How long - has this been going on...

This has been a busy week. The wonder boy Michael Chabon on Sunday,writers' group on Tuesday, Robert Lee (of Black Gold of the Sun)organised an enjoyable evening at the Washington in Sheffield on Wednesday, the great Show of Hands at Buxton Opera House on Thursday. Friday night was scheduled for a catch up at home with Charlie,teenage son and lodger. It didn't quite work out like that. I'd lit the fire and settled in for the evening, so I read a bit, tidied a bit, made a couple of phone calls and then sat down to surf the TV channels. I got caught up in BBC4's evening about Squeeze and Paul Carrack. Now I have some memories of going to see them both, but I haven't felt any urgency to write about them until now. Like last Sunday's stroll through Manchester, it was a trip down Memory Lane. I saw Squeeze at an outdoor festival in Holland, possibly just outside Rotterdam. I was with my new Dutch boyfriend and I had to go back to Manchester to face the music of the break up of my first marriage. I couldn't stop crying, eyes and nose streaming on a lovely sunny summer afternoon. Their lyrics probably didn't help. I saw Ace during the 'How Long' days but I'm a bit hazy where. Kokomo were one of my favourite bands whilst I was at University, and I saw them live at Leeds. I still have their album. I suppose it's all blue eyed soul, but of a very English variety. Paul Carrack talked about his happy family days in Sheffield, before his father died as the result of an accident at work. Things seemed to be getting better all the time.I can recognise that feeling. He and his brother talked about being able to leave school on the Friday and walk into a job on the Monday. His brother took over the family decorating business at 15,and still runs it in Crookes. Sheffield is my second city. I moved there for a brief time in the early 90s and am very fond of it. Neil Hubbard described Paul Carrack as the Michael Palin of rock 'n' roll, because everyone loves him. Strange that Michael Palin is also a Sheffield lad.I went on a healing course with Matthew Manning when I was studying to be a homeopath. At the end of the weekend he played Mike and the Mechanics 'The Living Years'. It was incredibly moving, and I hadn't yet made the link with Paul Carrack that runs through all this.My friend Joyce, who died too young of a brain tumour, loved Paul Carrack and James Taylor and we managed to see them both together several times, so there are other associations linking all this for me.Then I went to see Mike and the Mechanics and rediscovered Paul Young, part of the scene in Manchester - Sad Cafe days. And Mike Rutherford was at school with Dim from Drive In Rock, the band I used to be in.Six degrees of separation, maybe less. Chris Difford said Paul Carrack's music translates the family love from his upbringing. There are many kinds of family.