What is it to you?

There usually comes a time in the life of a small group when it breaks up. When it's the church music group, bashing each other over the heads with guitars and drum sticks, it's normally described as "artistic differences". When the Beatles did it - well, two talents that big (and their two mates) - how were they to know that, in fact, they weren't going to be any better on their own than the crazy brilliance they enjoyed together? In fact, deep down, I suspect John Lennon may have thought he was actually better. He was wrong, of course. But two leaders, two egos - the band wasn't big enough for the both of them. These things happen. Life goes on. And Ringo would never have done the voice-overs on Thomas the Tank Engine if he'd still been in the Beatles. So there's that much to be grateful for.

So when the band breaks up, it's easy enough to look across and think - well, what about them, then? The bass player who suddenly decides he wants to stop looking moody at the back and has always harboured the belief that he's actually a brilliant lead. The chubby lad who decides he's actually more than just the second-best singer. The red-haired singer who decides against all evidence that she's better on her own. The balding drummer who's just been inspired by his latest divorce to write his first solo album. You know the story. Especially when the chubby lad's top of the pops, but in rehab, or the ginger girl finds out it was all a dream.

And you look across and think - I've got my own trajectory - but what about them? Will they outshine me? Will they embarrass me? Will they come crawling back to be the backing singer one day? Just how many divorce-inspired albums will the balding drummer actually be able to make?

Or you get a copy of the old school/college magazine and find out some-one's now the Duke of Ipswich, and someone's chair of ICI, and someone's dead and someone's Prime Minister and someone's wanted in seven countries, and you're just kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town. And you think how did they do that? And where are they going next?