MY WIFE Robina went to see The Magic Flute at Covent Garden Opera House last Tuesday afternoon. I travelled up with her and spent a happy and frankly rather beer-sodden day visiting my old early ’80s haunts nearby, reminiscing about my days freelancing for Sounds music magazine and hanging around as a performer and audience member at gigs in Covent Garden and Soho, especially at the legendary Marquee — where I once filled in for Donny Osmond! 
 
I started my nostalgic trip next door to Covent Garden Tube at 40 Long Acre, the site of the old Spotlight Publications office, where Sounds and Record Mirror shared adjacent floors: I remember standing at the water cooler being admonished for my punky musical tastes by Record Mirror journo and soon to be Pet Shop Boy Neil Tennant. 

Then I wandered round the corner to the White Lion pub where I used to interview bands — and, five pints later, stagger back to the office to type up my flowing prose. And then to the site of the legendary Marquee Club at 90 Wardour St, bringing back memories of one of the most surreal gigs I have ever done. 
 
A Monday in January 1991. Phone rings. Can’t remember the bloke’s name after all these years, but the conversation is still vivid.

“Is that Attila?”