For ten years, I worked - and I use the word 'worked' very loosely - as the pop page editor for my local newspaper, the Liverpool Echo. Bearing in mind the job involved free CDs (back in the days when people still used those...), free concert tickets, and interviewing some of the biggest names in showbiz, it wasn't exactly lacking in the fun department. In fact, I can't remember most of the 1990s - it's all a big, smiley-faced blur. I always tried to get along to as many gigs by local bands as possible, and built up good relationships with them - and, as it turned out, one in particular. I went along to an acoustic night to see a friend's band appear, and the MC for the night was young (seven years younger than me in fact, which makes me borderline cougar), cute, and immensely talented. When he contacted me a few weeks later to see if I'd be interested in featuring him on the pop page, I was excited - for all kinds of reasons. The 'inter...