Steve Pafford

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

Philly white soul boys Daryl Hall & John Oates made a name for themselves via a sweetly inoffensive catalogue of blue-eyed funk and jazz rock-inspired ditties about stained love and…

June 6, 2026

bySteve Pafford

What did you expect to see out of a Torquay hotel bedroom window? Devon, perhaps?

News

June 4, 2026

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

It’s the ear worm that turned. If you want to divide the people in a room into lovers and haters, just put on the song that was released on my 27th birthday, no less: whaddya think about that?…

June 3, 2026

bySteve Pafford

Perfect 10: Spice Girls

June 2, 2026

Perfect 10: Talking ’bout Marilyn Monroe in song

June 1, 2026

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

May 24, 2026

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

May 21, 2026

Highlights

Age to the rhythm: Ladies and gentlemen, Miss Grace Jones (and why she’s younger than you think)

Music

May 19, 2026

Perfect 10: Produced by Brian Eno

Music

May 15, 2026

The day Frank Sinatra met Manic Street Preachers in Golders Green

Music

May 14, 2026

Angel or Legend? Assessing Bob Marley

May 11, 2026

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

May 8, 2026

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

May 4, 2026

Mick Ronson on the wall: Heaven and Hell in Hull

April 29, 2026

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

April 25, 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

The murder of Stephen Lawrence 33 years on

Lest we forget… It’s Stephen Lawrence Day in the ‘United‘ Kingdom. Which, in 2026, means that 33 years ago in its capital city an innocent young boy was savagely slain in a callous racially…

News

April 22, 2026

bySteve Pafford

100 words for Windsor

News

April 21, 2026

bySteve Pafford

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

bySteve Pafford

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

April 7, 2026

bySteve Pafford

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

Music

April 6, 2026

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

March 23, 2026

Licence to flop: The trouble with Timothy Dalton

March 21, 2026

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

Music

Formidable femmes: The 115 women who changed the world

It’s been a wee while since we marked International Women’s Daywith a new feature. As it’s the 115th anniversary of the earliest iteration of IWD—a sui generisFebruary 1909 event organised by…

News

March 7, 2026

bySteve Pafford

Trending Now

Russell Crowe: Another one who’s ballooned

This is not a joke. World Obesity Day is a thing. It exists. And since 2015 it’s been organised by the World Obesity Federation because, well, why not? If we the peoploids have to stand (or…

Screen

March 4, 2026

byjames Harris

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

Music

February 28, 2026

bySteve Pafford

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

February 26, 2026

bySteve Pafford

100 words for Kenneth Williams

February 22, 2026

bySteve Pafford

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

You’ve heard the impossibly incongruous chart news from Blighty, right? Robbie Williams, 52, has overtaken The Beatles on the all-time leaderboard for most UK No. 1 albums ever with his 16th…

Music

February 13, 2026

bySteve Pafford

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

February 8, 2026

bySteve Pafford

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

Music

January 31, 2026

bySteve Pafford

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

January 25, 2026

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

Remembering Robert Palmer: Bryan Ferry on Johnny & Mary

Robert Palmer would have turned 77 t’other day. One of Britain‘s finest pop creators, this Yorkshireman did much to hide in plain sight behind the enduring image of a suave sophisticate with a…

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

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

Date: 17 December 1981 Reviewed: Duran Duran & Talk Talk, Hammersmith Odeon, London, Planet Earth Reviewer: Neil Tennant, Smash Hits, 7-20 January 1982 (very possibly…

December 17, 2025

bySteve Pafford

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

December 12, 2025

bySteve Pafford

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

December 8, 2025

bySteve Pafford

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

December 6, 2025

bySteve Pafford

Events

Perfect 10: Grace Jones’ Alternative Island Life

As the arrival of her much anticipated 11th album inches ever closer, celebrating 50 years of fierce and fearsome recordings, author Callum Pearce has selected a Perfect 10 of Grace Jones…

Music

December 2, 2025

byCallum Pearce

Music

November 8, 2025

bySteve Pafford

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

“The Blue album, there’s hardly a dishonest note in the vocals. At that period of my life, I had no personal defences. I felt like a cellophane wrapper on a pack of cigarettes. I felt like I…

November 7, 2025

bySteve Pafford