Man in the Mirror

Dear James,

Bloody hell! The news sources in Argentina can rarely be trusted, but I think their ¨Michael Jackson might have died¨thing might be correct. And to think we were just talking about cardiac arrests, two posts below, eh?

Mine and my dad's favourite MJ song has to be the eighth single to be released off the Bad album. Me and my sisters had received the Bad album from Great Auntie Susan, who used to send us a cheque for 2 quid every Christmas. We put out heads together and got this. Then we started taking it on access days with Dad. Dad enjoyed Man in the Mirror and could regularly be spotted singing along in his inimitable tone-deaf way, clearly taking in Jackson's wise lyrics and starting to look at that ¨Man in the Mirror¨. Or ¨Dad¨, as we used to call him. Time passed and the Bad cassette seemed to take up residence in Dad´s Lada Combi. Slowly, the awful truth began to dawn: Dad had nicked our tape. So much for Man in the Mirror.

Dear Daniel,



He was good, wasn't he? But let's be honest - only until the end of the 80s. Still - what a showman. I spoke to somebody who saw him play in Roundhay Park in 1988. The buildup was massive. Silence. The lights went up and he was propelled up through the stage, head facing right. Crowd went wild. He stood there for ten minutes. Crown continued to go wild throughout. After the ten minutes, he jerked his head to the right. The crowd went wild. For ten minutes. Then he started the show.

True or not, it totally believable and that is the mark of the man.

Crikey. The king is dead. To quote David Quantick, "Now, Jermaine is King."

Dear James,

I had no idea that my dad played in Roundhay Park. Was it rugby? I disagree that he was only good up to the end of the 80s; he had a purple patch in the late 90s and he's really perked up since his retirement and gave me a hundred quid for my birthday. Unless you're still talking about Michael Jackson.