Let’s save this funny old world

Almost exactly 24 years ago, in July 1983, the IRA planned to kill Charles and Diana by bombing a Duran Duran concert at the Dominion, Tottenham Court Road.  I was at that gig, aged 15, and here I am again, aged 39, watching the same band and trying to work out whether Simon Le Bon has put on more weight than me. It’s a close run thing. The Durans do a good set as only Old Romantics can: ‘Planet Earth’, ‘Ordinary World’, ‘Notorious’ and ‘Girls on Film’. Funnily enough, the brave informer who foiled the 1983 bomb plot, Sean O’Callaghan, is someone I’ve got to know a bit over the years as a hack. I’m not sure I’ve ever really thanked him properly. It is indeed a funny old world, and, as such, well worth saving.