OK – there are 25 days to go. We've been on the moor and seen the May blossom doing its thing late. I am listening to “don’t let the sun go down on me” sung by George Michael and Elton John. It’s fab – I don’t care how much he’s ridiculed – I LOVE George. He’s a wonderful singer and makes excellent pop songs. I’m listening to it because of Gail D’s thing on facebook about what the No 1 on your 14th birthday was.

OK – so mine is nothing to be proud of – it’s the three degrees, when will I see you again instead of George mcCrae’s Rock Your Baby (which I own on 45rpm). Just like my 21st birthday – Anika singing Japanese Boy instead of Soft Cell’s Tainted Love which became no 1 the following week. As I said – I am “close but no cigar” or “always the bridesmaid never the bride”. I was born too late…

On a bleak day when my teaching was, let’s face it, pants, I find myself feeling blue until Gail’s call to arms. Since then DM and I have warbled our way through every no 1 single since 1974 and in the latter stages we’ve called in Spotify. That means in the last half hour we’ve been bouncing around the room to Aswad’s Don’t turn around, Robert Palmer’s Addicted to love and now Marc Almond and Gene Pitney’s sublime “Something’s gotten hold of my heart”. If you don’t know the song, go and find it NOW. Raid Spotify or youtube or any other method. It’s excellent. It’s more than excellent. It’s perfect. You MUST get the right version – the one with both artists, not one or the other. Play it, listen to it, hear it, play it again and bellow its raw emotion from your heart.

…Something's gotten hold of my hand
Dragging my soul to a beautiful land
Yeah, something has invaded my night
Painting my sleep with a colour so bright
Changing the grey, and changing the blue
Scarlet for me, and scarlet for you….