grumpyf1

Sunglasses when it's dark? Check. Rock God? Check. Brace yourselves, I’ve got some shocking news. My faith in humanity has been restored. In London. That’s a lot to process, isn’t it? First off, I can reassure you that I haven’t been kidnapped and a cheerier, equally dashing, doppelganger parachuted in to replace me. It’s fair to point out that this may also be a fleeting version of me, destined to have evaporated like the mist on a sunny morning by the time you read this. But hey – I’m in a happy place for the time being. All thanks to a trip to Wembley Stadium last Saturday to see Jeff Lynne’s Electric Light Orchestra. I haven’t been there for 25 years... or ever, if you take into account the fact that it’s been replaced since I went to the Freddie Mercury Tribute concert in ’92. True, the day could have started better. As we approached Arnside station in the car, a train was rattling across the viaduct, accompanied by a dawning realisation that we’d got the departure t...

Funny how it goes, isn't it? This blog is six years old, and I've experienced some euphoric highs in terms of visits, and some crushing lows that left me wondering why I was bothering. I was startled to log in the other day and discover that the Queen at Wembley column had, in the space of 2 weeks, become the most viewed post... by four times more than the previous best. As if that wasn't jaw-dropping enough, in under a week the fad food one has also become 6th most viewed post ever. The stats are a little limited on here, but it also appears that the views for these are predominantly from the UK - a switch from the more usual USA readership. Not sure what I did right, or if it's just luck, but hey - I'll take it. Thanks for reading them - you've made my day! (Another break from the CD A-Z today, for a new compilation from a-ha - 'Time and Again - The Ultimate'. True, I've already got the hits, but I'm a sucker for a good remix, and...

Thirty years ago you took O-Levels, Den was yet to serve divorce papers on Angie, you had no Neighbours and Freddie Starr was (allegedly) eating hamsters. Oh, and I went to the best gig ever. Friday, the 11th of July, 1986. I was 19, and I had big hair. I also owned a very nice grey leather jacket, which I was paying for in weekly instalments to the lady over the road with the catalogue. The world was my oyster, although fish fingers were more my level of sophistication. I had yet to try lasagne, had no idea why anyone would want a frothy coffee, and lived at home with my parents, who were distinctly unimpressed with my taste in music. Or possibly the volume. What else was a teenage lad to do? Computers barely existed (IBM were just releasing the ‘PC Convertible’, a concept so radical no-one had thought of calling it a ‘laptop’ yet), mobile phones were the size of a brick, price of a house, and only did what their name suggested, and there are only so many games of Monopoly you...