mostly david ephgrave

Listening to the final part of 'Paul Merton’s Beatles' today in the midst of the UK's current heatwave brought to mind one of my favourite renditions of a Buddy Holly song, Wings’ ‘Love is Strange’. Well…all right (to quote another Holly record): it isn’t technically a Buddy song so much as a track that’s often connected with him because he covered it too, but it’s fair to say neither the original by Fifties R&B act Micky & Sylvia, nor Buddy’s version instantly lend themselves to be reinterpreted with a loose reggae groove, but that’s the route Macca chose to take with excellent results. In my opinion it’s by far the most enjoyable performance on Wings’ much maligned first LP - and while that’s fairly shallow praise, it is by no means meant to be taken as such; it’s just about as summery a recording as you can get. It’s fair to say that Paul had a bit of a soft spot for reggae in the early Seventies, something Wings' 1972 s...

This afternoon, I went for a walk in the cemetery near where I live, which happens to be one of my favourite places. It’s very peaceful there, which is as you’d expect, yet it’s also a hive of activity for wildlife. There’s such a mix of different types of trees and hedges all thrown together with countless spots where the grass has been purposely left to overgrow to encourage all manner of birds and insects. It’s somehow appropriate that a place that’s been set aside for the dead is teeming with life, and a reminder of how it flows on within you and without you, to paraphrase the Quiet Beatle. It’s a place I’ll often go to think, or to get a breath of fresh air. It’s also randomly where I posed for my last actor’s headshot; after all, where would appear more castable? Consequently, it can’t be long before I crop up in an episode of Most Haunted: my surname isn’t Ephgrave for nothing. I went there today with my wife, when we spent some time wandering amongst the headston...