Steve Pafford

Happiness is a place called Richmond: my erstwhile neighbour David Attenborough at 100

Felicitations and very happy centenary celebrations to the educator par excellence and one of the most inspirational humans on Planet Earth, Mr David Attenborough (sorry, not sorry, but the…

May 8, 2026

bySteve Pafford

Assessing the Girl Power of the Spice Girls — 90s nostalgia or a lasting legacy?

May 7, 2026

Perfect 10: Spice Girls

Thirty years ago five women intersected (somewhat) by happenstance and changed the face of popular music shortly thereafter. This isn’t shameless hyperbole, it’s a statement of fact. The…

May 6, 2026

byQuentin Harrison

Say No Go: The surprise rehabilitation of Daryl Hall & John Oates (No Can Do)

May 5, 2026

May The Fourth Be With You: How Margaret Thatcher launched the Star Wars ‘holiday’

May 4, 2026

We shall overcome? Why Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On is more relevant than ever

May 1, 2026

Mick Ronson on the wall: Heaven and Hell in Hull

April 29, 2026

Highlights

Exclusive audio: Neil Tennant talks David Bowie, Michael Jackson and Take That

April 25, 2026

Random Jukebox: Pondering Patti LaBelle’s big-haired Bond theme If You Asked Me To

April 24, 2026

The murder of Stephen Lawrence 33 years on

News

April 22, 2026

100 words for Windsor

News

April 21, 2026

Elizabeth Sladen: forever our Sarah Jane Smith

April 19, 2026

You’re an actor too? That time I worked with David Tennant

April 18, 2026

It Was 11 Years Ago Today: Dusty Springfield’s Faithful found in the nick of time

April 7, 2026

The winners took it all: ABBA’s Waterloo at 52

Music

April 6, 2026

Random Jukebox

Random Jukebox: The Hotrats’ Turn Ons

October 3, 2025

Random Jukebox: Garbage say The World Is Not Enough

August 25, 2025

Random Jukebox: Neneh Cherry’s Manchild

August 19, 2025

Random Jukebox: Jack White & Alicia Keys find Another Way To Die

July 8, 2025

Random Jukebox: Cyndi Lauper’s Into The Nightlife

June 22, 2025

Random Jukebox: Duran Duran’s A View To A Kill + how they took over Bond from Bowie

May 12, 2025

Random Jukebox: The Belle Stars’ Sign Of The Times

April 30, 2025

Random Jukebox: Robert Wyatt’s Shipbuilding

January 27, 2025

One could almost call it an altar: ten things you didn’t know about Elizabeth Taylor

It’s like the song goes, “Red lips, dark hair,” and those violet eyes. Those incredible violet eyes. Elizabeth Taylor was one of film’s most celebrated figures whose name was synonymous with…

March 23, 2026

bySteve Pafford

Licence to flop: The trouble with Timothy Dalton

March 21, 2026

bySteve Pafford

Black celebration: dissecting Depeche Mode’s Violator

March 19, 2026

Even better than the real thing: 11 Irish Icons that aren’t U2

March 17, 2026

bySteve Pafford

Formidable femmes: The 115 women who changed the world

News

March 7, 2026

bySteve Pafford

Russell Crowe: Another one who’s ballooned

Screen

March 4, 2026

45 at 45(ish): Adam Ant is The Human League’s Mirror Man

Music

February 28, 2026

Six degrees of separation: How often do you think of Fanny?

February 26, 2026

100 words for Kenneth Williams

February 22, 2026

Twenty Years Ago Steve Pafford did Robbie Williams in the Rudebox review

Music

February 13, 2026

Music

Die young, stay pretty: the intimacy and iconography of James Dean

True to his “live fast, die young” philosophy, James Byron Dean, the archetypal angry Rebel Without A Cause, was born 95 years ago today, just 24 years before being obliterated at the wheel of…

February 8, 2026

bySteve Pafford

Trending Now

John Lydon at 70: “Have I mellowed? Absolutely fucking not!” – a classic interview revisited

With brand new Public Image Ltd. material on the way, and — gasp! — hopefully not aiming for Eurovision glory this time around, we celebrate the former Sex Pistol becoming rock‘s latest…

Music

January 31, 2026

bySteve Pafford

Starman in Streatham: David McAlmont climbs the Wall To Wall Bowie

January 25, 2026

bySteve Pafford

Remembering Robert Palmer: Bryan Ferry on Johnny & Mary

Music

January 22, 2026

bySteve Pafford

The Caped Crusader of camp: Holy Happy 60th, Batman!

January 15, 2026

bySteve Pafford

The Moolah Of Suburbia: cashing in on Bowie’s Bromley house

“See these tiles so green…” So, a full decade after his ascension to that great Stardust in the sky, it’s been announced that one of David Bowie’s childhood homes is to be turned into a…

Bowie

January 10, 2026

bySteve Pafford

The Grand Illusion of David Bowie: David Currie book foreword by Steve Pafford

Bowie

January 8, 2026

bySteve Pafford

That time Neil Tennant reviewed a Duran Duran gig in Smash Hits. Talk Talk bring up the rear

December 17, 2025

bySteve Pafford

The Frank that drank: when Pet Shop Boys did dinner with Sinatra

December 12, 2025

bySteve Pafford

Trending Now

Random Jukebox: Dinah Washington’s Mad About The Boy

One hundred years ago, jazz and blues singer Dinah Washington was born in Alabama. The Grammy-winning “Queen of the Jukeboxes” would leave this bitter earth behind at the tender age of 39,…

August 28, 2024

bySteve Pafford

Random Jukebox: Goldfrapp’s Human

July 31, 2024

bySteve Pafford

Random Jukebox: Chris Cornell’s You Know My Name, from Casino Royale

July 19, 2024

bySteve Pafford

Random Jukebox: Blancmange’s Living On The Ceiling

June 13, 2024

bySteve Pafford

Random Jukebox

These are the crimes: The time David Bowie sung John Lennon’s Imagine

I met John Lennon in Hong Kong in 1977. He was travelling with Sean, who was about two years old, and was on his way to meet Yoko in Japan. I was with David Bowie and Coco Schwab, on our way…

December 8, 2025

bySteve Pafford

The Youth of Today: That time Neil Tennant interviewed Musical Youth in Smash Hits

December 6, 2025

bySteve Pafford

Perfect 10: Grace Jones’ Alternative Island Life

Music

December 2, 2025

byCallum Pearce

David Bowie’s DNA: Spaceboy Keeps Swinging

December 1, 2025

bySteve Pafford

June Whitfield at 100: Mum and Gran’s most Absolutely Fabulous one-liners, dear

June Whitfield, the nonagenarian national treasure who died at the tail-end of 2018, had one of the longest, most remarkable careers in the entertainment industry. In a world where the…

November 11, 2025

bySteve Pafford

Love is a stranger in an open car: locating Eurythmics in Little Venice

Music

November 8, 2025

bySteve Pafford

A Case of Blue: Joni Mitchell’s fabulous fourth album

November 7, 2025

bySteve Pafford

FFF: The time Neil Tennant interviewed Marc Bolan for Marvel Comics

November 5, 2025

bySteve Pafford

Events

There ain’t nothing like a Dane: Appreciating Agnes Obel

With her hushed and wistful grace, classically trained Danish singer-songwriter/composer Agnes Obel writes serene, sombre works of art surrounded by intimate concepts of the reflective self.…

October 28, 2025

bySteve Pafford

News

October 13, 2025

bySteve Pafford

Pet Shop Boys’ Chris Lowe at 66: six of the best PSB tracks by ‘the other one’

If I can paraphrase his taller, older singing partner, you don’t get the mix, he’s gone 66… As is the case with the best partnerships in music and beyond, Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe (always…