It’s an occasional memory – but a grim one. I once tuned to Radio 1 and heard the unmistakable lilt of the repetitive but beautiful melody of Black’s Wonderful Life. It hadn’t been a hit yet, but I had bought it a while earlier.

“Oh good”, I thought – and then “this is one of my favourite songs”

At this point I stopped thinking and listened…the couple of minutes that followed should have been a blissful swim in Colin Vearncombe’s perfect, sunshiney aural world. Here comes those feelings of serenity and inner peace that will kick in when I hear that song. Yay!

But instead, Col sings #No need to run and hide…it’s Ga-ry Davies on Radio wuuun…#. And then the song itself properly starts.

By now though, everything is spoiled. It’s slightly-off milk, it’s the cup of tea that’s been allowed to cool for a bit too long so it’s got a skin on top. It’s just not right is it?

And then I thought of another one of my favourite songs – “Atmospherics” by Tom Robinson. Similar thing happened there. The chorus “Listen to the radio…woo-oo…Listen to the radio” was changed to “Mike Read on » Continue Reading.