Broken Greek: A Story of Chip Shops and Pop Songs

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Like so many groups who rose to fame with the 60s beat boom, The Hollies needed to survive by adapting. Of course, The Bee Gees managed to do that with spectacular results. And The Hollies? Well, comparing their 1977 album Russian Roulette and Bee Gees’ Saturday Night Fever songs is like comparing Studio 54 to singles night at Manchester Rotters. The legend of the former precedes it to such a degree that you can almost convince yourself you’ve been there. But The Hollies’ take on disco evokes a more elusive innocent segment of pop-cultural history. Shy and introverted, Pete stopped speaking from age 4 to 7, and found refuge instead in the bittersweet embrace of pop songs, thanks to Top of the Pops and Dial-A-Disc. From Brotherhood of Man to UB40, from ABBA to The Police, music provided the safety net he needed to protect him from the tensions of his home life. It also helped him navigate his way around the challenges surrounding school, friendships and phobias such as visits to the barber, standing near tall buildings and Rod Hull and Emu.

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I was surprised how much I missed the world you describe in Broken Greek . Inevitably, it seems like a more innocent time.Bright, sporting, academic men who had their whole life ahead of them and looking forward to this particular trip for months on end and the planning had been ongoing, not just in our school but in lots of other schools.

BBC Radio 4 - Broken Greek, by Pete Paphides

Never have the trials and tribulations of growing up and the human need for a sense of belonging been so heart-breakingly and humorously depicted.Do you sometimes feel like the music you are hearing is explaining your life to you?” he asks early on. Paphides clearly does, and so while he struggles to fit in, and looks up in envy to an older brother already consumed with a bustling social life, he gets lost in music, which he analyses with scientific brio.