HERE’S a real blast from the past as a much younger me and the late, great John Hurt party in Miami.

We were among special guests on Virgin Atlantic’s inaugural flight to the Florida hotspot way back in April 1986.

Our VIP group also included Richard Branson, Griff Rhys Jones, Queen’s John Deacon, Judie Tzuke, Chris Tarrant, Jools Holland and what, in less enlightened days, was dubbed “a bevy of Page 3 beauties”.

It was later described as the bubbly flight because they ran out of Champagne on the way out to the Sunshine State!

Over a few days we were wined and dined at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach, and sailed on both paddle steamer Dixey Belle and the Carnival Festivale cruise ship as millionaire Branson played host.

You can read about it below in one of the news stories I filed to my newspaper group back home.