Grantgoddard Stories

"You will present a weekly two-hour rock music show on Saturday night," my manager informed me. No if's or but's. No offer over which to mull. No demo tape to...

"Which bus goes to the University, please?" I asked. The man replied helpfully, but I could not understand a word he had said. He spoke English, though not an...

I blame Jesse James. Though cowboys and westerns held zero interest for me, something about the record 'Jesse James' appealed, much as an Israeli novelty song 'Cinderell...

It was a little after seven o'clock in the morning when the phone rang. Normally, I would already have been out of bed by that hour on a weekday. However, the previous n...

Magazine editors. What do they do? "They create editorial calendars, develop story ideas, manage writers, edit content and manage the production process..." ac...

I only knew 'Roger Tate' (real name Bob Tomalski) through listening to his programmes on the radio. He was a DJ on 'Radio Invicta', London's first soul music radio stati...

The couple put the huge dog in the back of their car and, before setting off down our driveway, smiled and waved at us. We did not smile. We did not wave back. My mother...

"Bob Marley has died!" I exclaimed. Having switched on the car radio before starting the engine, one of Marley's songs was playing on John Peel's 'BBC Radio On...

"CRUELLA DE VIL", our teacher had chalked onto the blackboard at the front of our classroom hut. We had been reading aloud excerpts from the 1956 children's no...

A colleague would arrive at my workplace some Mondays with evident cuts and bruises. A tragic case of domestic violence? No. He was a loyal fan of Millwall Football Club...

Blam!! A sudden force on my back knocked me over in a second. No time to figure out what had just happened. I was sprawled front-down on the floor with a weight on my ba...

"I understand you're an expert in messaging," said the woman sat behind the desk. I looked blank. I had absolutely no idea what she was talking about. If she m...

"Gimme your money!" he shouted, pointing a pistol at me. He had jumped out from behind some bushes. It was a dark winter evening. I was alone. Nobody was about...

The conversation at the Radio Academy event in London entitled 'Is Radio Racist?' became heated when the chairman, 'LBC' morning show presenter James O'Brien [JO], was q...

"Clackety-clack clackety-clack, from Kalamazoo to Timbuctoo, from Timbuctoo and back!" As a young reader, I learned these words by heart from a favourite child...

"I am here for the Accommodation Office, please," I said with trepidation to the uniformed man behind the huge wooden reception desk in the lobby of the Old Sh...

"How often do you wash your face?" asked the doctor. "Like how?" I responded, uncertain about what he was enquiring. "You know, with soap and wa...

Kapow! There was an explosion. Before I even grasped what had just happened, I could see I was covered with shards of glass. What was that noise? The train window I was...

"I don't wanna go," I was shouting as I struggled to hang on to the car door for dear life. I was being kidnapped and forced into a vehicle outside my home tha...

"Would you like to dance?" the girl asked. I was dumbfounded. Nobody had ever asked me to dance. Particularly a girl! "Er, no thanks," I mumbled path...