Jazz Vocalist
A post I wrote for Huffington Post UK.
It was the summer of chaste snogs with Richard Salmond. It was the summer of Mindy Poole hosting pool(e) parties – being, as she was, the only girl in the village to own a swimming pool(e).
It was the summer of 1986. The summer of Whitney Houston.
And I use italics not for emphasis, but because it’s an album title.
February 12, 2012
(As written for Huffington Post UK)
In 1981, the Chariots Of Fire screenwriter Colin Welland held aloft his Best Original Screenplay Oscar and famously declared: “The British are coming!”
As we all know, he was sadly mistaken.
But call it belief, call it over-excitement, call it both dumb and blind optimism: I am rather sharing Mr Welland’s view right now after the year 2011 has been. Not for Brits in movies, that is – but for women in comedy.
January 9, 2012
As surely as the modern Christmas pop canon contains Driving Home For Christmas, Stop The Cavalry and a drunk couple arguing in a bar – or as it’s also known: Fairytale of New York – so too is there a canon of pop songs, albeit a far smaller one, celebrating the arrival of a new year.
There’s Happy New Year by ABBA. There’s 1999 by Prince – which, amazingly, has lasted beyond its initial ‘Best Before 2000′ date, but which is also only acceptable to sing along to if the year in question scans correctly (for this reason, please ensure that you plump for “Two thousand and twelve!” and not “Twenty twelve!”, when singing along to it this new year’s eve. Otherwise, chaos – or at least mild embarrassment – will ensue).
And there’s The Perfect Year, the 1993 hit by Dina Carroll.
I’m not ashamed to say that I rather like this pop ballad. Indeed, I’m so unashamed that I’ve decided to devote this blog post to it.
December 29, 2011