So, the Beatles are number 1 again. Despite being too young to remember them as an active, going concern of a group, the Beatles were the first band I truly loved. Sometime in the 1970s, when I was at Primary School, the BBC showed a series of Beatles films at Christmas, and I was hooked. My older c...

H is for Hothouse Flowers, a band who Cindy introduces Dave to, her good taste in music confirming his growing sense that she was someone he wanted to spend more time with. I saw Hothouse Flowers at Hammersmith Odeon in the late 80s – I can’t remember if it was before or after their seco...

G is for gigs. Dead Man Singing begins with Dave Masters taking the stage for a gig at the Jericho Tavern in Oxford, a far cry from the sell-out runs at Hammersmith Odeon which he enjoyed in his 70s heyday. Subsequently, the action criss-crosses the country at a series of gigs where Dave is variousl...

Mods and Rockers, Soul boys and New Romantics, Punks, Rastas and Casuals. Music was a tribal affair when I was a young man. Things are a lot less regimented now, with fans mixing and matching their listening to a much greater extent. I think that’s a good thing – after all, there’s...

F is for ‘Feel Like Going Home’, a song with a huge role in the early part of Dead Man Singing. I first heard the song when Mark Knopfler’s Notting Hillbillies covered it on their album Missing: Presumed Having a Good Time, but the original was the work of Charlie Rich. Rich was a ...