mostly david ephgrave

What a lovely day for a 66-mile round trip to London for my second rescheduled doctors' appointment to be brought forward without my knowledge and without them thinking to call me when I didn't turn up to see if I'd received their letter; a £30 train ticket’s quite a price to pay for a Gray’s Inn Rd coffee. The only good news was I managed to get back to Hitchin pretty quickly all things considered, though I did have to go to St Pancras rather than the usual King’s Cross due to Chris Grayling’s bastardised rail timetable (another Tory success story; "successstory?"), I'd received an answerphone message by the afternoon with the offer of a rescheduled appointment, but it’s still frustrating that I went all that way for no real reason, particularly when it’s the second time it's happened; you’d definitely think it would be obvious when I didn’t turn up yesterday that I might not been told of the change of date, when that situation could have ...

I just wanted to take a moment to shine a light on this lesser-known track from The Beatles (A.K.A. the White Album) that has no right to be a lesser-known when it comes to it. I think part of the reason it’s largely unknown is due to its original mix, which was so quiet as to almost be inaudible for at least the first half of the song, particularly when listened to on vinyl. Now if you take a look at the comments on the YouTube link I posted you’ll find as many people complaining that the newly lifted level diminishes the dynamics as those who are delighted they can finally hear it; while I can see a little of both (particularly when it comes to the rattling wine-bottled howling-over-an-organ finish, which sounds far more atmospheric on the original version) when push comes to shove, I fall more in the latter camp: lifting the level has elevated the song, given it a chance to shine it never had previously. It’s no wonder it got lost really, being tucked away towa...

If you’ve ever wanted proof that the gutter press lies, here it is: in total contradiction to the headline they’ve run with, that woman looks nothing like that horse. What I find most bizarre of all is - despite clearly not bearing even a passing resemblance to each other - the folk at Real People decided to make this a cover story, which is a window in to how few scoops they had that fortnight that they had to use one that just a passing glance would contradict; it’s a bit like saying Tony Slattery has grown a second head, then using a picture of him with just his usual head as proof. Having said that, at least the nature of this particular story is pretty lightweight and unlikely to trigger panic, which is a rarity when it comes to that type of magazine these days. I’ve already gone on record for previously being obsessed with taking pictures of the ridiculous headlines they put on the front of the likes of Real People, That’s Life and Take A Break, bu...

I’m frustrated that the cancellation of last week’s Mostly Comedy has put me in an impossibly tight financial situation and fed up with the amount of work I put into something that can so easily be affected by pulling a date. On one hand, I kind of had the deciding vote when it came to the show not going ahead, so I feel responsible for it, which is all the more irritating now I’m out of pocket as a result. While we’ve yet to actually receive any complaints about the cancellation, this is unusual, as people are often very unreasonable about these things, which only compounds the frustration with the amount of work you put in for the amount of money you take out, particularly when cancelling a date is more involved than it going ahead; I can't imagine many of the people who moan about these things would have stuck with a project like the club for as long as Glyn and I did before we took anything out of it financially (we’re talking years here). It just so ...

Tonight I committed the cardinal sin of forgetting to take part in the Strictly vote. I only just remembered a few minutes after the deadline, which was frustrating as I really wanted to vote for Lauren tonight as she’s doing exceptionally well, but doesn’t seem to get the recognition. As I say below, I feel the judges choose mark each contestant based on their individual traits rather than casting an eye over everyone and marking them accordingly - and for some reason despite coming on in leaps and bounds Lauren is still talked to like she’s not putting anything into it. Here are my tweets about tonight’s show: 7:13PM: I think @glyndoggett and I took a show to Edinburgh in 2008 called 'The Bounce Debate'.   7:27PM: Worth remembering next time Tess does one of her soulless, wooden, dead-behind-the-eyes links.  7:30PM: Nice work if you can get it.     7:31PM: Small balls, big balls, Ed Balls.     7:33PM: Shut up, Tess: I ...