Declan Diamond

Husband, dad, music obsessive, lover of dry humour, underdogs, history. You can’t kill Rock and Roll

[Mark O'Haire @MarkOHaire]

Alan Partridge tries to explain the format of the 1994 World Cup finals with the never-to-be-forgotten Soccermeter.

[cauã @_frases_caua]

todos que ainda estão vivos da capa do Sgt. Pepper's

[IandrewDiceClay @IANdrewDiceClay]

Harry Enfield's funniest creation. Norbert Smith - A Life. I dont know if it's been repeated much since it aired.

[Declan Diamond @diamond_declan]

@IANdrewDiceClay A young @ronmanagernottm here as father

[Declan Diamond @diamond_declan]

@ronmanagernottm Would have thought you were more of an I RON Maiden fan

[Declan Diamond @diamond_declan]

@ronmanagernottm As well as Paper Lace and RON-Q.M.C. of course

[The Beatles @thebeatles]

Sixty years and it's still on repeat 🔁

[apple ✶⋆.˚🪲 @beapplemania]

SGT PEPPERS WAS RELEASED 59 YEARS AGO TODAY!!!!!

[Declan Diamond @diamond_declan]

Listening to my pop records as a little kid at the start of the 80's took me to a different world. I can only imagine what it must have been like for kids less than 20 years earlier hearing The Beatles for the first time

[𝚎𝚖 @moonlightsfolk]

ugh they sounded so good

[History Nerd @_HistoryNerd]

Paul McCartney reveals John Lennon complimented him exactly once in their entire songwriting partnership

The most successful songwriting duo in history wrote together for roughly a decade. They produced the catalogue that reshaped popular music. And in all that time, by Paul's own account, John praised his work to his face on a single occasion.

Asked whether he and John were competitive as writers, Paul doesn't hesitate:

"Yeah, we were competitive. Yeah. Not openly, but we later admitted, yeah, you know, so Paul's written a good one there. I better get going."

The rivalry ran underneath everything. One would hear the other's new song, register it as a challenge, and quietly raise his own game.

Paul describes the internal monologue plainly:

"That's a bit good. Right. Here we go. Come on."

He gives a concrete example of how this shaped the catalogue. When John wrote "Strawberry Fields Forever," reaching back into his Liverpool childhood, Paul answered with a song reaching back into his own:

"If he'd written Strawberry Fields, I would write Penny Lane. You know, he's remembering his old area in Liverpool. So, I'll remember for mine."

Two of the most beloved songs in the Beatles catalogue, written as quiet returns of serve.

Then comes the part that lingers. Asked whether they complimented each other when one wrote something great, Paul answers:

"Once."

Once. In all those years of writing together.

The one time it happened, Paul remembers exactly which song it was. "Here, There and Everywhere," from Revolver:

"John sort of just when it finishes wrote a really good song that I love that song. And I was like, 'Yes, he likes it.' You know, I've remembered it to this day. It's pathetic really."

Decades on, he still remembers the moment. He calls his own remembering of it pathetic, but the fact that he remembers at all says something about what a word from John was worth to him.

Asked whether he ever returned the praise, Paul is more generous about himself, with a caveat:

"Yeah, I would tell him his stuff was great. You'd normally have to be a little bit drunk. It helped."

[Declan Diamond @diamond_declan]

@Lea_EFC

[Declan Diamond @diamond_declan]

@BrianCrowley75 @timelesscolours Although quite radical, I think he would have been shocked that his sons would have been involved in violent rebellion in Ireland but we will never know

[Declan Diamond @diamond_declan]

@timelesscolours Your work has been amazing. So many of these photographs that I have never seen before. Really bringing history to life in glorious colour

[R E P L I C A N T @Roybattyforever]

¿Cuántos fans de este gran tenor por aquí?

[Simpsons Quotes @Simpsons_tweets]

Happy 70th birthday, Homer Simpson!

[Declan Diamond @diamond_declan]

@dublin_damo Been meaning to go for ages. Always had a feeling that the people there were really sound

[Declan Diamond @diamond_declan]

@NMBLAKE We all have a few of them Neil

[Declan Diamond @diamond_declan]

The most famous person I ever locked eyes with.
Nottingham 1991

[Old Internet @OldInternetFeel]

Kurt Cobain (1993)

[Declan Diamond @diamond_declan]

My 14 year old is more impressed that I saw The Killers on their first European tour than that I saw Nirvana

[No Context Brits @NoContextBrits]

How did it end up like this?