When I was a boy, my father, a plasterer who in his spare time played fiddle, banjo and accordion, would regularly invite his fellow musicians back to our house — often after the pubs had shut. Having had a drink and a bite to eat, they would sing for their supper.
Daryl Hall has a similar habit. He invites home his heroes and his contemporaries and younger players whose music he’s taken a shine to. The big difference is that Daryl Hall is the Hall of Hall & Oates, the duo behind such hits as Rich Girl and Private Eyes, and so his supper guests include Smokey Robinson, Nick Lowe and K T Tunstall. Those three are among the names that pop up in the archives of Live From Daryl’s House, a monthly podcast that Hall generously puts up online so everyone else can enjoy the fun. The latest, which went up yesterday, features the man I missed at the 100 Club on Wednesday: Eli “Paperboy” Reed. Eli at Daryl’s is not quite as electrifying as he was when I saw him on stage in London last year, but it’s still worth hearing.

And here he is live in a gig earlier this month in Mallorca: