Paddy McAloon seems to pop up as as a welcome distraction during of some of my life’s more stressful events. Being in hospital gives me plenty of opportunity to catch up with all of Paddy’s media appearances while he promotes Sony’s reissue of ‘I Trawl The Megahertz’. It also gives me the time for a …
Prefab Sprout: The Early Years is a book written from the inside world of Prefab Sprout, drawing from the frank, open, surprising, humorous and enlightening memoirs of those working with, supporting and befriending Paddy McAloon since he first picked up a guitar as a lad, starting out his love affair with words, melodies and art.
It probably won’t surprise hardcore Prefab Sprout fans but will bring about sideways glances from everyone else; when Donald Trump was announced to be the new US president my first thoughts were with Paddy McAloon. I tried to imagine him receiving the news, perhaps in his kitchen with his family. I could see him shaking …
It’s been a while, I know. If I’m still getting any traffic here then all I can say is thanks for keeping the faith. If only I could say that I have vault of unpublished posts waiting to see the light of day. But I’m no Paddy McAloon and I’m afraid to say that its …
At this point I discover that Roland Orzabal has a Twitter account. Roland was the one I fancied on account of his pouty lips and thick curly hair cut into the kind of bob that was trendy at the tail end of the 80s and the beginning of the 90s. I also loved his big voice and his talent for writing great songs. I then find his band mate, Curt Smith who has a lot more followers (37K) than Roland (10K) reason being that Curt was an early adopter of the short form social network whereas Roland is relatively new to the game. Good news for me though as I should be in with a better chance with Roland 😉
First of all, apologies. I’ve probably lost a lot of readers over the past few months who have probably thought I’ve given up this blogging malarkey for something else. I hope this compensates. Last December I had the pleasure of chatting to Paddy McAloon on the phone for over an hour. The transcript was published …
Not for the Dog, although there will be some of this on sale. Not the footie, not for the stotties or the singin’ hinnies. You need to be in Newcastle because you are reading this blog and therefore I presume that you love good songwriting. The 16th of August is International Geocaching Day! and its … Continue reading
By Miranda Diboll More often than not this blog is about music. I spent most of the 80s wallowing in it, my escape from life. At first I had a radio, then a little cassette player and  by the end of the decade,  my first CD player…ok, enough! I also watched a lot of … Continue reading
by Ruth Shields Spotify playlist: Top 10 Todd Todd Rundgren has always been high on the list of musicians I admire. So, I decided to sit down and come up with my top 10 Todd songs as of right now. I believe all 10 are solid tracks that are worth a listen. I … Continue reading
Napster. The day I started using Napster was the day I changed the way I listened to music. All that limited me was the speed of my dial up connection and the size of my hard drive. In those months of using the controversial downloading service, my taste in music had expanded beyond belief. I … Continue reading
Fans of the infamous 4AD label will be no stranger to the name Louise Rutkowski. She sung on This Moral Coil records as well as The Hope Blister. She almost recorded Prefab Sprout’s ‘Horsin’ Around’ with her sister Deirdre until Paddy McAloon took it back and recorded it himself. Most importantly she has just released … Continue reading
While most music blogs have shaken their new years hangover off by the 17th of January, RepHERtoire, the hard core hedonistas that we are are still, well… I can’t talk about the other girls round here but my new years eve was very unhedonistic. It would’ve been off the scale on the boring scale if … Continue reading
Friday 6th December 2013 at 10 am I had the pleasure of speaking with my musical hero, the man who started it all for me, Mr Paddy McAloon of Prefab Sprout. When he answered the phone he seemed to be in good spirits and he genuinely seemed to enjoy our conversation which was originally only … Continue reading
