7 Questions for Will Hodgkinson

Meet our Drink with the Idler guest Will Hodgkinson

Music critic and author of In Perfect Harmony: Singalong Pop in ’70s Britain Will Hodgkinson will be our guest on A Drink with the Idler, Thursday 20 October, 6pm London time. Buy your ticket here. Free to subscribers.

Tell us about your new book in a few words.

WILL HODGKINSON: A serious look at the silliest music ever made, from Clive Dunn’s “Grandad” in 1970 to the St Winifred’s School Choir’s “There’s No One Quite Like Grandma” in 1980. Three-day weeks, national strikes and winters of discontent all included.

What was your worst job ever?

WH: Brain incinerator. In the bowels of University College Hospital, I worked for a few nights, taking a record of the previous owners of body parts before chucking them in the furnace. It was disturbing.

What was your best job ever?

WH: The one I have now – music writer.

How many hours do you work a day?

WH: Hard to say as the days vary. Sometimes I’m working until 11 at night to finish a review for the following day’s paper, sometimes I’m sitting about for a whole afternoon, waiting for an interview to happen. As far as an average day goes… Get up around eight. Lie in bed for a bit before going downstairs to make the coffee. Faff about. Cycle into the office around half ten or 11. Keep going with only a brief lunch break until six. If I have a gig that evening I might go to the pub, otherwise it’s back home for dinner with the family before TV, getting into bed, and reading until the book falls and smashes into my face.

Do you believe in the nap?

WH: Yes I believe in it, but unfortunately I’m too neurotic to engage with it. More likely to waste an hour staring at my phone, waiting for a miracle to emerge from its grubby little screen, than do the sensible thing and lie down for an hour or two.

Stoic or Epicurean?

WH: Epicurean.

Advice to your younger self?

WH: Never, under any circumstances, wear a top hat.

Hear Will talk on A Drink with the Idler, 20 October. Find out more here.

Our September/October issue is available in bookshops as well as Waitrose, WHSmiths, Booth’s and Easons.