Forever Young

Hello again. If it feels like ages since I last made an appearance on the dance floor here, that's because it is. Please accept my humble but huge apologies for the sudden interruption in AD service; life (work, emotions, nights out, days sleeping, fun, tears, melodrama, etc) kinda got in the way. Every day, I woke up fully intending to update you (and myself, really) on the lowdown. And every evening, I fell into bed thinking, god, what a neglectful host I am! I like to think that you missed me just enough to wonder where I'd disappeared to and what I was filling my time with, but not enough to get obsessional about my disappearance. Anyway, here I am ... and it's good to be back.

Leo Sayer did it yesterday, Morrissey celebrates today and Joan Collins (who doesn't need, want nor probably care about a Wikipedia link) will no doubt be drinking champagne like there's no tomorrow, erm, tomorrow.

We interrupt this broadcast to bring you a message from our sponsors, 'Camp Quotes Ltd'. Today's quote comes courtesy of the aforementioned Joanie who, when recently asked about the age difference between her and husband number 107, Percy Somebody, replied: "If he dies, he dies. Life goes on, doesn't it?". Thank you for listening. On with the show ...

So, anybody turning (insert sounds of rustling around and general background humdrum here) today, May 22nd, is in pretty good company. Happy Birthday me! And thank you, Michael, for the perfect presents (including Andy Merrifield's 'Wisdom of Donkeys', Alan Bennett's 'Uncommon Reader' and a 3-CD boxed set called 'The Edge of The Eighties' - yaaaay!) that I woke up to this morning, followed by glittery leopard print pumps (amongst other glamorous lovelies) from mum, a whole outfit from Vicki and the girls and ... oh, but hang on; there's far more to birthdays than gifts (such as, for instance, a good-old knees up in GP tonight). 

In amongst all the childish excitement, we seem to have left a Very Important Person off the early Gemini celebrity roll call. Ah, well done you at the back! It is indeed Steve Strange's birthday on Saturday. And yes, Sir Larry Olivier would have been 101 today. But as much as I love them both for their various (and not exactly dissimilar) charms, I'm actually talking about Bob Dylan, who turns 60 on Saturday. 

Now I don't claim to be a huge Dylan fan, but I'm happy to admit a more than passing partiality to his gentler Greatest Hits  ('Lay, Lady, Lay', for example, high on my list of 'Sexiest Songs Ever'). But, particularly on the auspicious occasion of my b'day, one Dylan ditty in particular has become somewhat of a personal anthem. 

My dad dedicated 'Forever Young' to me over the sound system of the Everyman Bistro in Liverpool on the day I turned six years old. For several birthdays thereafter, it became a bit of a tradition for one family member to play it at least once every May 22nd until the hippy-dippy unit got hit by what felt like a nuclear bomb. As the years rolled by, I kinda self-styled myself to include a blast of 'She Belongs To Me' as a personal birthday tribute, but really, 'Forever Young' still says it all - for me, for you, for everyone around us. So go on, do yourself (and me!) a favour on my birthday and hit the play button on the link below. The fact that this snippet is a clip from the 1978 Scorsese film 'The Last Waltz' has extra resonance for me because (a) I have bittersweet but wonderful memories about where, when, how and why I finally got around to watching the film itself, and (b) I don't believe in the concept of a 'last waltz'; no matter what happens after the music fades, the memory lasts for an eternity. 

Now pass me the Garnier Ultra-Lift Pro-X with ProXylane (a present to myself) ... I have a birthday to celebrate. Cheers!