My West Sussex Observer Series Pop Columns: 1985 – 1994.

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN TO SEE THE COLUMNS BELOW THIS INTRODUCTION.

These columns were published in all three editions of the West Sussex Observer series of newspapers, namely the “Chichester”, the “Bognor Regis”, and the “Midhurst & Petworth” Observers. (These were sometimes referred to as the “Southdown” Observer series). In the Late-1980s we had an audited readership of approximately 55,000. By incredible coincidence, my BBC radio programmes in the Late-1990s and Early 2000s had almost identical RAJAR audience figures, because they were broadcast across 9 different southern counties!

Very luckily, my dear late-Mother Jean cut the articles out of the newspaper and filed them in an A4 wallet in my parents’ filing-cabinet. There are only a handful that are missing. I photocopied these cuttings on my HP laser-printer and stored them in heavy-duty display-books, but then had to scan them for storage in my MacBook’s Drop-Box. From there I have linked them onto my website. They appeared in the Entertainments pages of “The Observer”.

After I had written the column for over a year, the Editor Graham Brooks phoned me in early 1986, asking me to “brighten up” my articles. He was absolutely right, because they were reading more like a “list” of the music being released each week rather than a “critique”, so from then on I went into much greater depth in reviewing 2 or 3 albums each week. I was rewarded with the column normally appearing at the very top of the “Entertainments” page, usually with a photo of one of the pop artists being reviewed. I was very happy with this because it obviously helped to draw the reader’s eye to the article. The “peak” period of which I’m particularly proud, was Autumn 1986 to Early 1989. Because the “Observer” was at that time, a broadsheet paper, I had to “reduce” a few of the articles from A3 size to A4 when photocopying them. It was a fantastic time to be reviewing albums because there were two or three brilliant releases every week, and the music of the time was so diverse. My tastes have always been cosmopolitan so there was very little music that bored me. I wish that I had reviewed more of the heavier rock releases, but I always felt that radio (particularly the BBC) had a bias towards rock, at the expense of other genres, so I was happy to inform readers about a lot of lesser known releases.

Because of my “ear” for music, I am especially proud of my ability to predict which tracks on any given album were the best, and therefore likely to become Single releases. “Chain Reaction” by Diana Ross is one such example (reviewed on Diana’s Bee Gees’ produced LP a few months before becoming a No.1. hit). I was also pleased to review some unknown performers who found later success, like the a-cappella singer Bobby McFerrin who found fame with “Don’t Worry Be Happy”. With BBC-4 Television now showing “Top Of The Pops 1985” onwards (on most Thursday and Friday nights and repeated on Saturday nights), you will be able to see what was going on in the wider pop scene during any given week. If you press the “Info” button on your TV remote-control (or the remote-control for your TV-box), you should be able to see the original broadcast date of the TOTP episode that you are watching or have recorded to watch later. Bear in mind that some episodes of TOTP will not be shown, namely those that featured the disgraced DLT and Jonathan King. Mercifully, the ghastly Savile was no longer on the show by this time. If you watch the HD channel of BBC-4 you will notice that the original film of the shows has been cleaned and remastered – well done BBC!!

In my opinion I was a better pop journalist and writer than a broadcaster, but I enjoyed the latter more, simply because of the rush of adrenalin and excitement. Am now looking forward to developing the “third string to my bow” – music creation on my Yamaha Montage 8 and Limited First Edition Roli Seaboard Grand keyboards. Looking ahead, I may eventually post some of my music on this website, but I’m weighed down with some other projects at present.

So here are my “Record Review” and “CD Review” columns BELOW. You may need to click on your “Back” button to exit each Review and then choose a different date. You should find buttons to enlarge the column or rotate it, etc, to make it easier to read.