Fame Formula

Tucked up in a tiny radio studio, I spent the morning doing a set of radio interviews – BBC Radio Oxford, BBC Radio Humberside, Northsound Aberdeen, BBC Radio Cumbria, BBC Radio York, BBC Radio Sheffield, BBC Radio Manchester, BBC Coventry & Warwicks, BBC Radio Kent, BBC Radio Nottingham, Radio Manx Isle of Man, Heat Radio, BBC Radio Ulster- to plug the Fame Formula. When Damien McCloud from Northsound  came on line we reminisced about Paul Elliot. Evidently Paul had hired him to star in panto. Unfortunately Damien’s inability to dance, act and sing was a handicap that the great impresario managed to gloss over. We chewed the fat over Charles Hawtry but that’s another story. The previous evening I managed to stay awake to do a U.S. radio interview. The hosts were a little uptight and I exerted a huge amount of effort trying to explain the Formula of fame.

I have the dubious honour of being on the first ever Borders podcast http://borders.co.uk/podcast/ it’s available on line now. The promo process has uncovered different reactions to the book and for all those who have read it there doesn’t seem to be a consensus on what would be the single story to shine through. I hope that’s a good sign.  Alan Carr has joined in to help promote the book; his film should be up tomorow so stand by for his comic genius.

The most interesting feature on the book so far has been penned by Dominic Wells. He spoke to me last week and recounted a number of tales about my work when he was the editor of Time Out. See the feature at  http://www.thenational.ae/article/20080730/ART/834102438/1007  I was  amused  to learn that  the feature originally started with the cowboy and the monkey-man, and the  yarn about Tara Tiplady. However, even after a gap of 101 years, this long-buried story was deemed still too racy to print.