campaign: Russell Davies' Sunday...

 I have just heard that Lou Reed has died so I am reposting this piece from 2012. The Word - a magazine I ought to have read more ofte...

Have just watched Reuben, Reuben for the second time - with a gap of about thirty years in between. The first time was, if memory serve...

Clips from this edition of Crackerjack have has featured in several documentaries (Danny Baker's programme on Peter Glaze and The Unf...

A clip of 14 Karat Soul not seen before (by me) is cause for celebration. Presumably this is Sesame Street as the background is the same as ...

No time, I'm afraid, to write a detailed post, so consider this an interim bulletin for those who might care. This blog is going back to...

   One final astonishing set of Beatles coincidences has recently been sent to me by a reader of this blog. I present them below. T...

It's not music-related, but I just had a really good idea which I'd like to share. I like to swim, and I take shampoo and showe...

On a certain social networking site I have been entertaining (or not) family and friends with youtube clips of fave songs which actually...

When Frank Zappa used a phrase like "cretinous love songs of greasy simplicity" he may have been thinking about records like t...

                                                                                                 Ah, go on, give us a go ... Yes, th...

My final extract from Bizarre Beatles Coincidences is perhaps the most staggering of all. After this you really will have to buy the book...

On the general subject of new or newish sitcoms I have been unimpressed with two of the latest, Family Tree and Big School. The former is di...

There's an interview with Steve Delaney, creator of Count Arthur Strong, here . It's worth reading all the way through, but the r...

Another extract from my forthcoming book Bizarre Beatles Coincidences. Please consider contributing to my Kickstarter page as the Amer...

   [ Find a revised version of this post here .] It doesn't really need to be said, because you'll either get it or you won't...

Some more BIZARRE and ASTONISHING coincidences from my forthcoming book. Murray the K, as everybody knows, was the fifth Beatle, contri...

There has already been interest from America in publishing Bizarre Beatles Coincidences as a proper book, with an advance offered and eve...

  I am about to self-publish my new book entitled "Bizarre Beatles Coincidences - Or Are They?!" As a lifelong student of the...

This is to bring you the happy news that Three Hats For Lisa, the candyfloss-light yet endearing film musical which I wrote about in this...

 [ Find a revised version of this post here . ] For reasons I will make clear at a later date the subject matter - the yoking together o...

 A Ball boss, a bell boy, and a marked mobster.  Why do they sound like lunatics?And in which dame's watery domain might they feel at ...

Okay, here's one. A Lawrentian betting aid;  a Beatles' album before a family intervention;  a hillbilly's tribute to the mi...

Alright, this wasn't actually sent to Round Britain Quiz, as I only thought of it just now, when I should have been doing other things. ...

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...