You ‘hip’ young trendies will know about the concert happening at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium on December 18th   featuring Tom Jones and The Stereophonics.

Do big music acts like these toss a coin to decide who’ll top the bill?

It’s not unusual…

The support band are Catfish and The Bottlemen, who I must confess, because I’m not a hip young trendy like you, I’ve never heard of.

But I found out they’re from Llandudno! And I thought the biggest thing to come out of that glorious Victorian town was the A55.

Catfish and the Bottlemen may be an odd name, but it’s a bit more colourful than some modern bands names that lack that ‘rock band’ vibe of Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, The Clash, The Killers and Kings Of Leon.

In the 60s, ‘groups’ as they were referred to then had exciting, slightly ‘dangerous’ names like The Tornados, The Shadows, Johnny and The Hurricanes, The Ventures, Screaming Lord Sutch & The Savages and The Beverly Sisters…err…okay, maybe not them!

While I can’t comment on their music because I haven’t heard that much of it, whoever thought-up bland names like ‘Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman, Howe’, The Script, The Cure and the particularly uninspired The The, weren’t trying hard enough.

Having said that, rock bands have been around for 60 years, so it must be incredibly hard to come up with new names.

Here’s a pop quiz for you.  Out of the band names I’ve listed below, which were or still are actual bands and which are names I made up?

And no cheating by reading ahead!

The Joy Strings

Hedgehoppers Anonymous

Dicky Hart & The Murmurs.

Hootie & The Blowfish.

Cliff Rescue & The Helicopters.

Dogs Die In Hot Cars.

Houston Wells & The Marksmen.

Half-Man. Half-Biscuit.

Nero & The Gladiators.

The 1910 Fruitgum Company.

How many were made-up? 3? 4?

Actually they’re all real names of bands past and present.

My Uncle Cledwyn didn’t get one right, which isn’t surprising because he thinks E L O is what people in the North of England say when they meet each other…and is convinced Fleetwood Mac is a raincoat made in a Lancashire coastal town…

I cannot abide annoying people who try to impress others by name dropping.
And I’m not alone in feeling this way.

Paul McCartney and Sting told me they held exactly the same view about name droppers when I chatted with them at George Clooney’s birthday party on board Leonardo De Caprio’s $20 million yacht while it was moored off the coast of Monte Carlo, just half-a-mile from Shirley Bassey’s house – which I’ve only been invited to twice.

The first time with Barack & Michelle and the second time with The Chuckle Brothers.

While their table manners left something to be desired, the ex-President and his wife made amends for their lack of etiquette by offering to do the washing up and to brush away the cake crumbs they’d thrown all over the table during a furious argument about whether Lemon Drizzle cake was tastier than a Victoria Sandwich.

While he could easily have been judgmental about their behaviour, all credit to the Pope, who was sat between Dame Judi Dench and Tony Blackburn at the opposite end of the table. He pretended not to have noticed the tiff, even when a piece of lemon icing landed on his mitre.

When he closed his eyes for a few moments, I wasn’t sure if he was in silent prayer or if the undercooked linguine had given him indigestion.

As you can tell, I keep very close to my chest all the things I’ve witnessed when I’ve hob-nobbed with A-list celebrities over the years.

And we didn’t just hob-nob. Oh no! Many’s the time we shared a digestive or a jammy dodger or even a rich tea biscuit.

And if you think I’m going to slip in some suspect double entendre about ginger nuts, you’re in for a disappointment my friend.  I’m saving it for next week.

By the way, I’ve been aware of ‘rich’ tea biscuits all my life but I’ve never come across ‘poor’ tea biscuits.

This is something I mentioned to The Krankies when we were guests at Meghan and Harry’s wedding.

See, once you start, it’s difficult to stop!

As I was saying to…

People can make you feel small without saying a word.

Humans have certain ‘tells’ that give away their true feelings.
For example, if a friend asks how your career is going and before you respond they immediately look down at their shoes, they’re merely going through the motions and aren’t remotely interested in your answer or career.

During 2020, a writer friend was offered work on a stage project due to open in 2023 and in June this year he was invited to the first (Covid safe!) workshop/rehearsal in London, pleased to be part of the creative process again after such a long time.  His friends in the ‘Business’ were happy for him and genuinely interested in the show’s progress.  However…

While he was away, a married couple he and his wife had known for years, had phoned his house and been told he was rehearsing in London.
In the past he’d given them free tickets to several TV and stage shows he’d written, so, when they turned up one afternoon, just after his return home, naturally my friend thought they might ask him what he’d been doing in London as he was very excited about his involvement with such a prestigious project.

Yet, unbelievably, while the visitors sat around drinking tea and eating cake, they made no reference to his London trip.
They didn’t ask one question about it, even when his wife mentioned the London hotel he’d stayed in – a natural jumping-on point for them to ask a question …had they been interested.

As the afternoon turned into evening, it became obvious they were making a deliberate point of not mentioning his new project – for reasons he couldn’t fathom, which left him puzzled and a little hurt.  As his friends are far wealthier than he and his wife will ever be, surely they couldn’t be jealous of his small success and if they really weren’t interested why did they call in so soon after his return home?

My take on this is, our lives are short and we shouldn’t have to spend precious time with people who treat us with disdain or contempt.

I don’t know about you, but this year seems to have flown.
As a young lad, I do seem to remember periods when time dragged. However, as I get older, this seems to be far from the case.
It appears that as we grow older, our perception of time changes. Interesting, isn’t it?

Christmas will once again be upon us and for many, that little black dress will make an appearance from the wardrobe, where it has been hiding since pre Covid.  Clean off the moth balls, blow off the dust and pray that it still fits!
Having said that, if it didn’t fit then, it certainly won’t fit now.  I’m only joking, I don’t own a little black dress . . .
Mine is red!

So how will you be celebrating this year?

Will you be making up for lost time and take every opportunity to embrace life to the full, while we can?

Or are we beyond all that and now conditioned to be cautious, stay at home and keep the mingling to a minimum?

We certainly do live in interesting times – and, although life seems to be flying by, are you happy with and embracing the new normal?

Write and share your thoughts with me on this one; I would love to hear from you.