West of Centre

Along with many other British people, I retired to bed on Thursday evening having just seen news channels intimating that the UK looked to have decided to remain in the EU. It's a brave man who predicts the winner in a two horse race. It's been quite a week and already the aftermath is being felt. The nastiness and personal attacks which characterised the recent period of campaigning has since moved in to overdrive. But is the UK really as divided as we are led to believe? During my school years, one of the highlights of my week became the debating society. There is nothing quite like the passionate views of youth being expressed with such energy and conviction. Of course, I would be the first to admit that many of the views and beliefs of my youth are now thankfully distant memories. But the feeling of winning a debate was like no other. I can remember debating whether Nelson Mandela should still be in prison (I'm showing my age now). I can recall a particularly dull deb...

On St. Patrick's day in 1938, a baby was born on a Trans-Siberian train near Irkutsk. The baby's mother was travelling to the Russian port of Vladivostock where her husband was stationed as a political commissar in the Red Army. Raised as the only son of a Tatar family in the village of Ufa in the Bashkir region, the boy was taken to a performance of a new Bashkir ballet entitled "Crane Song". The ballet itself is not well known today but it had a dramatic impact on the little boy taken to see it. From that first exposure to live ballet, the young Rudolf Nureyev knew what he would be doing with the rest of his life. With perhaps the exception of Nijinsky, it would be difficult to cite a more important or influential figure in twentieth century dance. He displayed a precocious style which in due course took him first to the Bolshoi and then to the Kirov. His subsequent achievements were many and British fans still savour his legendary partnership with the late Dame M...

In his excellent autobiography, the late keyboard maestro Ian McLagan recalled with great affection his time with both the Small Faces during the 1960s and then with the Faces in the 1970s. The former gave way to the latter after the departure of Steve Marriott on New Year's Eve 1968. After a brief period of uncertainty, the three remaining Small Faces (Ronnie Lane, Kenny Jones and Ian McLagan) happened upon the erstwhile bass guitarist from the Jeff Beck Group. Ronnie Wood is now far more synonymous with the guitar but it was the bass which he played in that stellar line-up. Well, almost stellar. Everyone knew about Jeff Beck following his time as lead guitarist with the legendary Yardbirds. Most people knew a lot about the drummer Mickey Waller who had first made his name with John Mayall's Bluesbreakers and even Cyril Davies' R&B All Stars before that. But what of the singer Rod Stewart. Even by the time he joined Ron Wood in the Faces, he was far from well known. ...