He was the bassist in The Bluebells, whose biggest hit was "Young at Heart", and Lloyd Cole and the Commotions.
[2] Whilst in that role, he was part of a one-off band called the Stop Its that recorded an anti-poll tax song of a similar name.
The band included David Hill, later press spokesman for Tony Blair,[3] and Tim Luckhurst, who was later briefly editor of The Scotsman newspaper, and is now the head of South College at Durham University.
Journalists believed that his harsh reviews and similar critiques coming from the British media were made as an attempt to make the games look bad as the following Olympics would be held in London.
[5] In 2012, The Guardian made a tongue-in-cheek reference to the severe criticism of the prior Games by inviting a Canadian journalist to similarly critique the Summer Olympics in London as the 'worst ever'.