A breakthrough came with Marty Robbins' recording of "El Paso," which ran for about 7 minutes, and since it gave disc jockeys time to go to the bathroom, they played it. A few years later, actor Richard Harris had a hit song with "MacArthur Park," which went on for bloody ever! Gave the DJ time to go out for a beer.

I confess to playing Chris Woods "England in Ribbons" (13 minutes) and nipping to the coffee bar next to the radio station for a coffee.

AS fas as altering and changing songs are concerned of course we do it. That is the folk process. It might be just the mis-hearing of songs, Billy Mills (singing about Father Christmas) used to sing "Over the reefs and drifts of snow" instead of - "Over the roofs and the drifts of snow" - which is more normal.

But it doesn't matter really - does it?