Oh dear, looks like I am going to be exposed in a Sunday newspaper for a misdeed of my youth. Gulp. It's all rather embarrassing.
I was inundated with messages on email and via Facebook of the "we'll stand by you" variety. All very touching. The trouble was, it was just my little joke. It referred to a conversation I had just had with Sunday Times journalist Richard Woods who was writing a story on the 25 Random Things About Me meme which has been going round. His article appears in the paper today and you can read it HERE. But this is the relevant extract...
...It was this potential insight into character that lured Iain Dale, a British political blogger, to take part in “25 random things” even though he is wary of internet crazes. “Some of these things that go round the internet are incredibly boring,” he said. “But the way some people have done these lists is really interesting.”
When Dale compiled his own thoughts he admitted at No 13: “As an 11-year-old I fancied Esther Rantzen [the former television presenter] something rotten.” He grew up to be gay. And at No 20, he confessed: “I own more than 120 Cliff Richard CDs.”
Surely that can’t possibly be true. Nobody would buy 120 different Cliff Richard CDs. “Er, well, yes I did,” Dale explained yesterday. “Strangely, I went to see him at the London Palladium in 1978 when he reformed with The Shadows and, um, I’m the sort of person that if I buy an album of somebody and I like it, I end up buying everything.
“So I have got virtually everything he’s ever done – compilations, the lot.”
It could be worse. At least it wasn’t Bucks Fizz.
Is this the time to admit that not only do I have Cliff's entire back catalogue, but I also have Bucks Fizz's? Probably not.
UPDATE: The Sunday Times has helped me redeem my reputation by including this blog in its Top 100 Blogs list. The only other political ones to be included are Guido, John Redwood, Tom Harris and John Prescott, although they slightly spoil it by putting that Prescott blogs at LabourHome rather than GoFourth.
The BBC is going on about an 80s revival this morning.
ReplyDeleteYou are probably just ahead of the game!
Disgusting. Cliff's entire back catalogue?
ReplyDeleteI thought it had been banned by La Smith to ensure public safety. The cops'll be round to root through your collection of 45s and LPs very shortly - I'd get it out to Liechtenstein pretty quick.
Iain,
ReplyDeleteYou could rework the old joke
"Esther Rantzen made me a homosexual...."
My band used to do a song about media tarts that contained the lines
"I could have been like Esther Rantzen
But they said I was too Handsome"
I don't know why but as I read your blog I recalled that and chuckled.
OH.......MY.......GOD!
ReplyDeleteWait until Derek Draper gets hold of this!
LOL ;o)
Alastair Cooke once quoted someone on his Letter from America Radio 4 programme (sorely missed).
ReplyDelete"The whole truth about any one of us would shock all of us."
We all have some embarrassing incident in our life which we would rather not see spread over 2 pages of the Mail on Sunday!
Further to my last post Iain; did you by any chance spot this exciting offer in the Guardian?
ReplyDelete2009 Draper Tool Offers
" 100's Of 2009 Draper Tool Offers."
"1000's Of Low Priced Draper Tools."
Draper-2009-Offers.primetools.co.uk
So now it's official.
Draper IS a tool. ;o)
to which you can add being named in todays sunday times as one of the top 100 bloggers - also mentioned are guido and tom harris but no mention of a draper
ReplyDeleteodd that!
@davidc
ReplyDeleteThat's just dear old Bryan Appleyard, desperate to drive traffic to his moribund blog.
No Derek Draper in that list of influential bloggers..?
ReplyDeleteNothing wrong with Esther Rantzen
ReplyDeleteDisappointed "Zionist on The Web" didn't make it.
ReplyDeleteVery funny Iain. My first exposure to the lurid world of rock 'h roll, aged 7, was seeing Cliff & The Shadows (with bad boys, Jet Harris & Tony Meehan, of course), at the ABC Ardwick in Manchester.
ReplyDeleteCliff was then the UK's answer to Elvis, with brylcreemed and quiffed hair, and almost snaky hips.
Happily, that didn't last long. I became a hippie :-)
I'm glad we were prepared for a shock!
ReplyDeleteDon't know if you've noticed Iain but Draper's getting a kicking on the LabourList's comments, about Guido and racism, regarding using the term 'windowlicker'.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis is all very well, but can we get back to some Brown bashing. In other news, Gordon Brown condones educational elitism...
ReplyDeletehttp://thehuck.blogspot.com/
it just goes to show you can't be too careful.
ReplyDeleteThere is a lot right with Cliff Richard. No shame there. It isn't like you are a West Ham supporter or anything.
ReplyDeleteOh, well.
So is Cliff either (a) gay or (b) in denial? I think that’s all the possibilities.
ReplyDeleteDesperately important as the UK sinks beneath the waves!
ReplyDeleteCliffe Richard is a national treasury to the younger generation! I will never forget Cliff Richard and the young ones and that child picking his nose in the video! (Maybe it was Gordon Brown!)
ReplyDeleteSeriously though in times of hardship listening to some of Cliffes records is southing as it reminds people of the safety of the past!
Aww, poor widdle Dolly. His sorry excuse for a blog/website doesn't appear in it. It can only be a matter of time before he writes an article on LabourList saying that they're out to get him.
ReplyDeleteIan...you like just what you like, old son. We are all different and thankfully all like different things. If you knew some of the music I like, it would make your hair curl!
ReplyDeletePlus normblog and Chris Dillow.
ReplyDelete