For reasons far too obscure to mention, I was trading silly e-mails with m’colleague when Feargal Sharkey was mentioned, specifically his hit A Good Heart. Feargal, as you may know, is now a spokesperson for the UK record industry, often quoted in debates about piracy and the like.

Of course he’s not the only person from an entertainment background to have taken an interesting career turn – bestselling science writer Michael White used to be a member of the 80s group Thompson Twins (leaving before their success), and if you’ve ever wondered where Bob ‘Spit The Dog’ Carolgees is now… well, I don’t know about you, but I didn’t expect him to be “just off the B5152 from Frodsham to Delamere”.

Life, I feel, often takes us strange places, to do things we could never have guessed at. Not that I’d ever have it any other way, of course.