From Elton John to Sai Baba

I have been invited to do a local radio interview and it’s one of those shows that have a pool of standard questions that you pick out of a hat. Questions like: What book has had a lasting impression on you? What period of history would you like to have lived through? What’s the favourite place you’ve ever been on holiday? Which three living people would you invite to dinner? If you had the chance to re-live an experience for the day - what memory would it be?

It got me thinking. If you knew you were dying, what memory or memories would you want in the front of your mind (assuming you were lucid and not a dribbling idiot). It’s an interesting question. In this blog I tried to get a project going called ‘Your earliest memory’. The idea was to collect memories and maybe spread the project like a virus so that lots of people replicated it on their blogs and so on and so on. But not many people bothered. The link is here.

The other interview questions I would find very hard to answer. It’s like asking. what is your favourite colour. Well, I don’t have one. That’s it! Dinner invitations are even more difficult. I might choose the Indian saint Sai Baba (now that would be interesting), although he might vanish in a puff of vibuti. I’d need to include a woman (definitely) so, what about…do you know, it’s hard to think of one really interesting woman. I might have asked Benazir Bhutto but it’s too late now. How about Edna Everedge? No, it’s a man again. I know, what about Germaine Greer when she was about 23. And finally, I suppose, David Lynch. We might not get on but he does appear to have a mind like mine.

As for my own memories, well, this blog suddenly perked up when I mentioned I had once worked with a naked Pierce Brosnan. What about a few other names to drop. How about sharing a dressing room with Elton John, Dee Murray and Nigel Olsen (his first band). Or, what about carrying a stoned Leonard Cohen from the stage at the first Isle of Wight festival (another good dinner guest choice). Or maybe playing with the Humblebums (Billy Connolly and Gerry Rafferty). Or seeing Paul Simon and his mother at a tiny folk club in Blackheath. Yes, I said his mother - but then again, my memory could be at fault or Paul had a thing for older women.

So, why not dig into your memories and take part in YOUR EARLIEST MEMORY project. Feel free to spread it around the blogosphere.